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Key research themes
1. How did climate variability during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition influence hominin adaptation and dispersal?
This research theme investigates the role of fluctuating climate conditions, particularly episodes of high and low variability, as drivers of hominin evolutionary innovations, adaptability, and dispersal patterns during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene. It emphasizes identifying specific climate variability phases and linking them to biological and cultural milestones in human evolution, testing hypotheses such as variability selection using multi-proxy evidence.
Key finding: The study proposes a predictive model of alternating climate variability phases over the last 5 million years in tropical East Africa with prolonged (>192 kyr) intervals of intensified habitat instability. This model... Read more
Key finding: High-resolution drill core data combined with adjacent outcrop records reveal significant ecological disruptions beginning ca. 400 ka ago in southern Kenya Rift, contemporaneous with the replacement of Acheulean by Middle... Read more
Key finding: This research synthesizes archaeological and paleoenvironmental data over ~50,000 years documenting Early to Late Holocene human occupation in East Siberian Arctic. It highlights how abiotic (climate, vegetation shifts) and... Read more
2. What were the effects of Pleistocene-Holocene climate change on mammalian fauna distributions, extinctions, and ecosystem restructuring?
This theme focuses on assessing how climatic shifts during the late Pleistocene to Holocene impacted mammalian species through migrations, local extinctions, and ecosystem changes. It integrates fossil, genetic, radiocarbon dating, and ancient DNA methods to reconstruct spatiotemporal dynamics of megafauna and smaller mammals, linking biome alterations to extinction pulses and faunal homogenization over millennial timescales.
Key finding: Using direct radiocarbon dating and genetic analyses, the study tracks species-specific migration routes, range shifts, and extinction events of woolly mammoth, cave bear, saiga antelope, and collared lemmings in Europe. It... Read more
Key finding: This complementary work corroborates previous findings on species-specific reactions of European mammals to late Pleistocene climate, noting fragmented refugial populations during glacials and regional recolonizations during... Read more
Key finding: The new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates refine the chronology of mammoth and other Pleistocene mammal remains in interior western Alaska, confirming synchronous coexistence of large herbivores ca.... Read more
Key finding: Analysis of ancient DNA from vertebrate fossils and sediment at Hall's Cave (Texas) reveals substantial loss of animal diversity at the Younger Dryas onset, with megafaunal species disappearing at the Pleistocene-Holocene... Read more
Key finding: The study reveals substantial biotic homogenization in North American mammalian assemblages from ~10,000 years ago to present, evidenced by >100% increase in species similarity that transcends fossil sampling biases. Two... Read more
3. How did Holocene environmental transitions shape Arctic and high latitude predator populations and ecosystem dynamics?
This research area explores the influence of Holocene climate fluctuations on the evolutionary ecology, population demographics, and habitat suitability of Arctic apex predators, particularly polar bears. By integrating palaeogenomics, stable isotope ecology, morphometric data, and ecological niche modeling, these studies assess how environmental shifts impacted predator adaptations, population structure, and ecosystem connectivity in sensitive polar environments.
Key finding: Using an integrative approach combining genomics, isotopic data, morphometrics, and ecological modeling, the study documents significant demographic contractions and habitat loss in Greenlandic polar bears during the Early... Read more