Skip to main navigationSkip to main content
The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science

The evolutionary and ecological history of ice age megafauna and flora: tales from ancient DNA Seminar

Time:
12:30 - 13:30
Date:
14 February 2019
Venue:
Shackleton Building 44, Room 1087

Event details

Geography Seminar

D Heintzman

The flora and fauna have experienced severe ecological and evolutionary pressures as a result of human influences and rapid periods of climatic change during the last ice age and up to the present. However, the details of the effects and timing of these changes are still poorly understood. Ancient DNA, derived from bone, other tissues, and sediment, is continuing to add insight into the evolutionary and ecological history of these groups. In this talk, I will discuss some recent case studies where ancient DNA has been used to resolve the systematics of extinct megafauna, the timings of the opening of a key migration route and an island extinction, and is currently being used to explore high resolution ecological change at the end of the last ice age

Speaker information

Dr. Peter Heintzman, University of Tromsø Museum, Tromsø, Norway. Dr. Heintzman is particularly interested in Quaternary vertebrate palaeontology—the history and ecology of mammals during and after the ice age. He works with ancient DNA, retrieved from both bones and sediments. He has been involved in some ground-breaking work, including telling the story of the some of the last mammoths to survive from the ice age, when they became trapped on a small island in the Bering Sea.

Privacy Settings