@elliescerri
Archaeologist, head of the Human Palaeosystems Group at the MPI-GEA, Reader at the University of Cologne, A/Prof at the University of Malta & NatGeo Explorer. Human evolution, niche expansion & the transition to human dominated landscapes.
A paper over then years in the making! Using Latent Class Models to categorise stone tool classes. Great to see it out after so long, and huge thanks to @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social for taking this to the finish line!
Job alert in Malta on my ERC funded IslandLab Project for a post excavation research assistant. A bachalor's degree in Archaeology, or related fields is required, ideally with experience working on faunal assemblages and handling bones/fossils, and curating finds.
www.um.edu.mt/media/um/doc...
Our new paper is out! Here's a thread from @huwgroucutt.bsky.social
You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong?
From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!
Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...
Independence day in #Malta!
Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.
From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .
🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA
Thank you @prelights.bsky.social & Alejandra Leffer's group for choosing our preprint on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social and for this chance to talk about human- #malaria coevolution!🦟
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA
New paper from all of us led by the amazing @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social!
I don't even know how I'd work it out but Gertrude worked in all the places I have!
New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
🌲Great to see our @cp-oneearth.bsky.social study on #rewilding-inspired #forestry featured 2x in @mongabay.com . It’s a land-sharing approach—restoring #biodiversity & resilience in used #forests, not replacing protected areas.
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️
It's definitely part of a conversation we've all been having for a while. It's great to see the convergence of evidence :)
Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Gift article about our work that also mentions our recently published paper in @nature.com on rainforests as well! Thank you @carlzimmer.com!
5/5 Thanks to all our amazing co-authors, not all of whom are on Bluesky - so posting this!
4/5 This was a project that begun back in 2019 between my group (led by Emily Hallett) and by Andrea Manica's @eegcam.bsky.social (led by @mikleonardi.bsky.social ) - it has been a long and productive road! We thank all our co-authors, reviewers, funders at @endofthepier.bsky.social.
3/5 Notably this is also the timeframe in which the constellation of physical features that defines humans today becomes fixed in single individuals. Successful OOA was ultimately defined by processes taking place within Africa that equipped groups moving into beyond with a new eco-generalism.
2/5 Humans had always inhabited different African niches, but from 70ka they inhabit more types of forest, woodland, deserts, highlands, etc. Pressure from environmental downturn likely provided the impetus for these niche expansions that were likely supported by new social and knowledge systems.
1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Major paper drop coming at 5pm CEST today. Excited!
Final day of the #IslandLegacies conference today! So grateful for the convergence of such a fantastic group of scholars and thinkers. It has been truly inspirational!
Livestream tomorrow at 5pm UK/noon EDT with Drs Eleanor Scerri (@elliescerri.bsky.social) and Huw Groucutt (@huwgroucutt.bsky.social) to chat about their recent paper that's been all over the news about Hunter gatherer occupation on Malta
www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...
Thank you! :)
It's possible there's an older presence of course but in my view it is not tenable that the very small number of people that the island could have periodically supported would have been able to persist for centuries. It would not have been an effective population size.
Recurrent central Arabian humid episodes over the late Miocene to late Pleistocene are associated with increasing regional aridity and higher Northern Hemisphere meridional temperature gradients.
Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.
Here is the latest news from @eegcam.bsky.social...
Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬
With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social
Also thrilled to see the site will receive the protection it deserves! Many thanks also to @endofthepier.bsky.social !
timesofmalta.com/article/site...
