Lars Werdelin

My research focus is on the evolution, phylogeny, ecology, and conservation of mammalian carnivores, living and extinct, with special emphasis on African carnivores and their interaction with the evolving human lineage during the past 7 million years.

I have carried out research at all levels of abstraction, from describing fossils and new species, to carrying out phylogenetic analyses, to coming up with new ways to study community structure and faunal change. This work has been done in collaboration with numerous colleagues around the world. It has led to new insights into the impact of early humans on their environment and has long been supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR).

As a palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist, I am interested in the evolution, ecology, and biogeography of carnivores in general, especially the extinct groups. I am interested in the broad-scale changes in the African carnivore guild over the past 25 million years and their relationship to tectonics and climate.

I am also involved in fieldwork in Africa and am currently collaborating on the Ledi-Geraru Research Project, collecting fossils, including the earliest Homo, from the Afar Region of Ethiopia. This work is carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University. Most recently this work has been extended into the study of the drivers of human evolution across the landscape and includes several research groups and is funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation.