News

Maps, showing modern-era climate, correspond to the datasets represented by the bottom three boxes. From Beyer et al. 2020

High-resolution terrestrial climate, bioclimate and vegetation for the last 120,000 years

15 July 2020

Robert, Mario and Andrea just published in Scientific Data a high-resolution palaeoclimatic dataset for the last 120,000 years. In the right column, there is the link to the data. Robert M. Beyer, Mario Krapp, Andrea Manica (2020) High-resolution terrestrial climate, bioclimate and vegetation for the last 120,000 years ...

Betti et al. 2020: Major axes of expansion of the Neolithic transition (slowdown shown in black), superimposed on a map of growing degree days at 5,500 BCE. From the paper

The impact of climate on the Neolithic expansion in Europe

7 July 2020

Our group just published a new paper in Nature Human Behaviour . It analyses radiocarbon dates, palaeoclimatic reconstructions and ancient DNA to show how climate shaped the expansion of Neolithic farmers in Europe and their interaction with local hunter-gatherers. Lia Betti, Robert M. Beyer, Eppie R. Jones, Anders...

Climate change - the board game. Created by our postdoc Michela Leonardi based on our research

Our research just became more fun: Climate change - the board game

24 April 2020

Michela just released a free educational board game inspired by our research! "Climate Change - the board game" is a scientific board game inspired by our own research, that shows how climatic changes affect animal species over long periods of time, leading to their migration, evolution or extinction. Each player is a...

Barnacle Geese flock (Branta leucopsis) flying in formation during autum migration. Credits: Thermos on Wikimedia commons

50,000 years of bird migrations

21 February 2020

Marius, Robert and Andrea just published a new paper in Nature Communications reconstructing bird migrations through the climatic fluctuations that characterised the last 50,000 years. Marius Somveille, Martin Wikelski, Robert M. Beyer, Ana S. L. Rodrigues, Andrea Manica, Walter Jetz (2020) Simulation-based reconstruction...

© Yasmine Gateau/Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Human Origins in Southern African Palaeo-wetlands? Strong Claims from Weak Evidence

19 November 2019

Andrea took part in a response to the very debated article recently published in Nature by Chan and colleagues claiming a Southern African origin of Homo sapiens based on present-day mitochondrial DNA data. Carina M. Schlebusch, Liisa Loog, Huw S. Groucutt, Turi King, Adam Rutherford, Chiara Barbieri, Guido Barbujani...

Geldmann et al 2019. Partial map of protected areas analysed in the study. Credit: the Authors

Management affects the effectiveness of protected areas

29 October 2019

Andrea just published a new paper in PNAS showing that management and governance are vital to ensure the effectiveness of protected areas. Jonas Geldmann, Andrea Manica, Neil D. Burgess, Lauren Coad, and Andrew Balmford (2019) PNAS 116 (46) 23209-23215 Significance Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy for conserving...

Industrialised fishing overlaps threatened shark hotspots worldwide

26 July 2019

James partecipated in a paper just published in Nature finding that major high seas fishing activities worldwide are centred on ecologically important shark hotspots. Queiroz et al. (2019) Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries Nature 572, pages 461–466 Abstract Effective ocean management...

Oligodon formosanus. Credit: Skink Chen on Flickr

A link between aggression and longevity in snakes

19 April 2019

Andrea just published a new paper in Science Advances showing a causal link between aggression and reduced longevity in an egg-eating snake ( Oligodon formosanus ). Chi-Ying Lee, David A. Pike, Hui-Yun Tseng, Jung-Ya Hsu, Shiang-Lin Huang, Pei-Jen L. Shaner, Chen-Pan Liao, Andrea Manica, Wen-San Huang (2019) When males...

Nomura’s jellyfish. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Nomura’s jellyfish genome and the evolution of hunting

30 March 2019

Yesterday came out in BMC Biology Andrea’s paper on the sequencing of the Nomura’s Jellyfish genome and transcriptome (bell and tentacles), which helped to shed light on the evolution of predation. Hak-Min Kim, Jessica A. Weber, Nayoung Lee, Seung Gu Park, Yun Sung Cho, Youngjune Bhak, Nayun Lee, Yeonsu Jeon, Sungwon Jeon...

The skeleton of a rabbit, once in the collection of Charles Darwin, that was used for the study. Credits: Trustees of the Natural History Museum

Darwin’s rabbit help understanding the fight against myxoma virus

15 February 2019

Andrea, Anders and Liisa’s paper is now out in Science , analysing ancient DNA from rabbits to better understand how different populations worldwide developed resistance to the myxoma virus. Joel M Alves, Miguel Carneiro, Jade Y Cheng, Ana Lemos de Matos, Masmudur M Rahman, Liisa Loog, Paula F Campos, Nathan Wales, Anders...

High-resolution terrestrial climate, bioclimate and vegetation for the last 120,000 years

The impact of climate on the Neolithic expansion in Europe

Our research just became more fun: Climate change - the board game

50,000 years of bird migrations

Human Origins in Southern African Palaeo-wetlands? Strong Claims from Weak Evidence

Management affects the effectiveness of protected areas

Industrialised fishing overlaps threatened shark hotspots worldwide

A link between aggression and longevity in snakes

The Nomura’s jellyfish genome and the evolution of hunting

Darwin’s rabbit help understanding the fight against myxoma virus

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