Nicole Boivin – The Conversation

Jorgo Ristevski

May 19, 2026

129,000 years of crocodiles: what we know about Australasia’s ancient apex predators

Jorgo Ristevski, The University of Queensland; Julien Louys, Griffith University, and Nicole Boivin, The University of Queensland

A host of unique crocodylian species ruled the roost in Australia and surrounds for millions of years – until humans came along.

Robert Hegedus/EPA

November 27, 2023

How your money is helping subsidise sexism in academia – and what you can do about it

Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology; Janet G. Hering, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology; Susanne Täuber, University of Amsterdam, and Ursula Keller, ETH Zurich

Studies reveal women’s research receives tougher assessment, less funding, fewer prizes and less citation than men’s.

Museum August Kestner, Hannover. Photo: Christian Tepper.

August 31, 2023

What would an ancient Egyptian corpse have smelled like? Pine, balsam and bitumen – if you were nobility

Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and Barbara Huber, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

This Egyptian noblewoman was sweetly scented upon her death, researchers have discovered. And they’ve teamed up with a perfumer to recreate her scent.

Wikimedia

June 6, 2023

Major new research claims smaller‑brained Homo naledi made rock art and buried the dead. But the evidence is lacking

Michael Petraglia, Griffith University; Emmanuel K. Ndiema, National Museums of Kenya; María Martinón-Torres, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), and Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Homo naledi had a brain less than half the size of our own. Yet the new research claims it had cognitive abilities far beyond what we might expect.

April 12, 2023

Research reveals a 3,500‑year history of dairy consumption on the Tibetan Plateau

Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology; Li Tang, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology; Michael Petraglia, Griffith University, and Shevan Wilkin, University of Zurich

Researchers looked at the skeletal remains of 40 people, and found evidence of dairy consumption across a wide swathe of early Tibetan society.

Anna Kotarba-Morley

February 28, 2022

At Unguja Ukuu, human activity transformed the coast of Zanzibar more than 1,000 years ago

Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Flinders University; Alison Crowther, The University of Queensland; Mike W. Morley, Flinders University, and Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Human waste created the landscape for a medieval Indian Ocean trading port and may eventually have led to its demise.

People have been modifying Earth – as in these rice terraces near Pokhara, Nepal – for millennia. Erle C. Ellis

August 29, 2019

Surveying archaeologists across the globe reveals deeper and more widespread roots of the human age, the Anthropocene

Ben Marwick, University of Washington; Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Lucas Stephens, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, and Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Hundreds of archaeologists provided on-the-ground data from across the globe, providing a new view of the long and varied history of people transforming Earth’s environment.

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