University of Cambridge | Ecology of the past

Mapping Ancient Africa: Rome workshop – the team

July 16, 2023
WDG

In person attendees (left to right): William Gosling (University of Amsterdam), Busisiwe Hlophe (University of Witwatersrand), Michela Leonardi (University of Cambridge), Soléne Boisard (University of Montréal), Rahab Kinyanjui (National Museums of Kenya), Trevor Hill (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Mathias Vinnepand (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz), Tom Johnson (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Manu Chevalier (University of Bonn), Brian Chase (CNRS: Montpellier), Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr (Free University of Berlin), Markus Fischer (University of Potsdam), Bahru Zinaye Asegahegn (University of Cologne), Alfred Houngnon (AGIR), and Jemma Finch (University of KwaZulu-Natal); present but not in photo Angela Effion (University of Witswatersrand).

A further nine participants were anticipated to attend the workshop but, due to a combination of the non-issue of visas, logistical difficulties and ill health, they were not able to attend at the last moment. These were: Aliyu Adamu Isa (Ahmadu Bello University), George Biddulph (University of St Andrews), Olugbenga Boboye (University of Ibadan), Husna Mashaka (University of Nairobi), Emma Mbua (National Museums of Kenya), Aissatou Thiam Ndong (University of Cheikh Diop, Dakar), Adisa Ogunfolakan (Leventis Museum of Natural History), Alice Paine (University of Oxford), and Lynne Quick (Nelson Mandela University). Some people were able to attend partly online. Some have now made it to Rome and we hope to catch up at the INQUA Rome congress (Session 64) if not before. We hope that all will continue to be involved with the Mapping Ancient Africa project.

To find out more about the workshop click here.
To find out more about the project click here.
To see more workshop photos click here.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 13

May 19, 2023
WDG

The thirteenth Mapping Ancient Africa seminar was delivered by Andrea Manica on the 18th May 2023. In the seminar Andrea introduced the pastclim R package and gave examples of how it can be applied to address questions related to human evolution and dispersal.

Details of this seminar can be found here. You can find more Mapping Ancient Africa seminar videos on the “Ecology of the Past” YouTube channel.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 13

May 17, 2023
WDG

The thirteenth Mapping Ancient Africa online seminar will take place on 18 May 2023 (17:00 CEST).

Speaker: Andrea Manica (University of Cambridge)
Title: pastclim 1.2: an R package to easily access and use paleoclimatic reconstructions
Related publication: Leonardi, M., Hallett, E.Y., Beyer, R., Krapp, M. & Manica, A. (2023) pastclim 1.2: an R package to easily access and use paleoclimatic reconstructions. Ecography 2023, e06481. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.06481

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack channel or by contacting the chair of this seminar (William Gosling). If you want to know more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project visit our web pages and please do not hesitate to get in contact if you want to get involved.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of Seminar 9

January 23, 2023
WDG

The 9th Mapping Ancient Africa seminar, and first of 2023, took place on Thursday 19 January. The seminar was delivered by Celine Vidal (University of Cambridge) and showcased recent work on the dating of volcanic deposits to constrain the age of hominin fossils in eastern Africa.

Details of this seminar can be found here. You can find more Mapping Ancient Africa seminar videos on the “Ecology of the Past” YouTube channel.

References

Vidal, C.M., Lane, C.S., Asrat, A., Barfod, D.N., Mark, D.F., Tomlinson, E.L., Tadesse, A.Z., Yirgu, G., Deino, A., Hutchison, W., Mounier, A. & Oppenheimer, C. (2022) Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa. Nature 601, 579-583. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8
Vidal, C.M., Fontijn, K., Lane, C.S., Asrat, A., Barfod, D., Tomlinson, E.L., Piermattei, A., Hutchison, W., Tadesse, A.Z., Yirgu, G., Deino, A., Moussallam, Y., Mohr, P., Williams, F., Mather, T.A., Pyle, D.M. & Oppenheimer, C. (2022) Geochronology and glass geochemistry of major Pleistocene eruptions in the Main Ethiopian Rift: Towards a regional tephrostratigraphy. Quaternary Science Reviews 290, 107601. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107601

Introducing Adele Julier: New PCRG PhD researcher

October 14, 2013
adelecmj

Adele Julier and a Malvaceae

Hello! I’m Adele and I started my PhD about a week ago. It’s been a little intense but I can almost find the lab without a map now, so it is probably time to introduce myself.

I’ll be studying pollen-vegetation relationships in Ghana, as part of the NERC funded project ‘500,000 years of solar irradiance, climate and vegetation changes’. This means I’ll be using pollen traps to figure out how pollen outputs vary between (and sometimes within) different vegetation types in Ghana. I will also be trying my hand at chemotaxonomy and video making. I’m heading out to Ghana (along with Phil Jardine) in just over a week to do my first lot of field work which will involve seeing the plots, collecting existing traps, replacing them with new ones, and setting up some new sites. I’m very excited.

My background is broadly botanical; I did a BA at Magdalene College, Cambridge in Natural Sciences specialising in Plant Science and then an MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.

Here’s a picture of me holding the biggest Malvaceae flower I’d ever seen and being incredibly happy about that.

To find out more about me visit my blog: Plants in real life

PCRG January

January 31, 2013
WDG

We are taking the BES festival of ecology to music festivals in 2013! “Tell me when”… you’d better read the blog!

January seems to have flown past and has been another active month. With group members variously involved in:

International Biogeography Symposium,
Field work in Ecuador,
Developing the capability of the lab to produce sections from fossil wood,
Preparation for the start of teaching the “Geological Record of Environmental Change” (S369) for 2013, and
Successfully obtaining support from the British Ecological Society to do ecological science outreach at music festivals during this summers festival of ecology!!! Want to join us…??? Click here to find out how!