Michael Petraglia
Michael Petraglia is Director, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He is well known for leading and implementing large-scale interdisciplinary archaeological projects in Eastern Africa, the Middle East, the US, and in several regions of Asia, including India and China. Michael has taught at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, UK, and he was formerly based at the Max Planck. He is currently a Research Associate in the Human Origins Program of the Smithsonian Institution, USA, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. Petraglia is a strong advocate of an interdisciplinary approach in archaeology and human evolutionary studies. His work has involved partnerships with numerous national organizations across the globe and collaborations with dozens of scholars, including earth scientists, climate scientists, geologists, geographers, paleontologists, biological anthropologists, and geneticists. His research has involved a broad range of subjects concerning human evolution, including the evolution of cognition, the evolution of behavior, and the relationship between climate change and hominin dispersals. He is best known for his archaeological research on hominin migrations across Asia, the effect of the Toba volcanic super-eruption on human communities, and the question of how environmental variability shaped hominin populations in Arabia over the last million years. Michael has authored and co-edited 10 books and published over 300 journal articles and book chapters. Michael’s research is often profiled in the popular press and he is often consulted by worldwide media organizations for his views on human evolution.
Martinón-Torres, d’Errico, F., Santos, E., Gallo, A.A., Amano, N., Archer, W., Armitage, S., Arsuaga, J.L., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Blinkhorn, J., Crowther, A., J., Douka, K., Dubernet, S., Faulkner, P., Fernández-Colón, P., Kourampas, N., García, J.G., Larreina, D., LeBourdonnec, F.-X., MacLeod, G., Martín-Francés, L., Massiliani, D., Mercader, J., Miller, J.M., Ndiema, E., Notario, B., Martí, A.P., Prendergast, M., Queffelec, A., Rigaud, S., Roberts, P., Shoaee, M.J., Shipton, C., Simpson, I., Boivin, N. and M.D. Petraglia, 2021. Earliest Known Human Burial in Africa. Nature, 593: 95-100.
Groucutt, H.S., White, T.S., Scerri, E.M., Andrieux, E., Clark-Wilson, R., Breeze, P.S., Armitage, S.J., Stewart, M., Drake, N., Louys, J., Price, G.J., Duval, M., Parton, A., Candy, I., Carleton, W.C., Shipton, C., Jennings, R.P., Zahir, M., Blinkhorn, J., Blockley, S., Al-Omari, A., Alsharekh, A., and M.D. Petraglia, 2021. Multiple Hominin Dispersals into Southwest Asia over the Past 400,000 Years. Nature, 597: 376-380.
Mercader, J., Akuku, P., Boivin, N., Bugumba, R., Bushozi, P., Camacho, A., Carter, T., Clarke, S., Cueva-Temprana, A., Durkin, P., Favreau, J., Fella, K., Haberle, S., Hubbard, S., Inwood, J., Itambu, M., Koromo, S., Lee, P., Mohammed, A., Mwambwiga, A., Olesilau, L., Patalano, R., Roberts, P., Rule, S., Saladie, P., Silgedal, G., Soto, M., Umbsaar, J., and M. Petraglia, 2021. Earliest Olduvai Hominins Exploited Unstable Environments ~2 Million Years Ago. Nature Communications, 12: 3.
Blinkhorn, J., Zanolli, C., Compton, T., Groucutt, H.S., Scerri, E.M.L., Crété, L., Stringer, C., Petraglia, M.D. and S. Blockley, 2021. Nubian Levallois Technology Associated with Southernmost Neanderthals. Scientific Reports, 11: 2869.
Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H.S., Scerri, E.M., Petraglia, M.D. and Blockley, S., 2021. Directional Changes in Levallois Core Technologies between Eastern Africa, Arabia, and the Levant during MIS 5. Scientific Reports, 11: 11465.
Scerri, E.M., Frouin, M., Breeze, P.S., Armitage, S.J., Candy, I., Groucutt, H.S., Drake, N., Parton, A., White, T.S., Alsharekh, A.M. and M.D. Petraglia, 2021. The Expansion of Acheulean Hominins into the Nefud Desert of Arabia. Scientific Reports, 11: 10111.
Scerri, E.M., Kühnert, D., Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H.S., Roberts, P., Nicoll, K., Zerboni, A., Orijemie, E.A., Barton, H., Candy, I. Goldstein, S.T., Hawks, J., Niang, K., N’Dah, D., Petraglia, M.D., and N.C. Vella, 2020. Field-based Sciences Must Transform in Response to COVID-19. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4: 1571-1574.
Stewart, M., Clark-Wilson, R., Breeze, P.S., Janulis, K., Candy, I., Armitage, S.J., Ryves, D.B., Louys, J., Duval, M., Price, G.J., Cuthbertson, P., Bernal, M.A., Drake, N.A., Alsharekh, A., Zahrani, B., Al-Omari, A., Roberts, P., Groucutt, H.S. and M.D. Petraglia, 2020. Human Footprints provide Snapshot of Last Interglacial Ecology in the Arabian Interior. Science Advances, 6(38): p.eaba8940.
Clarkson, C., Harris, C., Li, B., Neudorf, C.M., Roberts, R.G., Lane, C., Norman, K., Pal, J., Jones, S., Shipton, C., Koshy, J., Gupta, M.C., Mishra, D.P., Dubey, A.K., Boivin, N. and M. Petraglia, 2020. Human Occupation of Northern India Spans the Toba Super-Eruption ~74,000 Years Ago. Nature Communications, 11(1): 1-10.
Wang, K., Goldstein, S.T., Bleasdale, M., Clist, B., Bostoen, K., Bakwa-Lufu, P., Buck, L. T., Crowther, A., Dème, A., McIntosh, R., Mercader, J., Ogola, C., Power, R., Sawchuk, E., Willmsen, E., Petraglia, M.D., Ndiema, E., Manthi, F.K., Krause, J., Roberts, P., Boivin, N. and S. Schiffels, 2020. Ancient Genomes Reveal Complex Patterns of Population Movement, Interaction and Integration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Science Advances, 6(24): eaaz0183.
Petraglia, M.D., Groucutt, H.S., Guagnin, M., and N. Boivin, 2020. Human Responses to Climate and Ecosystem Change in Ancient Arabia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17(15): 8263-8270.
Langley, M.C., Amano, N., Wedage, O., Deraniyagala, S., Pathmalal, M.M., Perera, N., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M.D. and P. Roberts, 2020. Early Evidence for Bows-and-Arrows and Brilliant Symbolic Displays in the South Asian Tropics. Science Advances, 6(24): eaba3831.
Wedage, O., Amano, N., Langley, M.C., Douka, K., Blinkhorn, J., Crowther, A., Deraniyagala, S., Kourampas, N., Simpson, I., Perera, N., Picin, A., Boivin, N., Petraglia, M.D., and P. Roberts, 2019. Specialized Rainforest Hunting by Homo sapiens ~45,000 Years Ago. Nature Communications 10(1): 739.
Scerri, E.M., Thomas, M.G., Manica, A., Gunz, P., Stock, J.T., Stringer, C., Grove, M., Groucutt, H.S., Timmermann, A., Rightmire, G.P. d’Errico, F., Tryon, C.A., Drake, N.A., Brooks, A.S., Dennell, R.W., Durbin, R., Henn, B.M., Lee-Thorp, J., de Menocal, P., Petraglia, M.D., Thompson, J., Scally, A., and L. Chikhi, 2018. Did our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations Across Africa, and Why Does it Matter?. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 33: 582-594.
Shipton, C., Roberts, P., Archer, W., Armitage, S.J., Bita, C., Blinkhorn, J., Courtney-Mustaphi, C., Crowther, A., Curtis, R., d’Errico, F., Douka, K., Faulkner, P., Groucutt, H.S., Helm, R., Herries, A.I.R., Jembe, S., Kourampas, N., Lee-Thorp, J., Marchant, R., Mercader, J., Marti, A.P., Prendergast, M., Rowson, B., Tengeza, A., Tibesasa, R., White, T.S., Petraglia, M.D., and N. Boivin, 2018. 78,000-year-old Record of Middle and Later Stone Age Innovation in an East African Tropical Forest. Nature Communications 9: 2242.
Groucutt, H.S., Grun, R., Zalmout, I.A.S., Drake, N.A., Armitage, S.J., Candy, I., Clark-Wilson, R., Louys, J., Breeze, P.S., Duval, M., Buck, L.T., Kivell, T.L., Pomeroy, E., Stephens, N.B., Stock, J.T., Stewart, M., Price, G.J., Kinsley, L., Sung, W.W., Alsharekh, A., Al-Omari, A., Zahir, M., Memesh, A.M., Abdulshakoor, A.J., Al-Masari, A.M., Bahameem, A.A., Al Murayyi, K.M.S., Zahrani, B., Scerri, E., and M.D. Petraglia, 2018. Homo sapiens in Arabia 85,000 Years Ago. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 800-809.
Scerri, E.M., Shipton, C., Clark-Balzan, L., Frouin, M., Schwenninger, J.L., Groucutt, H.S., Breeze, P.S., Parton, A., Blinkhorn, J., Drake, N.A., Jennings, R., Cuthbertson, P., Al Omari, A., Alsharekh, A., and M.D. Petraglia, 2018. The Expansion of Later Acheulean Hominins into the Arabian Peninsula. Scientific Reports: 17165.