Using ancient DNA to study climate change, mass extinctions, and human evolution
|
 Professor Alan Cooper is a Federation Fellow within the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and an expert in the field of ancient DNA and molecular evolution. Originally from New Zealand, his research career has led him from UC Berkeley to Oxford University. His fieldwork involves digging up extinct species from caves or permafrost deposits, or in the backrooms of museums, from areas such as Hawaii, Madagascar, Patagonia, Siberia and the Yukon.
Synopsis: Ancient DNA provides a unique means to watch evolution occurring in real time. By tracking genetic changes in ancient populations we can examine the effects of major climatic changes on animal and plant populations from around the world through the last 100,000 years, as well as human impacts and other evolutionary phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and meteorites.
At the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) we retrieve tiny traces of preserved DNA from old bones, teeth, dung, wood and even just sediments, and then use the information to study areas ranging from evolution to climate change, conservation biology, biosecurity, forensics and anthropology. For example, we have been examining samples from the hobbit (Homo floresiensis) cave in Flores, to investigate whether they were a dwarf population of Homo erectus that survived until just 11,000 years ago.
Date: 8 April 2008.
|
|
 |
Subscribe
|
| Get each seminar as an audio file delivered to your computer or mobile device via RSS Podcast feeds. |
 |
Up
Coming Seminars |
Associate Professor Anton van den Hengel
Some ideas about the next generation of image manipulation tools
Professor John Williams, Associate Dean Research Law School
The Constitution and the Murray-Darling Rivers: Send in the Litigators?
Professor Ann Brooks, Head School of Social Sciences
Professor Janet Hiller, Deputy Head School of Public Health
 |
Previous
Seminars from 2008 |
Professor Pascale Quester
Sponsorship: Creating meanings and delivering value
Professor Graham Nathan
Some pathways toward a more sustainable energy future
Professor Stephen Lincoln
21st Century: Present and Future Challenges
Professor Nancy Pollock-Ellwand
Urban reform through the ages
Professor Alan Cooper
Using ancient DNA to study climate change, mass extinctions, and human evolution
Professor Gary A Wittert
Obesity, Physical, Psychological and Sexual well-being: Implications
for Ageing Men
Professor Nick Harvey
Sea-level rise, coastal impacts and management implications
Bookings
Email: research.tuesdays@adelaide.edu.au
Phone: 8303 3692
The Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor James McWha, is delighted
to invite you to the University’s 2008 Research Tuesdays lecture series.
This monthly series of public lectures is designed
to provide an opportunity for the University’s leading researchers
to engage with business and community leaders about pressing issues of the
day.
|
