Ian Barnes (biologist)

Last updated

Ian Barnes (born in Chadwell Heath in 1972) is an evolutionary geneticist notable for his work on ancient DNA, human and animal migration, and phylogenetics. Barnes is a Research Leader in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London. [1]

He pioneered the use of ancient DNA to study the Late Pleistocene mammal fauna, [2] [3] which has provided insights into how animals responded to global climate change. [4] More recently, his research has explored human population change in prehistoric Britain, including work on the Mesolithic human skeleton known as Cheddar Man [5] [6] [7]

His work on phylogenetics includes a study of South American mammal species first identified by Darwin, led in collaboration with the University of York, and the American Museum of Natural History, which “resolved one of the last unresolved major problems in mammalian evolution: the origins of the South American native ungulates". [8] He has also resolved the phylogenetic placement of the Nesophontidae, [9] and evolutionary origins of various Caribbean mammal lineages including primates and rodents. [10] [11]

Education and career

Barnes obtained a BSc in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradford, and a DPhil in Biology from the University of York supervised by Keith Dobney. Following his doctoral research, Barnes worked with Mark Thomas at UCL on the recovery of DNA from medical museum specimens, and with Alan J. Cooper at the University of Oxford. He was then awarded a Wellcome Trust Bioarchaeology Fellowship and returned to UCL, and subsequently received a NERC fellowship to work on the Late Pleistocene megafauna at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was made Professor of Molecular Palaeobiology there in 2013, and moved that year to the Natural History Museum. [12] He is the recipient of numerous research awards from major funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust and UKRI.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eulipotyphla</span> Order of mammals

Eulipotyphla is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the afrotherian members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solenodon</span> Family of mammals

Solenodons are venomous, nocturnal, burrowing, insectivorous mammals belonging to the family Solenodontidae. The two living solenodon species are the Cuban solenodon and the Hispaniolan solenodon. Threats to both species include habitat destruction and predation by non-native cats, dogs, and mongooses, introduced by humans to the solenodons' home islands to control snakes and rodents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euarchontoglires</span> Superorder of mammals

Euarchontoglires, synonymous with Supraprimates, is a clade and a superorder of mammals, the living members of which belong to one of the five following groups: rodents, lagomorphs, treeshrews, primates, and colugos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lophotrochozoa</span> Superphylum of animals

Lophotrochozoa is a clade of protostome animals within the Spiralia. The taxon was established as a monophyletic group based on molecular evidence. The clade includes animals like annelids, molluscs, bryozoans, brachiopods, and platyhelminthes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of human evolution</span> Chronological outline of major events in the development of the human species

The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, Homo sapiens, throughout the history of life, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within H. sapiens during and since the Last Glacial Period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurasiatheria</span> Clade of mammals

Laurasiatheria is a superorder of placental mammals that groups together true insectivores (eulipotyphlans), bats (chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins (pholidotes), even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls), and all their extinct relatives. From systematics and phylogenetic perspectives, it is subdivided into order Eulipotyphla and clade Scrotifera. It is a sister group to Euarchontoglires with which it forms the magnorder Boreoeutheria. Laurasiatheria was discovered on the basis of the similar gene sequences shared by the mammals belonging to it; no anatomical features have yet been found that unite the group, although a few have been suggested such as a small coracoid process, a simplified hindgut and allantoic vessels that are large to moderate in size. The Laurasiatheria clade is based on DNA sequence analyses and retrotransposon presence/absence data. The superorder originated on the northern supercontinent of Laurasia, after it split from Gondwana when Pangaea broke up. Its last common ancestor is supposed to have lived between ca. 76 to 90 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheddar Man</span> Remains of a 8150 BC human male found in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England

Cheddar Man is a human male fossil found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The skeletal remains date to around the mid-to-late 9th millennium BC, corresponding to the Mesolithic period, and it appears that he died a violent death. A large crater-like lesion just above the skull's right orbit suggests that the man may have also been suffering from a bone infection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South American native ungulates</span> Extinct clade of mammals

South American native ungulates, commonly abbreviated as SANUs, are extinct ungulate-like mammals of controversial affinities that were indigenous to South America prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange. They comprise five major groups conventionally ranked as orders—Astrapotheria, Litopterna, Notoungulata, Pyrotheria, and Xenungulata—as well as the primitive "condylarth" groups Didolodontidae and Kollpaniinae. It has been proposed that some or all of the members of this group form a clade, named Meridiungulata, though the relationships of South American ungulates remain largely unresolved. The two largest groups of South American ungulates, the notoungulates and the litopterns, were the only groups to persist beyond the mid Miocene. Only a few of the largest species of notoungulates and litopterns survived until the end-Pleistocene extinction event around 12,000 years ago where they became extinct with most other large mammals in the Americas, shortly after the first arrival of humans into the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macraucheniidae</span> Family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled various camelids

Macraucheniidae is a family in the extinct South American ungulate order Litopterna, that resembled various camelids. The reduced nasal bones of their skulls was originally suggested to have housed a small proboscis, similar to that of the saiga antelope. However, one study suggested that they were openings for large moose-like nostrils. Conversely, prehistoric pictographs by indigenous people seems to depict animals interpreted as macraucheniids with trunks. Their hooves were similar to those of rhinoceroses today, with a simple ankle joint and three digits on each foot. Thus, they may have been capable of rapid directional change when running away from predators, such as large phorusrhacid terror birds, sparassodont metatherians, giant short-faced bears (Arctotherium) and saber-toothed cats (Smilodon). Macraucheniids probably lived in large herds to gain protection against these predators, as well as to facilitate finding mates for reproduction.

<i>Nesophontes</i> Extinct family of mammals

Nesophontes, sometimes called West Indies shrews, is the sole genus of the extinct, monotypic mammal family Nesophontidae in the order Eulipotyphla. These animals were small insectivores, about 5 to 15 cm long, with a long slender snout and head and a long tail. They were endemic to the Greater Antilles, in Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panperissodactyla</span> Clade of mammals

Panperissodactyla is a clade of ungulates containing living order Perissodactyla and all extinct ungulates more closely related to Perissodactyla than to Artiodactyla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desmarest's hutia</span> Species of mammals belonging to the hutia subfamily of rodents

Desmarest's hutia or the Cuban hutia is a stout, furry, rat-like mammal found only on Cuba and nearby islands. Growing to about 60 cm (2 ft), it normally lives in pairs and feeds on leaves, fruit, bark and sometimes small animals. It is the largest living hutia, a group of rodents native to the Caribbean that are mostly endangered or extinct. Desmarest's hutia remains widespread throughout its range, though one subspecies native to the nearby Cayman Islands went extinct shortly after European colonization in the 1500s.

The St. Michel nesophontes is an extinct species of mammal in the family Nesophontidae. It was endemic to Hispaniola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toxodontidae</span> Extinct family of notoungulate mammals

Toxodontidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals, known from the Oligocene to the Holocene of South America, with one genus, Mixotoxodon, also known from the Pleistocene of Central America and southern North America. Member of the family were medium to large-sized, ranging from around 350–400 kilograms (770–880 lb) in Nesodon to 1,000–1,200 kilograms (2,200–2,600 lb) in Toxodon, and had medium to high-crowned dentition, which in derived members of the group evolved into ever-growing cheek teeth. Isotopic analyses have led to the conclusion that Pleistocene members of the family were flexible mixed feeders.

Xenotrichini is a tribe of extinct primates, which lived on the Greater Antilles as recently as the 16th century.

The genetic history of the British Isles is the subject of research within the larger field of human population genetics. It has developed in parallel with DNA testing technologies capable of identifying genetic similarities and differences between both modern and ancient populations. The conclusions of population genetics regarding the British Isles in turn draw upon and contribute to the larger field of understanding the history of the human occupation of the area, complementing work in linguistics, archaeology, history and genealogy.

<i>Megalomys</i> Extinct genus of rodents

Megalomys is a genus of rodent in the family Cricetidae, part of the tribe Oryzomyini. The genus contains five large rodents from various Caribbean islands, of which two are known to have survived into modern times, but all of which are now extinct. The last species to survive was M. desmarestii from Martinique, which became extinct after the Mount Pelée eruption in 1902. Ancient DNA analysis places Megalomys forming a clade with Pennatomys, sister to the clade containing Aegialomys, Nesoryzomys, Melanomys and Sigmodontomys, having diverged from the mainland clade around 7 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homotherini</span> Extinct tribe of carnivores

Homotherini is a tribe of saber-toothed cats of the family Felidae. The tribe is commonly known as scimitar-toothed cats. These saber-toothed cats were distributed en North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America from the Miocene to Pleistocene living from c. 23 Ma until c. 12,000 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Hunter-Gatherer</span> Archaeogenetic name for an ancestral genetic component

In archaeogenetics, the term Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG), West European Hunter-Gatherer, Western European Hunter-Gatherer, Villabruna cluster, or Oberkassel cluster is the name given to a distinct ancestral component of modern Europeans, representing descent from a population of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who scattered over Western, Southern and Central Europe, from the British Isles in the west to the Carpathians in the east, following the retreat of the ice sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Crumpton</span> British zoologist and childrens author

Nick Crumpton is a British zoologist and children's author.

References

  1. ↑ "Prof Ian Barnes | Natural History Museum". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Barnes, Ian; Shapiro, Beth; Lister, Adrian; Kuznetsova, Tatiana; Sher, Andrei; Guthrie, Dale; Thomas, Mark G. (June 2007). "Genetic Structure and Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius". Current Biology. 17 (12): 1072–1075. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.035 . PMID   17555965. S2CID   7274116.
  3. ↑ Barnes, I.; Matheus, P.; Shapiro, B.; Jensen, D.; Cooper, A. (22 March 2002). "Dynamics of Pleistocene Population Extinctions in Beringian Brown Bears". Science. 295 (5563): 2267–2270. Bibcode:2002Sci...295.2267B. doi:10.1126/science.1067814. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   11910112. S2CID   5883943.
  4. ↑ Stewart, John R.; Lister, Adrian M.; Barnes, Ian; Dalén, Love (7 March 2010). "Refugia revisited: individualistic responses of species in space and time". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 277 (1682): 661–671. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1272. ISSN   0962-8452. PMC   2842738 . PMID   19864280.
  5. ↑ "Cheddar Man: Mesolithic Britain's blue-eyed boy". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  6. ↑ Brace, Selina; Diekmann, Yoan; Booth, Thomas J.; van Dorp, Lucy; Faltyskova, Zuzana; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Olalde, Iñigo; Ferry, Matthew; Michel, Megan; Oppenheimer, Jonas (May 2019). "Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (5): 765–771. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0871-9. ISSN   2397-334X. PMC   6520225 . PMID   30988490.
  7. ↑ Booth, Thomas J.; Brück, Joanna; Brace, Selina; Barnes, Ian (August 2021). "Tales from the Supplementary Information: Ancestry Change in Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age Britain Was Gradual with Varied Kinship Organization". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 31 (3): 379–400. doi: 10.1017/S0959774321000019 . ISSN   0959-7743. S2CID   233895343.
  8. ↑ Dunham, Will (19 March 2015). "Mystery of Darwin's strange South American mammals solved". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Brace, Selina; Thomas, Jessica A.; Dalén, Love; Burger, Joachim; MacPhee, Ross D. E.; Barnes, Ian; Turvey, Samuel T. (December 2016). "Evolutionary History of the Nesophontidae, the Last Unplaced Recent Mammal Family". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33 (12): 3095–3103. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msw186 . ISSN   0737-4038. PMID   27624716.
  10. ↑ Woods, Roseina; Barnes, Ian; Brace, Selina; Turvey, Samuel T (4 January 2021). Ávila-Arcos, Maria C (ed.). "Ancient DNA Suggests Single Colonization and Within-Archipelago Diversification of Caribbean Caviomorph Rodents". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 38 (1): 84–95. doi:10.1093/molbev/msaa189. ISSN   1537-1719. PMC   7783164 . PMID   33035304.
  11. ↑ Woods, Roseina; Turvey, Samuel T.; Brace, Selina; MacPhee, Ross D. E.; Barnes, Ian (11 December 2018). "Ancient DNA of the extinct Jamaican monkey Xenothrix reveals extreme insular change within a morphologically conservative radiation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (50): 12769–12774. Bibcode:2018PNAS..11512769W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1808603115 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   6294883 . PMID   30420497.
  12. ↑ "Professor Ian Barnes, Royal Holloway".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.