Advait Jukar
I broadly consider myself as a paleobiologist and ecologist studying how species, communities, and ecosystems have responded to both anthropogenic and environmental pressures on a variety of scales. At Yale, I am studying the impacts of human hunting and climate change on the megafaunal extinction in India. I use tools including faunal analysis, stable isotopes, bone surface modification, and geochronology to understand the anthropogenic and environmental context of this extinction. This recent extinction of large terrestrial vertebrates has been the focus of paleontological, archeological, and ecological research for decades, but the causes of the extinction are poorly understood in some of the most biodiverse regions of the world, like the Indian Subcontinent. India unlike large parts of the world, retains several species of large mammal like rhinos and elephants, and I am exploring why so many large species survive in this region.
I received my B.A. in Biology from Reed College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University. While my bachelors and masters research focused on the developmental plasticity of frogs and the community ecology of Caribbean coral reefs respectively, my doctoral research was centered around the paleoecology of mammals over the last 5 million years. After completing my Ph.D., I was awarded the Deep Time – Peter Buck Fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History where I conducted research on the size structure of the herbivore guild through time and the evolution of large mammals like horses and elephants. In addition to my research, I have developed public education and science communication content based on natural history for the Smithsonian, and am actively involved in a number of science outreach projects.
Publications:
2020
Turvey, S., V. Sathe, J. J. Crees, A. M. Jukar, P. Chakraborty, A. M. Lister. Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in India: how much do we know? Quaternary Science Reviews.
Jukar, A. M., S. K. Lyons, P. J. Wagner, M. D. Uhen. Late Quaternary extinctions in the Indian Subcontinent. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Fraser, D., L. C. Soul, A. B. Tóth, M. A. Balk, J. T. Eronen, S. Pineda-Munoz, A. B. Shupinski, A. Villaseñor, W. A. Barr, A. K. Behrensmeyer, A. Du, J. T. Faith, N. J. Gotelli, G. R. Graves, A. M. Jukar, C. V. Looy, J. H. Miller, R. Potts, S. K. Lyons. Investigating biotic interactions in Deep Time. Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Pineda-Munoz, S., A. M. Jukar, K. Amantagelo, M. Balk, W. A. Barr, A. K. Behrensmeyer, J. Blois, M. B. Davis, A. Du, J. Eronen, D. L. Fraser, N. J. Gotelli, C. Looy, J. Miller, A. Shupinski, L. Soul, A. Toth, A. Villaseñor, S. Wing, S. K. Lyons. Body mass-related changes in mammal community assembly patterns during the late Quaternary of North America. Ecography.
Wang, X., A. M. Jukar, Z. J. Tseng, Q. Li. Dragon bones from the heavens: European explorations and early paleontology in the Zanda Basin of Tibet, retracing the type locality of Qurliqnoria hundesiensis and Hipparion (Plesiohipparion) zandaense. Historical Biology.
Singh, N. P., A. M. Jukar*, R. Patnaik, M. Sharma, N. A. Singh, Y. P. Singh. The first occurrence of Deinotherium indicum (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Deinotheriidae) from the late Miocene of Kutch, India. Journal of Paleontology. *corresponding author and co-first author
2019
Jukar, A. M., R. Patnaik, P. R. Chauhan, H-C Li, J-P, Lin. The youngest specimen of Hexaprotodon Falconer and Cautley, 1836 (Hippopotamidae, Mammalia) from South Asia with a discussion on its extinction. Quaternary International.528: 130-137.
Tóth, A. M., S. K. Lyons, W. A. Barr, A. K. Behrensmeyer, J. L. Blois, R. Bobe, M. Davis, A. Du, J. T. Eronen, J. T. Faith, D. Fraser, N. J. Gotelli, G. R. Graves, A. M. Jukar, J. H. Miller, S, Pineda-Munoz, L. C. Soul, A. Villaseñor, J. Alroy. Reassembly of surviving mammalian communities after the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction. Science. 365 (6459): 1305-1308.
AWARD: 2019 Science Achievement Award, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Jukar, A. M., B. Sun, A. C. Nanda, R. L. Bernor. The first occurrence of Eurygnathohippus van Hoepen, 1830 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla, Equidae) outside Africa and its biogeographic significance. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana. 58 (2): 171-179.
Bernor, R. L., O. Cirilli, A. M. Jukar, R. Potts, M. Buskianidze, L. Rook. Evolution of early Equus in Italy, Georgia, the Indian Subcontinent, East Africa, and the origins of African zebras. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7.
Rook, L., R. L. Bernor, L. Avilla, O. Cirilli, L. Flynn, A. M. Jukar, W. Sanders, E. Scott, X. Wang. Mammal biochronology (land mammal ages) around the world from the Late Miocene to Middle Pleistocene and major events in horse evolutionary history. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7.
2018
Jukar, A. M., B. Sun, R. L. Bernor. The first occurrence of Plesiohipparion huangheense (Qiu, Huang & Guo, 1987) (Equidae, Hipparionini) from the Pliocene of India. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana. 57 (2): 125-132.
Jukar, A. M., S. K. Lyons, M. D. Uhen. A cranial correlate of body mass in proboscideans. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 184 (3): 919-931.