Exploring the origin and evolution of Pleistocene mammals using million-year genomic transects

Although ancient DNA has been highlighted as one of the most important scientific developments in recent years, due to its effectiveness in unlocking novel information about prehistory, previous palaeogenomic studies have mainly focused on processes during the last 10,000-years.

Consequently, the vast majority of evolutionary time that has shaped the evolution of Quaternary species remains unchartered territory. However, thanks to recent methodological advances there is now a unique opportunity to venture into genomic deep time. I here propose a groundbreaking palaeogenomics project that aims to study evolution on a million-year time scale.

This will enable us to address questions previously thought to be outside the realm of ancient DNA research.

By sequencing a large number of mammalian genomes that span from present day and far back into the Early Pleistocene, we will examine several long-standing questions in evolutionary biology.

More specifically, we will (1) examine the tempo and mode of speciation, (2) explore the genetic consequences of interspecific hybridisation, (3) track adaptive evolution in real-time, and (4) investigate the demographic impact of past environmental change. The project will extend beyond the current state of the art and will set a new paradigm for palaeogenomic research.

The resulting data will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers studying long-term evolutionary and environmental changes at a global scale.