The Hominin Dispersals Research Group is an interdisciplinary group founded in 2005 and funded by the Fonds de Recherche Québécois sur la Société et la Culture (FRQSC). Our goal is to investigate the evolutionary basis of hominin dispersals and explore the impact of past climate change on human population dynamics. HDRG members are primarily based at the University of Montreal, the Université du Québec à Montréal, and McGill University and our collaborators are based at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE, France) and at other international institutions.

Our objectives include expanding the use of modeling techniques to investigate the archaeological record, explore the relationship between human populations and the palaeoenvironment and identify drivers of dispersal. We use various modeling tools to test hypotheses about the evolutionary mechanisms underlying prehistoric dispersals including: spatial models (GIS), agent-based models and mixed models. Our models are used analytically, to identify the variables driving human choices, and predictively in the design of archaeological surveys.

NEWS

TEAM

RESEARCH PROGRAM :

PALAEOENVIRONMENTS
Data collection and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

CLIMATE MODELLING
Production of high-resolution climate models

RESEARCH AXES
Research projects designed to test evolutionary and archaeological hypotheses

HUMAN EVOLUTION
Final step: diachronic, comparative study that will identify the implications of past human/environment interactions in terms of human evolution (biological and cultural)

DATASETS

HOMININ DISPERSALS RESEARCH GROUP