Tina Lüdecke
Main Focus
My main research interests lie in the reconstruction of early hominin dietary adaptation, with a focus on the onset and evolution of meat consumption and the position of Plio-Pleistocene hominins in African paleo-food webs based on nitrogen isotopes in tooth enamel. Moreover, I reconstruct Neogene paleolandscapes occupied by early hominins, with a focus on C4-grassland expansion as a result of changing ecosystem patterns such as seasonality, precipitation, temperature, atmospheric pCO2-concentration and (the retreat of) tree-cover. To do this, I rely on extensive fieldwork and geochemical approaches including stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, as well as clumped isotopes and multi-element analysis in a variety of proxy materials such as fossil tooth enamel and pedogenic carbonates. My focus lies on Miocene to Pleistocene south-east African fossil sites (Karonga Basin in Malawi, Manyara Basin in Tanzania, the Urema Basin in Mozambique, and the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa).
My goal is to recognize the processes that link early hominin (dietary) adaptations to changes in the ecosystem they lived in, to evaluate the onset, evolution and importance of animal resource consumption, and to understand the role of dietary flexibility in the extinction and adaptive radiation of early hominin taxa.
Recently, my
colleagues and I developed a novel oxidation-denitrification method for
analyzing the nitrogen isotopic composition of mineral-bound organic matter in ~5
mg modern and fossil tooth enamel. We established that enamel nitrogen records
the isotopic composition of diet and preserves a trophic signal in both a
feeding experiment and in natural ecosystems (Leichliter et al., 2021, Lüdecke and Leichliter et al., 2022). Moreover, we
demonstrate that nitrogen isotopes in fossil tooth enamel represents a powerful
new paleodietary proxy that could help delineate major dietary transitions in
ancient vertebrate lineages (Leichliter and Lüdecke et al., 2023).
For list of publication see Google Scholar
Curriculum Vitae
Employment
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2021 – present |
Junior group leader of the Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany DFG Emmy Noether Fellowship (LU 2199/2): The Onset and Evolution of Early Hominin Meat Consumption (HoMeCo) – The position of Plio-Pleistocene hominins in African paleo-food webs based on nitrogen isotopes in tooth enamel |
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2021 |
Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Climate Geochemistry Department, Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany (head: Prof. G. Haug) |
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2017 – 2020 |
Post-Doctoral Researcher at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Frankfurt, Germany. Group Paleoclimate and Paleoenvironmental Dynamics (head: Prof. A. Mulch) DFG-ICDP-Project personal grant (LU 2199/1 and /1-2): Early Hominin Adaptation in the Southern East African Rift – Plio-Pleistocene African temperature, ecosystem and early hominin diet patterns across a woodland-grassland savanna boundary |
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2016 – 2017 |
Post-Doctoral Researcher, Biomaterials and Biomimetics, College of Dentistry, New York University, New York City, USA. Method-development of simultaneous measurement of absolute concentrations of 71 elements in the periodic table (Li to U) via ICP-MS (head: Prof. T. Bromage) |
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2011 – 2016 |
PhD candidate, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany. Stable isotope-based reconstruction of Neogene terrestrial archives. Magna cum laude (supervisors: Prof. A. Mulch & Prof. F. Schrenk) |
Invited Positions
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2024 – present |
Honorary Research Fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (director: M. Bamford) |
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2022 – present |
Junior faculty member of the Max Planck Graduate Center (MPGC) |
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2022 – present |
Guest researcher at the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. Department of Earth Sciences, Paleontology Section (head: Dr. E.K. Ndiema). |
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2021 – present |
Guest researcher at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Frankfurt, Germany. Group Paleoclimate and Paleoenvironmental Dynamics (head: Prof. A. Mulch) |
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2016 – present |
Geochemist for the Paleo-Primate-Project Gorongosa, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique (PIs: Dr. S. Carvalho & Prof. R. Bobe) |
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2017 – 2023 |
Research Associate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, England (host: Dr. S. Carvalho) |
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2019 – 2020 |
Guest researcher at the Department of Climate Geochemistry, Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany (head: Prof. G. Haug) |
Education
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PhD |
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University |
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre |
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Title |
Stable isotope-based reconstruction of Neogene terrestrial archives |
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Diploma (M.S.c.) |
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University |
Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-University-Hannover, Germany |
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Title |
Late Cenozoic Paleoenvironmental signatures of the Central Anatolian Plateau – Stable isotope geochemistry and Sedimentology of Lacustrine Sediments and Carbonate Paleosols. |
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Awarded Grants (Total: ca. 2,768,000 €)
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2023 |
The International Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Research Grant, 1,050,000 US$ (Co-PI; RGP019/2023) |
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2021 |
German Science Foundation (DFG) Emmy Noether Program, Junior Research Group, 1,357,000 € (PI; LU2199/2) |
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2019 |
DFG – ICDP Priority Program, personal grant including “Eigene Stelle”, 137,000 € (PI; LU 2199/1-2) |
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2018 |
National Geographic Explorer Grant, 18,000 US$ (PI; NGS-51478R-18) |
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2017 |
DFG – ICDP Priority Program, personal grant including “Eigene Stelle”, 208,000 € (PI; LU 2199/1) |
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2011, ‘12 |
Hermann-Willkomm-Stiftung, two travel grants, 1,500 € total |
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Teaching
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2023/24 |
Lecture at the Department of Ancient Studies, Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany): “Stabilisotopenanalyse in der Archäologie”. 2 hours/week. |
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2021, ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 |
Invited guest lecture at the Department of Geosciences, Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany): “M.Sc. Paleoclimate” (host: D. Scholz). |
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2022 |
Invited guest lecture at the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz (USA): Evolution of Human Diet (host: V. Oelze). Invited guest lecture at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Graz (Austria): Continental paleoenvironmental reconstructions (host: M. Meijers). |
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2019, ‘20 |
Lecture at the Goethe University, Frankfurt (Germany): “Paleoenvironmental reconstructions in continental settings”. Two hours/week for master students. |
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2018, ‘19, ‘22 |
Oxford-Gorongosa Paleo-Primate Field School, Sofala (Mozambique). |
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2016 |
Seminar in “Evolutionsbiologie der Säugetiere und Paläoanthropologie”, Senckenberg, Frankfurt (Germany). |
Fieldwork
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2016, ‘17, ‘18, ‘19, ‘22 |
Mazamba Formation, Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, 5 months |
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2019 |
Atacama Desert and Patagonia, Chile, 2 weeks |
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2018, ‘22 |
Manyara Beds, Manyara Basin, Tanzania (PI), 2 months |
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2016 |
Sangiran Formation, Solo Basin, Java, Indonesia, 1 week |
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2011, ‘12, ‘13 |
Chiwondo Beds, Karonga Basin, Malawi (PI), 4 months |
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2012 |
North American Cordillera, Montana and Idaho, USA, 3 weeks |
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2008, ‘10, ‘11 |
Central Anatolian Plateau, Turkey, 2.5 months |
Invited Presentations
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2023 |
Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Department of Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge |
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2022 |
Science Division, Gorongosa National Park, Chitengo in Mozambique Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft e.V., Mainz |
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2021 |
Department for Geosciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt |
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Climate Geochemistry Department, Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz |
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2020 |
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, Oxford University, Oxford |
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2019 |
Vortragsreihe Forschungsreisen, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt |
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2018 |
Department of Anthropology, University of Chile, Santiago de Chile |
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2017 |
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York |
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2016 |
Department of Archaeology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen |
Media Exposure
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2021 |
Radio interview at Südwestrundfunk (SWR1 Rheinland Pfalz), aired July 1st 2021, 11:10 am Reports on new Emmy Noether Junior Research Group. Press releases from MPIC and Gorongosa National Park |
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2020 |
Guest in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s podcast StarTalk Radio, episode “Climate and Diet of Early Humans”; also available on YouTube and Spotify |
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2019 |
Research highlight “Hominins had flexible diets” by Nature Human Behavior Behind the paper: „Hominin adaptation in diverse savanna ecosystems” in Nature Ecology and Evolution Public lecture “Zähne der Zeit” on YouTube (German only) Newspaper article “Die Zahnfee von Senckenberg“ in Bild (German only) |
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2018 |
Several newspaper articles reporting Lüdecke et al., 2018 (PNAS). Press release |
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2017 |
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2016 |
Several newspaper articles reporting Lüdecke et al., 2016 (JHE). Press release |