Palaeontology staff directory
Andy Currant
Position: Curator
Department: Palaeontology
Section: Vertebrates Curation Group
Contact details: ++44 (0)20 7942 5649 - email
Research interests
I joined the staff of the NHM in 1971 and have spent my entire museum career working with the Quaternary mammal collection. I maintain a museum tradition of being actively involved in both curation and research.
My curatorial interests are centred on upgrading the quality of information associated with museum materials and promoting the care and use of nationally important collections. I am currently directing a project to restore the Somerset County Museums Service's Quaternary mammal holdings at Taunton Castle to their former status as a major research collection. I have been very actively involved in collecting new material for the National Collections and am a specialist cave excavator with wide experience of the recovery and interpretation of cave faunas. My primary research interests are in the Quaternary mammals of Northern Europe and southern South America, vertebrate biostratigraphy and the nature of the terrestrial fossil record. In recent months I have been working with Dr Roger Jacobi on Late Pleistocene faunal history in Britain and its bearing on the history of human settlement.
Current activities
Since October 2001 I have been a member of the core team of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain research programme (AHOB) led by Prof. Chris Stringer and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
I am a research associate of the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London.
Publications
Gascoyne, M., Currant, A. P. and Lord, T. C., 1981, Ipswichian fauna of Victoria Cave and the marine palaeoclimate record. Nature, 294, 652-654.
Currant, A. P., 1984, The Mammalian Remains. 171-180 In: Green, H. S. (ed.). Pontnewydd Cave: a Lower Palaeolithic hominid site in Wales: the first report. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 227 pp.
Green, C. P., Coope, G. R., Currant, A. P., Holyoak, D. T., Ivanovich, M., Jones, R. L., Keen, D. H., McGregor, D. F. M. and Robinson, J. E., 1984. Evidence of two interglacial episodes in late Pleistocene deposits at Marsworth, UK. Nature, 309, 778-781.
Currant, A. P., 1986. The Lateglacial mammal fauna of Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society, 17, 286-304.
Currant, A. P., 1986. Man and the Quaternary Interglacial faunas of Britain. 50-52. In: Collcutt, S. N. (ed.). The Palaeolithic of Britain and its Nearest Neighbours: Recent Trends. Dept. Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield. 109 pp.
Currant, A., 1999. A brief review of the Westbury Cave small mammal fauna. 127-137. In: Andrews, P., Cook, J., Currant., A. and Stringer, C. (eds.). Westbury Cave. The Natural History Museum Excavations 1976 - 1984. Western Academic and Specialist Press, Bristol. 309pp.
Currant, A., 2000. Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles. 367-378. In: Culver, S.J. and Rawson, P.F. (eds.). Biotic Response to Global Change - The Last 145 Million Years. Cambridge University Press. 501 pp.
Currant, A. P., 2000. A Review of the Quaternary Mammals of Gibraltar. 201-206. In: Stringer, C. B., Barton, R. N. E. and Finlayson, J. C. (eds.). Neanderthals on the Edge: 150th anniversary conference of the Forbes' Quarry discovery, Gibraltar. Oxbow Books, Oxford. 260 pp.
Currant, A. and Jacobi, R., 2001. A formal mammalian biostratigraphy for the Late Pleistocene of Britain. Quaternary Science Reviews,
20, 1707-1716.
Currant, A. and Jacobi, R., 2002. Human presence and absence in Britain during the early part of the Late Pleistocene. 105 - 113. In Tuffreau, A. and Roebroeks, W. (eds.). Le Denier Interglaciaire et les occupations du Paléolithique moyen. Publications du CERP no. 8. Univ. des Sciences et Technologies, Lille. 157 pp.