EvoCave: Investigating 122 000 years of high-latitude faunal diversity using palaeozoology, archaeology, palaeoecology and ancient DNA

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2021

End date

12/31/2024

Budget

1,475,877 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

During the last interglacial-glacial cycle (120,000 years), the climate in the northern hemisphere has changed from a warm period similar to the one we live in now, into a full ice age and then back to our time. Understanding past changes in biodiversity during such cold and warm cycles provides important knowledge on the resilience of species and ecosystems to current climate change. Knowledge on past animal diversity can be obtained by investigating old sediments, but in northern Europe records from the last interglacial period are very rare due to the erosion of massive glaciers during the last ice age. We therefore know almost nothing about the animal species and diversity that lived in this region more than 100 000 years ago. In this project we will study a unique high-latitude (68°50’N) karst cave in northern Norway, in which an extraordinary diversity of animal bones is preserved. The record from this cave will be analysed by an interdisciplinary team bringing together people from the fields of archaeology, geology, evolutionary biology, paleozoology, genomics and ancient DNA. The combined analyses will allow us to relate past animal diversity with long-term climate models during the last interglacial in northern Europe.