Thais Rabito Pansani
Olá Hello Hola Salut
I am a paleontologist from Brazil, working with Pleistocene megafauna for the past 10 years. I have experience working with traditional and state-of-the-art techniques, such as stereomicroscopes, scanning electron microscopy, stable isotopes, and synchrotron-based techniques. My main topics of interest are paleoecology, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, bone surface modification, and research related to human-megafauna interactions in South America, megafauna extinction, climate change during the Quaternary, and the peopling of the Americas.
I'm interested in these main scientific questions: When did humans arrive in the Americas? Did humans interact with the Pleistocene megafauna? What were the environmental and ecological conditions in which these megamamammals lived? What were the causes and consequences of the megafauna extinction in the American continent, especially in South America? How can we identify traces of human interaction in extinct animal bones through taphonomy and zooarchaeology? How understanding the ecological behavior of early humans with the now-extinct megafauna through paleoecology and zooarchaeology can contribute to other fields, such as conservative biology?
Besides academic research, I am also interested in teaching and science communication.
Research: Key words
Quaternary Pleistocene Last Glacial Maximum South America
Paleoecology Paleoenvironment Megafauna Giant ground sloth
Zooarchaeology Experimental Taphonomy Paleometry Archaeometry
Bone Surface Modifications Scanning Electron Microscopy Stable Isotopes
Extinct ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., USA.
Current Appointment
(Sep 2023 - Aug 2024) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, USAPeter Buck Postdoctoral FellowshipProject: Investigating the taphonomy of bone burning as a key to understanding human activities in late Pleistocene BrazilSupervisors: Briana Pobiner and Anna K. Behrensmeyer
(Apr 2024 - Aug 2027) Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, USAResearch Assistant Professor