This was all part of the wonderful special edition "Shifting Seas: Understanding Deep-Time Human Impacts on Marine Ecosystems" in @royalsocietypublishing.org led by editor @lukeeholman.bsky.social

Illustration: Jacek Matysiak

This would COULD NOT BE POSSIBLE without my wonderful co-authors and discipline experts (most not on BS) such as: @erinmdillon.bsky.social @odealab.bsky.social and the rest

Photos: @leilanilipour.bsky.social and Jorge Alemán

We tried hard to fuse stories of oceans, climate, biodiversity, and early human systems to bring focus to this incredible region of study, with a hope and a need to attract more attention to it in the future!

photo: @leilanilipour.bsky.social

Our work emphasises the importance of ocean–land connections for Isthmian peoples and the critical balance of livlihoods, research, and conservation efforts needed to ensure its future sustainability.

Photo: @leilanilipour.bsky.social

We identified three major transitions of Isthmian peoples relationships with the #ocean and its resources:
1) The shift to agriculture after megafauna extinction,
2) rising sea levels and the novel ecosystems they created,
3) Spanish colonisation and the globalisation of resource extraction

Using #STRI's vast zooarch collections, we found intersting diet trends showing the diversity of ecosystems peoples relied on over many thousands of years

My fav part was the incredible case-studies co-authors #nicole #brigida #irene @odealab.bsky.social @erinmdillon.bsky.social told about shell fishing, the pearl oyster industry, and the history of indigenous peoples under Spanish occupation.

All BEAUTIFUL illustrations: @cookedillustrations.com

Our proudly interdisciplinary team of paleobiologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and global change researchers worked hard to combine vast datasets that would be intersting to a wide suite of readers. Everything from zooarchaeology to sea level change!

Photo: Jorge Alemán