Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C518265/1
The genetics of mammalian speciation and extinction in the Late Pleistocene
Fellowship Award
- Fellow:
- Professor I Barnes, Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Biological Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Biological Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Quaternary Science
- Palaeoenvironments
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Population Ecology
- Abstract:
- Biologists use evolutionary theory as a means to understand and explain the natural world. Two of the fundamental processes in evolution are extinction where species die out, and speciation, where new species come into existence. It is particularly important to understand these processes at present, as climate and environment change seem to be having a major effect on the world's plants and animals. One way in which biologists try to understand how environmental changes affect living things is by studying past times and places where we know these changes occurred, and to try to deduce what effect they had on the native animals and plants. One such place, where environmental change seems linked to both speciation and extinction is in the Holarctic, a region from Europe across Asia into North America, during the late Pleistocene, a period between 100 to 10 thousand years ago. During this time, many large animal species died out, but some seem to have flourished. At the same time, we see a complex series of changes in climate, plants, sea-levels and glaciers, as well as the arrival of modern humans in these areas It is the relationship between the histories of these large animals and the complexities of environmental change that is the focus of this project. When studying animals, a common method is to examine their bones to see which species died, and use radiocarbon dating to see when. This suggests the time at which extinctions occurred, and we can see how this relates to environmental changes that we know about from other sources of information. Another method looks at the DNA of modern animals, and uses the similarities between different populations of a species to see which ones are most closely related to each, and thereby deduce the route by which the animal populations moved into an area. Very large DNA differences between populations suggest that they split from each other a long time ago, and are on the way to becoming different species. However, these methods have some problems. Bones are not very informative about fine-scale differences between populations. Modern DNA data is not clear if the changes are very complicated, and are not very easy to relate to a particular time-point, and a particular environmental cause. To get around this, in this project I will use DNA contained in the bones of animals that died in the late Pleistocene Holarctic, so-called 'ancient DNA'. The project will focus on two particular animals: the woolly mammoth, which went extinct at this time, and the red deer, a species which shows lots of DNA variation between populations, and which is still alive today. I will use the DNA data as markers of different populations to track movements of the animals at different times I will also see how much DNA diversity is present at different times, and compare this to environmental and climate changes. Using new mathematical techniques, it is also now possible to estimate the change in the size of animal populations through time. In tracking animals in this way, biologists generally look at DNA differences that have little effect on the animal - they are 'neutral'. As a complementary part of the project, I will also investigate sections of DNA that cause a real change in the biology of the animal, and which have been selected for in order to deal with the animals environment. By comparing mammoths with living elephants, we can start to understand more about how they were able to live in cold regions, and perhaps why they became extinct.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C518265/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship
This fellowship award has a total value of £159,810
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs |
|---|---|---|
| £129,710 | £1,599 | £28,500 |
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