James Clark

We are hiring a Project Co-ordinator! 🚨

Are you extremely organised with great interpersonal skills?
Able to multitask efficiently?
Interested in African prehistory?
Keen to work with an enthusiastic team?
We want to hear from you!

Closing date: 17 October, 2025

Myself standing in front of a poster of research entitled “What can handaxe shape contribute to discussions of hominin demography in Africa in the late Early and early Middle Pleistocene?”

Great fun at #ESHE2025 presenting on how handaxe shape can inform discussions of African demography in the Early and Middle Pleistocene! While we have very few fossils or genetic data for this period, handaxe shape may carry a signal that can help to constrain biogeographic models - more to come!

The problem skulls from Yunxian The relationships of fossils from deep time in China may help reveal ancestral connections for the Denisovans

Could there be a connection between a squashed million-year-old skull and the Denisovans? I look at whether a provocative new study can be squared with what we already know from ancient genomes. I think there's a way.

www.johnhawks.net/p/the-proble...

US cash turned Tommy Robinson into the poster boy of UK f... Outside the Old Bailey in 2018, a reinvented Tommy Robinson flashed his perfect new teeth to 2,000 diehard supporters at a “free Tommy” rally on a stage ...

Interesting piece on the US (and Zionist) money backing Waxy-Lemon...

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

They are attacking the Police again, at the 'peaceful march'.

Imagine if Pro Palestine supporters did this (they never do), they would all be instantly in jail.

Revealed: how Boris Johnson traded PM contacts for global business deals Exclusive: Leak exposes how former leader has used publicly subsidised office to manage commercial interests

After all we learnt about Boris in office, I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this…but the extent of corruption is truly shocking

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

And see this excellent coverage from our Department @cam-archaeology.bsky.social

www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/early-h...

A paper like this is an amazing team effort, and thank you to everyone who has been involved in the project over the last few years. There is much more to come from the site in future - stay tuned!

Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK) - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors report Acheulean hominin occupation of eastern Britain during glacial marine isotope stages 17–16 and again in glacial marine isotope stage 12 via stone tools in sediments dated to 712,000...

Thrilled to share our latest article on the Lower Palaeolithic occupation of Fordwich Pit, Old Park - including at least one likely glacial occupation in MIS12! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The last 3 years have been the hottest in around 125,000 years.

CO2 levels are their highest in MILLIONS of years.

But most people have no idea this is happening, let alone what it means for our kids’ futures.

Our politics & media have failed our children. We should be furious.

Celebrating our wonderful PI @martamlahr.bsky.social for such an incredible achievement 🎉🍾🥂

Announcement at the British Academy

Fabulous news that @martamlahr.bsky.social has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy 🍾🍾🍾

Justus Erus Edung was only 25 years old when he discovered Kenyanthropus platyops in a team led by Prof. Meave Leakey in 1999.

This 3.5 million year old “flat-faced” skull quickly grabbed international headlines and changed the course of human evolution.

#fossils #turkana #humanevolution

3D scanning these beauties with Ng'ipalajem!
@palaeotrails.bsky.social

#handaxe #turkana

Old age variably impacts chimpanzee engagement and efficiency in stone tool use Long-term standardized data collection on wild western chimpanzees reveals late-life changes in stone tool use, and the extent of these changes varies between individuals.

New paper out in eLife! 🎉 Old age variably impacts chimpanzee engagement and efficiency in stone tool use elifesciences.org/articles/105... (including videos of wild elderly chimpanzees using tools! 🪨 🌰)

A news story: "Disney Reportedly Planning Full Reboot of the INDIANA JONES Franchise"

*INDIANA JONES AND THE CLOSURE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY DEPARTMENT*

The archaeology of climate change: a blueprint for integrating environmental and cultural systems - Nature Communications Here, the authors propose how climate change archaeology can explain how cultural systems impact interactions between humans and the environment, and vice versa, presenting a framework based in c...

The archaeology of climate change: a blueprint for integrating environmental and cultural systems www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ChatGPT is a lie generator wrapped in a weighted blanket.

Read the below. It’s fascinating.

Holding out for the day when I can afford to buy back all the articles I’ve published

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of changing seasonality Climate change and other anthropogenic drivers alter seasonal regimes across freshwater, terrestrial, and marine biomes. Seasonal patterns affect ecological and evolutionary processes at different eco...

If you think the seasons are feeling… different, you may be right.
Our new review in Science (@science.org) shows that Earth’s changing rhythms could have major and underestimated consequences for life on Earth. 🌍🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our branch unanimously passed this motion yesterday in solidarity with trans, non-binary and intersex people www.ucu.cam.ac.uk/motion-on-so...

#HumanEvo25 features 26 posters showcasing fabulous evolutionary science - vying for your attention and 🏆

This evening we’ve heard the first half of poster pitches including Palaeotrails’s @jclark997.bsky.social P9 and Avantika Binani P5!

Let the poster session begin!

Sexual division of labour shapes hunter-gatherer spatial ranges Mobility lies at the adaptive core of the hunter-gatherer foraging niche, and has shaped the cultural and genetic evolution of our species. Yet, the specific drivers and consequences of mobility are s...

🚨New preprint!🚨"Sexual division of labour shapes hunter-gatherer spatial ranges". Following on the sexual division of labour theme, finally out our analyses on the lifetime spatial ranges of over 700 Mbendjele BaYaka 🤩

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

On the Mousterian origin of bone-tipped hunting weapons in Europe: Evidence from Mezmaiskaya Cave, North Caucasus This paper presents a detailed analysis of a unique pointy bone artefact produced by Neanderthals, which was found in 2003 in a Middle Paleolithic lay…

On the Mousterian origin of bone-tipped hunting weapons in Europe: Evidence from Mezmaiskaya Cave, North Caucasus www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reconstruction of a Dire Wolf standing in alter pose (bottom) and two sketches of the head of Aenocyon growling (top left) and almost from the front (top right)

Dire Wolf (Aenocyon dirus) thread.

No, those wolves in the news yesterday are NOT dire wolves. To be clear those are Gray Wolves with just a few genes modified based on Dire Wolf DNA through CRISPR

#paleoart #direwolf #aenocyon

Climate change in Europe between 90 and 50 kyr BP and Neanderthal territorial habitability After having lived as the dominant human species in Europe for over 200 kyr, Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals) disappeared around 40 kyr BP (Before Present) Higham T (2014). Competition with Ho...

Climate change in Europe between 90 and 50 kyr BP and Neanderthal territorial habitability journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Still hugely honoured to have been able to work on this paper, led by the excellent @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social! Check it out below 👇

Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens Scientific Reports - Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens

Our paper “Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens” has been published in Scientific Reports 🥳

rdcu.be/egqwZ