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Eleanor Scerri

@elliescerri.bsky.social

2.5K followers 400 following 180 posts

Archaeologist, head of the Human Palaeosystems Group at the MPI-GEA, Reader at the University of Cologne, A/Prof at the University of Malta & NatGeo Explorer. Human evolution, niche expansion & the transition to human dominated landscapes.

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Apr 9

In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Many Minds podcast @manymindspod.bsky.social · 29d

You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong?

From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 17d

Independence day in #Malta!

Hunter-gatherers were crossing at least 100K of open water to reach the Mediterranean island 8,500 years ago, 1K years before the arrival of the first farmers.

From consortium led by @elliescerri.bsky.social @maxplanckpress , inc. @UMmalta .

🖼️ © Daniel Clarke/MPI_GEA

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Margherita Colucci @margheritac17.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thank you @prelights.bsky.social & Alejandra Leffer's group for choosing our preprint on @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social and for this chance to talk about human- #malaria coevolution!🦟
@eegcam.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social @MPI_GEA

preLights @prelights.bsky.social · Aug 20

The distribution of early human settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa might have been influenced by avoidance of mosquitoes that spread malaria

A new #prelight of Alejandra Leffer's group talks about the preprint by @margheritac17.bsky.social , and the team.

Malaria shaped human spatial organisation for the last 74 thousand years - preLights

The distribution of early human settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa might have been influenced by avoidance of mosquitoes that spread malaria

prelights.biologists.com

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jul 10

New paper from all of us led by the amazing @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social!

Lucy Timbrell @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social · Jul 10

Very pleased to see our paper published online at Climate of the Past: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...

We present model-data comparisons of Late Quaternary climate across the Northern Hemisphere, showing that increasing model resolution has little net effect on coherence with pollen proxies 😊

More is not always better: delta-downscaling climate model outputs from 30 to 5 min resolution has minimal impact on coherence with Late Quaternary proxies

Abstract. Both proxies and models provide key resources to explore how palaeoenvironmental changes may have impacted diverse biotic communities and cultural processes. While proxies are thought to pro...

cp.copernicus.org

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jul 5

I don't even know how I'd work it out but Gertrude worked in all the places I have!

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jul 5

New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Identifying late Pleistocene and Holocene refugia for baboons - Communications Biology

Hindcasted species distribution modelling of baboons illuminates potential refugia across Africa and Arabia, with predicted maxima and minima of habitable ranges pulsed by orbital precession and obliq...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Dr Huw Groucutt @huwgroucutt.bsky.social · Jun 30

"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Jens-Christian Svenning @jcsvenning.bsky.social · Jun 25

🌲Great to see our @cp-oneearth.bsky.social study on #rewilding-inspired #forestry featured 2x in @mongabay.com . It’s a land-sharing approach—restoring #biodiversity & resilience in used #forests, not replacing protected areas.
🔗 news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dive... (further links below)🌳🌴🦬🍒🪵♨️

Diverse forests and forest rewilding offer resilience against climate change

When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on res...

news.mongabay.com

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 19

It's definitely part of a conversation we've all been having for a while. It's great to see the convergence of evidence :)

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

Thank you!

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

Thank you so much!

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

Gift article about our work that also mentions our recently published paper in @nature.com on rainforests as well! Thank you @carlzimmer.com!

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Jun 18

About 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests, our species learned to live just about anywhere. Later, that ability helped our ancestors expand from Africa across the world. Here’s my story on the human niche [Gift link] nyti.ms/3ZBc7ID

When Humans Learned to Live Everywhere

About 70,000 years ago in Africa, humans expanded into more extreme environments, a new study finds, setting the stage for our global migration.

nyti.ms

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

5/5 Thanks to all our amazing co-authors, not all of whom are on Bluesky - so posting this!

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

4/5 This was a project that begun back in 2019 between my group (led by Emily Hallett) and by Andrea Manica's @eegcam.bsky.social (led by @mikleonardi.bsky.social ) - it has been a long and productive road! We thank all our co-authors, reviewers, funders at @endofthepier.bsky.social.

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

3/5 Notably this is also the timeframe in which the constellation of physical features that defines humans today becomes fixed in single individuals. Successful OOA was ultimately defined by processes taking place within Africa that equipped groups moving into beyond with a new eco-generalism.

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

2/5 Humans had always inhabited different African niches, but from 70ka they inhabit more types of forest, woodland, deserts, highlands, etc. Pressure from environmental downturn likely provided the impetus for these niche expansions that were likely supported by new social and knowledge systems.

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - Nature

Analysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...

www.nature.com

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 18

Major paper drop coming at 5pm CEST today. Excited!

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Jun 5

Final day of the #IslandLegacies conference today! So grateful for the convergence of such a fantastic group of scholars and thinkers. It has been truly inspirational!

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Flint Dibble @flintdibble.bsky.social · Apr 24

Livestream tomorrow at 5pm UK/noon EDT with Drs Eleanor Scerri (@elliescerri.bsky.social) and Huw Groucutt (@huwgroucutt.bsky.social) to chat about their recent paper that's been all over the news about Hunter gatherer occupation on Malta

www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...

New Discovery: Stone Age Seafaring to Malta with Dr Eleanor Scerri and Huw Groucutt

YouTube video by Archaeology with Flint Dibble

www.youtube.com

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Apr 24

Thank you! :)

Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Apr 12

It's possible there's an older presence of course but in my view it is not tenable that the very small number of people that the island could have periodically supported would have been able to persist for centuries. It would not have been an effective population size.

Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

MU-Peter Shimon 🀄️ @mu-peter.bsky.social · Apr 11

Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years
Monika Markowska @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wetter conditions likely facilitated dispersals between Africa and Eurasia. Arabia acting as crossroads.

Recurrent central Arabian humid episodes over the late Miocene to late Pleistocene are associated with increasing regional aridity and higher Northern Hemisphere meridional temperature gradients.

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Reposted by Eleanor Scerri

Michela Leonardi @mikleonardi.bsky.social · Apr 11

Here is the latest news from @eegcam.bsky.social...

Among other VIPs (=very important publications), it includes our recent paper on Luca Cavalli-Sforza's legacy on #humanevolution 💀🧬

With @margheritac17.bsky.social Jason Hogdson, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social and @elliescerri.bsky.social

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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · Apr 10

Also thrilled to see the site will receive the protection it deserves! Many thanks also to @endofthepier.bsky.social !
timesofmalta.com/article/site...

Site of groundbreaking archeological find to be fenced off

New scientific discoveries show Malta's human history is at least 1,000 years older than previously thought

timesofmalta.com