Dawn of the Anthropocene: How humans in a warming climate drove Pleistocene mammal extinctions and re-shaped California’s landscapes Emily Lindsey Tar Pits/UCLA The relative roles late-Quaternary climate changes and human actions played in the extinction of most of the world’s large mammals at the end of the Ice Age have been long-debated.  One key challenge […]

Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to understanding climate change Elsa Ordway UCLA The tropics are experiencing dramatic changes as a result of climate change and land-use change. Shifts in carbon flux dynamics, water cycling, and species composition are resulting in feedbacks with globally important consequences. However, tropical forests are not a monolith. […]

How Past Pandemics Shaped the Evolution of Human Immunity – Lessons from Ancient Genomes Eduardo Amorim Cal State Northridge Pathogen exposure has played a pivotal role in shaping human evolution. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reveal that the genetic predisposition to infections arises from the contribution of thousands of loci across the genome, indicating a polygenic […]

The effect of population history on patterns of genetic diversity at the TAS2R bitter taste receptor genes in West Central and Central African populations Michael Campbell USC Bitter taste perception is a highly variable trait in humans, and the ability to detect bitter compounds has been largely attributed to genetic variants in 25 bitter taste […]

What can deer tell us about our voice? How sexual selection may have shaped human vocal diversity David Reby Professor of Ethology, Equipe de Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, Université Jean Monnet of Saint-Etienne Many animal species use vocal communication, but humans are unique in the ability to control the vocal production of an incredible diversity of sounds, […]

On the Number of Genealogical Ancestors: Tracing to the Source Groups of an Admixed Population Jazlyn Mooney Dept. of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California In genetically admixed populations, admixed individuals possess ancestry from multiple source groups. Studies of human genetic admixture frequently estimate ancestry components corresponding to fractions of individual genomes that […]

Surviving the heights: Environmental adaptations and multispecies genetics in the Andes Kelsey Jorgensen Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, UCLA Human populations have thrived in the Peruvian Andes for thousands of years despite extreme environmental stressors of hypoxia, cold temperatures, and times of food scarcity. These evolutionary environmental pressures have shaped unique genetic adaptations and continue […]