I am a paleoecologist and micro-archaeobotanist using mostly plant and some animal microfossils to answer questions about the past that can help inform the present and the future.
I primarily work with plant phytoliths (opal and calcium oxalate), starch granules, and microcharcoal, but I also opportunistically utilize fungal spores, fecal spherulites, sponge spicules, chrysophyte cysts, and diatoms in my research. These microfossils can be used to reconstruct past vegetation, fire dynamics, and identify habitat types, which can then be used to reconstruct features of past climate.
These microfossils can also be used to identify plants and other resources that people were utilizing for subsistence and utilitarian purposes. Here are some recent research questions I have worked on using these microfossils: What did plant communities and wild fire activity look like in eastern Africa 3 million years ago when atmospheric CO2 levels were similar to today? Was the Mt. Toba super-eruption 74,000 years ago severe enough to have impacted human evolution?
What plants did the now-extinct Shasta ground sloth eat between 30,000 and 13,000 years ago in southwestern North America?
What foods were cooked in an 800-year-old ceramic pot from the southern plains of North America?
How have wild rice (Zizania palustris) populations in North America changed over time?
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