Prof Adrian Lister

Prof Adrian Lister

Merit Researcher

ORCID: 0000-0002-1552-3651
Department: Research
Group: Quaternary Mammal Research Group
  • Phone: +44 207 942 5398 5398

Summary

I am a palaeobiologist interested in patterns and processes of species-level evolution, adaptation and extinction. My research focusses mainly on Quaternary to recent large mammals, with special expertise in deer and elephants (including mammoths). The main ongoing projects in my group are: (1) the origin and dwarfing of endemic mammal species (especially elephants and deer) on Mediterranean islands in the Quaternary; (2) the timing and causes of extinction of large mammals ('megafauna') in the Late Quaternary, by mapping the shifting ranges of mammal species in relation to vegetation and people; (3) patterns of speciation and adaptation in fossil elephants and other mammals, with a particular interest in the role of behaviour in initiating adaptive change.

Qualifications

Degrees

  • BA, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1973 - 1976
  • PhD, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1976 - 1981

Academic

  • Research Leader in Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Earth Sciences, United Kingdom, 2007 - ongoing
  • Honorary Professor, University College London, Genetics, Evolution and Environment, United Kingdom, 2007 - ongoing
  • Lecturer (1992), Reader (1997) and Professor (2002) in Palaeobiology, University College London, Biology, United Kingdom, 1992 - 2007
  • BBSRC Advanced Research Fellow, University College London, Biology, United Kingdom, 1992 - 1996
  • Post-Doctoral Research Assistant (2 NERC grants), University College London, Biology, United Kingdom, 1986 - 1991
  • Research Fellow, Girton College, Cambridge, Zoology, United Kingdom, 1982 - 1985
  • Royal Society European Exchange Fellow, University of Aix-Marseille, France, and Senckenberg Institute, Frankfurt, France and Germany, 1981 - 1982

Highlighted publications

  • Lister AM, Stuart AJ (2019) The extinction of the giant deer Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach): New radiocarbon evidence. Quaternary International 500, 185 - 203. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2019.03.025
  • Lister A (2018) Darwin's Fossils Discoveries That Shaped the Theory of Evolution
  • Meiri M, Kosintsev P, Conroy K, Meiri S, Barnes I, Lister A (2018) Subspecies dynamics in space and time: A study of the red deer complex using ancient and modern DNA and morphology. Journal of Biogeography 45, 367 - 380. doi: 10.1111/jbi.13124
  • Lister AM, Sher AV (2015) Evolution and dispersal of mammoths across the Northern Hemisphere. Science 350, 805 - 809. doi: 10.1126/science.aac5660
  • Lister AM (2014) Behavioural leads in evolution: evidence from the fossil record. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 112, 315 - 331. doi: 10.1111/bij.12173
  • Lister A (2014) Mammoths: Ice Age Giants. Natural History Museum
  • Lister AM (2013) The role of behaviour in adaptive morphological evolution of African proboscideans. Nature 500, 331 - 334. doi: 10.1038/nature12275
  • Lister AM (2004) The impact of Quaternary Ice Ages on mammalian evolution. Willis KJ, Bennett KD, Walker D (Eds). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 359, 221 - 241. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1436
  • Stuart AJ, Kosintsev PA, Higham TFG, Lister AM (2004) Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. Nature 431, 684 - 689. doi: 10.1038/nature02890
  • Lister AM, Sher AV (2001) The Origin and Evolution of the Woolly Mammoth. Science 294, 1094 - 1097. doi: 10.1126/science.1056370
  • Lister AM (1995) Sea-levels and the evolution of island endemics: the dwarf red deer of Jersey. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 96, 151 - 172. doi: 10.1144/gsl.sp.1995.096.01.12

Additional links

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