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Pleistocene Mammalian Biostratigraphy of Europe

This is a long-standing research programme that began with my doctoral research on the mammalian faunal history of the British late Middle Pleistocene and was subsequently extended into other areas of NW Europe through a Leverhulme-funded initiative with Dr David Bridgland (University of Durham).  Biostratigraphical analysis of fossil mammalian assemblages, particularly those from long fluvial sequences, has proved to be a uniquely valuable technique in the differentiation of the various climatic episodes of the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Britain, thereby enabling a sequence of diagnostic mammalian assemblage-zones to be established.  Similarities between geographically-distant assemblages demonstrate the potential of mammalian biostratigraphy to correlate localities and different types of depositional environment over a wide spatial range.  The mammalian evidence has also detected smaller-scale environmental and climatic changes within some interglacials and cold-climate episodes.  These are thought to correspond with fluctuations at the oxygen isotope substage level and formed the principal subject of research during my Royal Society fellowship.  Further contributions to this research were made through the International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) 449 “Global Correlation of Late Cenozoic Fluvial Sequences”, a UNESCO-funded project designed to compile and disseminate a database of well-dated Late Cenozoic long fluviatile sequences from around the world, which will serve as the context for understanding (for example) mammalian and human evolution and dispersal, tectonic history, sea-level and base level histories. 

Currently, my activities in this area are focussed on (i) the study of new and historic mammalian assemblages from a diversity of British sites ranging from Early to Late Pleistocene, (ii) a joint project, funded by the British Council, comparing British and Italian mammalian assemblages from fluvial sequences, working with Dr Raffaele Sardella and colleagues from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and (iii) co-leadership of an INQUA International Focus Group during the 2007-2011 inter-Congress period on “Late Quaternary faunal events in Eurasia”.  My interests also extend into the Caucasus through my role as palaeontologist on the Hovk Cave project in Armenia (directed by Dr R. Pinhasi, University College Cork) and into western Asia through my work on the Gediz River Valley project led by Professor D. Maddy (Newcastle University).

The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) and Ancient Britain and its European Context (AHOB II)

I was a Principal Collaborating Specialist on the five-year AHOB research project, which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust for over £1.2 million and commenced in 2001.  The project is a collaborative effort, led by Professor Chris Stringer (Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum), and includes archaeologists, palaeontologists, geologists and others from a number of different institutions (Natural History Museum, Royal Holloway, British Museum, Queen Mary, UCL and the University of Durham).  AHOB adopts a multidisciplinary approach towards integrating known archaeological and environmental data with the Quaternary chronostratigraphical framework in order to document and explore all aspects of human occupation of Britain from the first evidence of early hominid presence in the early Middle Pleistocene to the end of the Last Cold Stage.  The work of the project has been summarised in a book by Professor Chris Stringer entitled Homo Britannicus.  A follow-up project, AHOB II, has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust for a further £1 million and is running from October 2006-2009.  This stage of the project will continue to add data on the earliest human colonisations of Britain but will extend the area of research into continental Europe.

• Excavations at Ebbor Gorge, Somerset

Two seasons of excavation have been completed (2006-7) on a previously unexplored cave in Ebbor Gorge, Somerset. In 2006, preliminary excavations were made to open up the cave mouth and to investigate the nature of the sediments and any artefactual or palaeontological remains preserved within.  The work was undertaken with the permission of the National Trust and Natural England and with financial backing from the latter and from the Leverhulme Trust-funded Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project. The initial investigations exposed the upper part of the cave fill and showed the sediments to comprise a red, limestone-rich breccia, which had accumulated in the cave through the inwashing of material down the gully and through a large fissure feature within the cave roof.  The breccia capped by a densely cemented carbonate flowstone, in turn overlain by an organic-rich sediment containing numerous fragments of modern wood and recent mammal bone.  A second season of investigation was undertaken in July 2007.  The red breccia was excavated to a depth of two metres and is heavily concreted with tufaceous sediment in its upper half metre.  Within the red breccia, bones of wild horse, arctic hare, birds and numerous rodent jaws, including water vole and narrow-skulled vole (the latter known only from the Pleistocene in Britain) were found, although no archaeology has been recovered so far.

• The use and perception of large wild herbivores to manage landscapes sustainably in different biomes and cultures of the European Union. 

This project (with Dr M. Dengler) has received funding from the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers).  Currently in its initial stages, it focuses on the potential of introducing hardy Konik horses in order to manage wetland environments in the UK and on assessing public responses to and perceptions of the reintroduction of a wild horse into Britain.