Research — Emily L. Lindsey

I use a variety of study systems and techniques to investigate how climate change and human activities intersect to impact ecosystems.

Current Research

Long Term Ecological Change, Global Extinctions, and Tipping Points

My research program seeks to understand how and why ecosystem changes occur in the context of climatic and anthropogenic impacts. As Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at La Brea Tar Pits, I use the rich fossil record preserved at our site to understand how ecosystems of the Los Angeles Basin were impacted by late-Quaternary climate changes, human activities, and the loss of the iconic Ice Age megafauna. The fossil deposits at La Brea Tar Pits, which have been excavated for over a century, have produced literally millions of fossil specimens, giving us an unparalleled opportunity to test hypotheses about biotic response to global change using the fossil record.

Other Projects

Tar Pits of the World (B.R.E.A.S.)

Asphaltic fossil deposits ("tar pits") are unique for their ability to preserve ecosystem-level fossil data in one place -- wood, leaves and seeds; bones of large and small vertebrates; insects; shells; and pollen. Such paleontological resources are especially valuable in lowland tropical regions where fossil data is often scarce, due to lower preservation rates and to environmental, political, and economic factors that inhibit recovery. The BREAS Initiative (Bridging Research and Education at Asphaltic Sites) has active projects at tar pit sites in Ecuador, Peru, and the Caribbean that are supporting collaborative, ground-breaking research; engaging local communities in science; and working to overcome legacies of colonialism that have deprived these regions of their fossil patrimony.

Applied Conservation Paleobiology

One of the key challenges facing conservation decision-makers today is how to effectively steward ecosystems to maximize biodiversity, ecosystem services, and structural integrity in a time of rapid global change. The deeper-time perspective on ecological resilience and change afforded by the fossil record and historical museum specimens offers important lessons that can be leveraged to help craft and support a range of conservation goals. I am working with an interdisciplinary group of ecologists, conservation biologists, paleontologists, environmental historians, land managers, policymakers, and legal experts to integrate deeper-time data on ecosystem structure and change into conservation, restoration, and sustainability projects in Los Angeles and around the world.

Augmented Reality and Museum Learning

Immersive and interactive technologies are expanding opportunities for museums to communicate science both to in-person visitors and to communities around the world. While many institutions have begun integrating augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and other digital experiences into their on-site and virtual exhibitions, very little data exists about the effectiveness of these tools for communicating science, or how visitors feel about engaging with them. I am collaborating with leading virtual experience developers and educational psychologists to build AR experiences at La Brea Tar Pits and study how they impact visitor engagement and learning. This research will help institutions leverage emerging technologies to engage visitors and reveal hidden aspects of their science.

Publications

Mazzello CM, Ellwood ER, Farrell AB, Fox NS, Potze S, Takeuchi GT, Lindsey EL. Good enough? A realistic approach to citizen science microfossil sorting at La Brea Tar Pits. In Press, GeoCurator

O’Keefe FR, Dunn RD, Weitzel EM, Waters MR, Martinez LN, Binder WJ, Southon JR, Cohen J, Meachen J, DeSantis LRG, Kirby ME, Ghezzo E, Coltrain JB, Fuller BT, Farrell AB, Takeuchi GT, MacDonald G, Davis EB, Lindsey EL. Pre-Younger Dryas megafaunal extirpation at Rancho La Brea linked to fire-driven state-shift. Science 381 eabo3594.

Fox NS, Southon JR, Howard C, Takeuchi GT, Potze S, Farrell AB, Lindsey EL, Blois JB. Radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of fossil collagen reveals millennial-scale drivers of small mammal niche dynamics in southern California. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 612; 111378.

DeSantis LRG, Feranec RS, Southon J, Fox-Dobbs K, Cerling TE, Harris J, Binder W, Cohen JE, Farrell AB, Lindsey EL, Meachen J, O’Keefe FR, Takeuchi GT. On the relationship between collagen- and carbonate-derived carbon isotopes with implications for the inference of carnivore dietary behavior. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10:1031383.

Mychajliw AM, Ellwood ER, Alagona P, Balisi M, Biber E, Brown J, Campbell-Staton S, Garrison N, George J, Hendy A, Higgins LM, Leger A, Pauly GB, Putman BJ, Ordeñana M, Randall JM, Schultz A, Stegner MA, Wake T, Lindsey EL. Lessons for conservation from beneath the pavement. Conservation Biology, e13983.

Davis MB, Nye B, Sinatra G, Swartout W, Sjoberg M, Porter M, Nelson D, Kennedy AAU, Herrick I, Weeks DD, Lindsey E. 2022. Designing scientifically-grounded paleoart for augmented reality at La Brea Tar Pits. Palaeontologica Electronica.

Balisi MA, Sharma AK, Shaw CS, Klapper R, Lindsey EL. 2021. Computed Tomography reveals hip dysplasia in the extinct Pleistocene saber-tooth cat Smilodon. Scientific Reports 11, 21271.

Kennedy A, Thacker I, Nye B, Sinatra G, Swartout W, Lindsey EL. 2021. Promoting interest, positive emotions, and knowledge using augmented reality in a museum setting. International Journal of Science Education Part B: Communication and Public Engagement 11(3): 242-258.

Cohen JE, DeSantis LRG, Lindsey EL, Meachen JA, O’Keefe FR, Southon JR, Binder WJ. 2021. Dietary stability inferred from dental mesowear analysis in large ungulates from Rancho La Brea and opportunistic feeding during the Late Pleistocene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 570 (2021) 110360.

Hill K, Swift JN, Howard CM, Farrell A, Lindsey EL. 2021. 3D Geovisualization of subsurface objects from La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, CA. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 20, e00167

Mychajliw AM, Rice KA, Tewksbury LR, Southon JR, Lindsey EL. 2020. Exceptionally preserved asphaltic coprolites coprolites expand spatiotemporal range of a North American paleoecological proxy. Scientific Reports 10: 5069.

Mychajliw AM, Mohammed RS, Rice KA, Farrell AB, Rincón AD, McAfee R, McDonald HG, Lindsey EL. 2020. The Biogeography of “breas”: contextualizing the taphonomy, ecology, and diversity of Trinidad’s asphaltic fossil record. Quaternary Science Reviews 232 106179.

Lindsey, EL, Lopez EX, Matzke G, Rice K, McDonald HG. 2020. A monodominant late-Pleistocene megafauna locality from Santa Elena, Ecuador: Insight on the biology and behavior of giant ground sloths. In press, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 544, 109599.

Fuller BT, Southon JR, Fahrni SM, Farrell AB, Takeuchi GT, Nehlich O, Guiry EJ, Richards MP, Lindsey EL, Harris JM. 2020. Pleistocene paleoecology and feeding behavior in a pre-LGM asphalt deposit at Rancho La Brea, California. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 537, 109383.

Swift, JA, Bunce M, Dortch J, Douglass K, Faith JT, Fellows Yates JA, Field J, Haberle SG, Jacob E, Johnson CN, Lindsey E, Lorenzen ED, Louys J, Miller G, Mychajliw AM, Slon V, Villavicencio NA, Waters MR, Welker F, Wood R, Petraglia M, Boivin N, Roberts P (2019). Micro Methods for Megafauna: Novel approaches to the study of Late Quaternary extinctions and their contributions to conservation in the Anthropocene. BioScience 69(11): 877-887.

Politis GG, Messineo PG, Stafford TW, Lindsey, EL (2019). Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas. Science Advances, 5(3), p.eaau4546.

Barnosky AD… Lindsey EL et al. (40 co-authors) (2017). Merging Paleontology With Conservation Biology to Guide the Future of Terrestrial Ecosystems. Science 355: eaah4787

Lyons SK, Miller JH, Fraser D, Smith FA, Boyer AG, Lindsey EL, Mychajliw AM (2016). The changing role of mammal life histories in late Quaternary extinction vulnerability on continents and islands. Biology Letters 12: 20160342.

Barnosky AD, Lindsey EL, Villavicencio NA, Bostelmann JE, Hadly EA, Wanket J, Marshall CR (2016). Variable impact of Late Quaternary megafauna extinction in causing ecological state shifts in North and South America. PNAS 113: 856-861.

Lindsey EL, Lopez EX (2015). Tanque Loma, a new late-Pleistocene megafaunal tar seep locality from southwest Ecuador. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 57: 61-82.

Lindsey EL, Seymour KL (2015). “Tar Pits” of the western Neotropics: paleoecology, taphonomy, and mammalian biogeography. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 42: 111-123.

Marshall CR, Lindsey EL, Villavicencio NA, Barnosky AD (2015). A quantitative model for distinguishing between climate change, human impact, and their synergistic interaction as drivers of the late-Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. In P.D. Polly, J.J. Head, and D.L. Fox (eds.), Earth-Life Transitions: Paleobiology in the Context of Earth System Evolution. The Paleontological Society Papers 21. Yale Press, New Haven, CT.

Villavicencio NA, Lindsey EL, Martín F, Borrero L, Moreno P, Marshall CR, Barnosky AD (2015). Combination of humans, climate, and vegetation change triggers Late Quaternary megafauna extinction in the Última Esperanza region, southern Patagonia, Chile. Ecography 38: 001-016.

Barnosky AD, Holmes M, Kirchholtes R, Lindsey EL, Maguire KC, Poust AW, Stegner MA, Sunseri J, Swartz B, Swift J, Villavicencio NA, Wogan GOU (2014). Prelude To The Anthropocene: Two Newly-Defined North American Land-Mammal Ages. The Anthropocene Review 1-18.

Barnosky AD, Matzke N, Tomiya S, Wogan G, Swartz B, Quental T, Marshall C, McGuire JL, Lindsey EL, Maguire KC, Mersey B, Ferrer EA (2011). Has the earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471: 51-57.

Barnosky AD, Lindsey EL (2010). Timing of Quaternary megafaunal extinction in South America in relation to human arrival and climate change. Quaternary International 217: 10-29.

Lindsey EL, Altieri AH, Witman JD (2006). Influence of biogenic habitat on the recruitment and distribution of a subtidal xanthid crab. Marine Ecology Progress Series 306: 223-231.

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Martinetto E, Bertini A, Bhandari S, Bruch A, Cerilli E, Cherin M, Field JH, Gabrielyan I, Gianotti F, Kern AK, Kienast F, Lindsey EL, Momohara A, Ravazzi C, Thomas ER. The last three millions of unequal spring thaws. In: Martinetto E, Tschopp E, Gastaldo R (Eds.). Nature Through Time. Springer. 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-35058-1

Lindsey EL (ed.) Treasures of the Tar Pits (3rd Edition). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 2018.

Lindsey EL (2017). Giant Sloths and Sabertooth Cats - Extinct mammals and the archaeology of the Ice Age Great Basin, by Donald K. Grayson. Invited book review, Ecology 98(4) 1181-1182.

Harris JM, McDonald HG, Lindsey EL (2015). Introduction — La Brea and Beyond: The Paleontology of Asphalt-Preserved Biotas. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 42: 174 pp.