Friends Annual Lecture 2026: At the Edge of the World

Friends of the Museum of Somerset present “At the Edge of the World: Mammals and Early Humans of the Last Ice Age in Southwestern Britain” with Professor Danielle Schreve.

Abrupt climatic and environmental change over the last 100 000 years caused some of the most extreme turnover events ever seen in the animals and birds of northern Europe, forcing species to alter their range, leading to the creation and break-up of novel faunal communities and ultimately (for some), local or complete extinction.

This lecture will present evidence for faunal turnover from the last Ice Age, drawn on recent and ongoing work in cave sites in the Mendip Hills of Somerset. The evidence from these sites forms the environmental backdrop to a critical period in the early human occupation of Britain, namely the return of Neanderthals during the last cold stage, their replacement by modern humans and recolonisation after the last glacial maximum, around 20 000 years ago.

Professor Danielle Schreve holds the Heather Corrie Chair in Environmental Change in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on Ice Age mammals and encompasses many different aspects including evolution, extinction, palaeoecology and mammalian responses to climate change.

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