Skip to page content

Primary navigation

Quaternary mammal research

Why did the woolly mammoth go extinct? What environmental pressures caused dwarfing of elephants on Mediterranean islands in the past? What can DNA preserved in ancient biological specimens reveal about cattle domestication? 

A diverse range of projects in the Palaeontology Department are tackling these questions and more.

  • Skull of a giant deer
    Evolution and taxonomy of Ice Age deer

    This project aims to reconstruct the relationships among the different extinct deer species which lived in Europe between 2.5 and 0.5 million years ago.

  • Dwarf elephant tooth shown next to one of normal size
    Dwarfing of fossil mammals on Mediterranean islands

    Researchers in the Palaeontology Department are leading a project to study the effect of dramatic environmental changes over the last 800,000 years on the evolution and survival of dwarf elephants and dwarf deer. Such work may help us understand how mammals might respond to climate change today.

  • Illustration showing hominids hunting mammoths during the Pleistocene period
    Extinction of large mammals in the Late Quaternary Ice Age

    Discover what research is underway at the Natural History Museum to discover why large mammals went extinct in the Late Quaternary Ice Age.

  • Loxodonta africana, the African elephant
    Taxonomic status of living elephants

    The taxonomy of both African and Asian elephants is under debate. Museum researchers are conducting a number of studies focusing on anatomical variation to complement the genetic research taking place. Learn more about the work taking place and what it is revealing.

  • Model of the woolly mammoth found at Ilford in England
    Mammoth evolution as a model for species origins

    Using mammoth fossils, Palaeontology Department researchers have been able to study and model how new species originate. Find out more about this project, and why the fossil record of the Quaternary ice ages is so useful for observing evolution in action.

  • Sampling a bone for ancient DNA
    Ancient DNA clues to systematics and domestication

    DNA is sometimes preserved in ancient biological specimens, allowing us to trace molecular evolutionary processes through time and space. Learn more about this powerful source of information, the questions it can help answer, and related projects at the Museum.

Print version