In this video, NICOLAS BOURGON investigates how mammals in northern Vietnam and Laos adapted to dramatic environmental and climatic shifts over the last 150,000 years. Using advanced stable isotope analysis methods on tooth enamel, he reconstructs past diets, habitats, and ecological behaviors across a wide range of species. His findings show that animals surviving in the region today displayed high ecological flexibility, while extinct species were ecological specialists with limited adaptability. This multi-layered reconstruction of past ecosystems could offer valuable insights for modern conservation policy in Southeast Asia, a biodiversity hotspot under intense human pressure.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB101212
Researcher
Dr. Nicolas Bourgon is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanization at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. He specializes in zinc stable isotope analysis of tooth enamel to study dietary adaptation and trophic ecology in fossil humans and animals, particularly in tropical environments. Bourgon earned his PhD in Geosciences in 2022 from Johannes Gutenberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, after completing his MA in Archaeology at the Paris National Natural History Museum and a BA in Archaeology at Laval University.
Institution
The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA) focuses on the interrelationships between natural and human-made systems, looking into the deep past and distant future to examine how humanity has driven the emergence of the Anthropocene – the geological period in which human activities began significantly impacting our planet’s climate and ecosystems – and how we can still positively influence its course.
The transdisciplinary research at MPI-GEA will bring together research areas represented by all three scientific sections of the MPG: Biology & Medicine; Chemistry, Physics and Technology; and Human Sciences. Corresponding inter- and transdisciplinary research projects concern, for example, planetary urbanisation, the global food system, and global material, energy and information flows.
Original publication
Faunal persistence and ecological flexibility in Pleistocene Southeast Asia revealed through multi-isotope analysis
N. Bourgon, T. Lüdecke, J. N. Leichliter, C. Bauman, S. Brömme, M. Vink, A. M. Bacon, J. McCormack, T.M.H. Nguyen, A. T. Nguyen, P. O. Antoine, J. C. Ponche, P. Duringer et al
Published in 2025
