Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD)

The Ancient DNA Laboratory is a new research initiative of the University of Adelaide, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences aimed at studying evolution and environmental change through time using preserved genetic records in human, animal, plant and sedimentary material. Key interests include molecular studies of evolutionary processes in population genetics, phylogenetics and phylogeography, molecular clocks, and a variety of uses of temporally distributed DNA sequences.

On-going international projects include the extinctions of megafauna, impacts of climate change, human evolution, speciation processes, and the evolutionary relationships of extinct species such as Ice Age brown bears, bison, horses, and cave lions, New Zealand moa, as well as ancient humans, Neandertals and Flores homonoids.

A major initiative is the study of human evolution, and we are the sole research centre for ancient DNA research in the 'Genographic Project' funded by the National Geographic Society and Waitt Family Foundation, which aims to characterise large numbers of mitochondrial and nuclear markers in a broad survey of human populations around the world.