Research
Deep-time sedimentary ancient DNA
The focus of my recent Wallenberg Academy Fellowship (WAF) project is to investigate the consequences of climate changes over multiple glacial-interglacial transitions on the biodiversity of marine and terrestrial Arctic biomes, using sedimentary ancient DNA.
Key people in Research Group:
Stephanie Dolenz (PhD, terrestrial)
Flore Wijnands (PhD, marine)
Collaborators:
Marine team: Helen Coxall, Matt O'Regan, Martin Jakobbson.
Terrestrial team: Love Dalén, Alberto Reyes, Britta Jensen, Grant Zazula, Elizabeth Hall, Sue Hewitson, Scott Cocker, Duane Froese, Beth Shapiro.
Publications:
Developing molecular and computational methods, and informatics resources, for (sedimentary) ancient DNA
Refining molecular and computational methods for, and applying palaeogenomic approaches to, sedimentary ancient DNA.
Key people in RG:
Key collaborators:
Publications:
Stephanie Dolenz (PhD), Spandana Madiraju (MSc)
Tom van der Valk, Chenyu Jin, Youri Lammers, Jack Williams, SPAAM and sedaDNA cyberinfrastructure communities.
Methods (metagenomic/paleogenomic):
Environmental Genomics of Late Pleistocene Black Bears and Giant Short-Faced Bears.
Environmental palaeogenomic reconstruction of an Ice Age algal population.
Timing and causes of mid-Holocene mammoth extinction on St. Paul Island, Alaska.
Methods (metabarcoding):
Methods (general):
Databases and reviews:
Reconstructing past ecosystems from the last ice age to the present.
Multiple large and small projects to understand local and regional responses of plant and animal communities to climatic, environmental, and human-induced impacts over the past 12,000 years (since the end of the last ice age). These cover localities from Siberia, Alaska, Greenland, Iberia, the European Alps, and northern Fennoscandia.
Ongoing projects covering the end of the last ice age include those related to Yukon Territory in Canada.
The largest project, ECOGEN, aims to improve knowledge of past plant distributions and to assess how Holocene landscapes have been affected by climatic, biotic and human drivers in Northern Norway and the Alps. ECOGEN focuses on the analysis of ancient DNA from lake sediment cores and the development of related methodologies. This international project is interdisciplinary, with collaboration between ecologists, palaeoecologists, archaeologists, geologists and niche modellers. It is funded by The Research Council of Norway and based at the University Museum in Tromsø, Norway.
Palaeogenomics of megafauna (and other animals)
I have worked on multiple megafauna-related research projects, from the relationships of extinct megafauna to their living relatives, to exploring the timings of mammoth extinction, ice-free corridor opening, and bison arrival in North America. Prior to this, I also worked on ice age and museum preserved beetles.
Key people:
Publications:
Beth Shapiro, Grant Zazula, Duane Froese, Mat Wooller, Love Dalén, Andre Soares, Alisa Vershinina.
Bison:
Fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in North America.
Complex admixture preceded and followed the extinction of wisent in the wild.
Bison phylogeography constrains dispersal and viability of the Ice Free Corridor in western Canada.
Horses:
Mammoths:
Temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion prior to extinction.
Evolutionary consequences of genomic deletions and insertions in the woolly mammoth genome.
Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths.
Timing and causes of mid-Holocene mammoth extinction on St. Paul Island, Alaska.
Camels:
Rhinos:
Ancient and modern genomes unravel the evolutionary history of the rhinoceros family.
Pre-extinction demographic stability and genomic signatures of adaptation in the Woolly Rhinoceros.
Early Pleistocene enamel proteome from Dmanisi resolve Stephanorhinus phylogeny.
Discovery of the skull of Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis (Jäger, 1839) above the Arctic Circle.
Bears:
Environmental Genomics of Late Pleistocene Black Bears and Giant Short-Faced Bears.
Genomic evidence of widespread admixture from polar bears into brown bears during the last ice age.
Birds:
Beetles:
Want to collaborate?
Feel free to get in contact: peteheintzman[at]gmail[dot]com