Department of Zoology

 

Principal Investigators

Richard Preece

Position(s): Reader, University Museum of Zoology

Email: rcp1001@cam.ac.uk

Tel.: +44 (0)1223 336666

Research area - Evolution and Diversity

Malacology in general but especially the use of non-marine Mollusca in reconstructing environments and climates during the Quaternary (and Tertiary). Recent work has focused on their use in distinguishing between different interglacials in NW Europe and in their value as a dating material, especially for aminostratigraphy. The Holocene has also attracted much attention because for this period it is possible to obtain detailed molluscan successions that can be tied to firm chronologies by means of radiocarbon dating. In this way it is possible to provide historical perspectives on the development of modern communities in different regions. In many Holocene sequences it is possible to recognize signs of human disturbance, such as episodes of forest clearance, and so evaluate the environmental impact of early human populations. Current research topics involve collaboration with the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project, which aims to establish the age and environment of the earliest human populations in Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and with the Baikal Archaeology Project, which aims to characterize the environmental history of the Baikal region of Siberia during the Holocene with a view to shedding light on the cause of a major cultural change that occurred about 7000 years ago.

Selected publications

  • Preece RC (2001) Non-marine molluscs and archaeology. Chapter in Introduction to Archaeological Sciences edited by Pollard, A.M. & Brothwell, D.R. John Wiley & Sons
  • Preece RC (2001) Molluscan evidence for differentiation of interglacials within the ‘Cromerian Complex’. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1643-1656.
  • Preece RC (2001) Introduced land molluscs on the islands of the Tristan da Cunha-Gough group ( South Atlantic). Journal of Conchology 37: 253-259.
  • Banham PH, Gibbard PL, Lunkka JP, Parfitt SA, Preece RC, Turner C (2001) A critical assessment of ‘A new glacial stratigraphy for eastern England’. Quaternary Newsletter No 93: 5-14.
  • Bridgland DR, Preece RC, Roe HM, Tipping RM, Coope GR, Field MH, Robinson, JE, Schreve DC, Crowe K (2001) Middle Pleistocene interglacial deposits at Barling, Essex, UK: evidence for a longer chronology for the Thames terrace sequence. Journal of Quaternary Science 16: 813-840.
  • Meyrick RA, Preece RC (2001) Molluscan successions from two Holocene tufas near Northampton, English Midlands. Journal of Biogeography 28: 77-93.
  • Matzke-Karasz R, Horne DC, Janz H, Griffiths HI, Hutchinson WF, Preece RC (2001) 5000 year-old spermatozoa in Quaternary Ostracoda (Crustacea). Naturwissenschaften 88: 268-272.
  • Preece RC, Meijer T (2002) A review of the Pleistocene occurrence of the extinct land snail Zonitoides sepultus in Europe, including the first records from Britain and France. Journal of Conchology 37: 627-633.
  • Ashworth AC, Cantrill DJ, Kuschel G, Preece RC, Thompson FC (2002) Extinction of the Antarctic terrestrial biota. Geological Society of America. Abstracts with Programs 34: 239 http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/ashworth/gsa2002new.ppt.
  • Tzedakis PC, Lawson IT, Frogley MR, Hewitt GM, Preece RC (2002) Buffered tree population changes in a Quaternary refugium: evolutionary implications. Science 297: 2044-2047.
  • Tzedakis PC, Lawson IT, Frogley MR, Hewitt GM, Preece RC (2003). Response to Comment on “Buffered tree population changes in a Quaternary refugium: evolutionary implications”. Science 299: 825b.
  • Ashworth AC, Preece RC (2003) The first freshwater molluscs from Antarctica. Journal of Molluscan Studies 69: 89-92.
  • Preece RC (2003) Two species of Gyraulus (Pulmonata: Planorbiidae) new to the British Pleistocene. Journal of Conchology 38: 47-51.
  • Preece RC, Gittenberger E (2003) Systematics, distribution and ecology of Tristania (=Balea) (Pulmonata: Clausiliidae) in the islands of the Tristan - Gough group. Journal of Molluscan Studies 69: 329-348.
  • Limondin-Lozouet N, Preece RC (2004) Molluscan successions from the Holocene tufa of St-Germain-le-Vasson, Normandy (France) and their biogeographical significance. Journal of Quaternary Science 19: 55-71.
  • Tzedakis PC, Frogley MR, Lawson IT, Preece RC, Cacho I, de Abreu L (2004) Ecological thresholds and patterns of millennial-scale climate variability: the response of vegetation in Greece during the last glacial. Geology 32: 109-112.
  • Lawson I, Frogley M, Bryant C, Preece R, Tzedakis P (2004) The Lateglacial and Holocene environmental history of the Ioannina basin, north-west Greece. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 1599-1625.
  • Garnett ER, Gilmour MA, Rowe PJ, Andrews JE, Preece RC (2004) 230Th/ 234U dating of Holocene tufas: possibilities and problems. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 947-958.
  • Garnett ER, Andrews JE, Preece RC, Dennis PF (2004) Climatic change recorded by stable isotopes and trace elements in a British Holocene tufa. Journal of Quaternary Science 19: 251-262.
  • Lewis SG, Parfitt SA, Preece RC, Sinclair J, Coope GR, Field MH, Maher B, Scaife RG., Whittaker JE (2004) Age and palaeoenvironmental setting of the Pleistocene vertebrate fauna at Norton Subcourse, Norfolk. In: Schreve, D.C. (ed.) The Quaternary mammals of southern and eastern England. QRA/Euromam Field Guide, p 4-14.
  • Briant RM, Coope GR, Preece RC, Gibbard PL (2004) The Upper Pleistocene deposits at Deeping St James, Lincolnshire: evidence for Early Devensian fluvial sedimentation. Quaternaire 15: 5-15.
  • Briant RM, Coope GR, Preece RC, Keen DH, Boreham S, Griffiths HI, Seddon MB, Gibbard PL (2004) Fluvial response to Late Devensian (Weichselian) aridity, Baston, Lincolnshire, England. Journal of Quaternary Science 19: 479-495.
  • Briant RM, Coope GR, Bateman MD, Preece RC, Griffiths HI (2004) Eye Quarry (TF237023 to Tf240021) p. 116-129 In: Langford HE & Briant RM (eds) Nene Valley. Field Guide, Quaternary Research Association.
  • Frogley MR, Preece RC (2004) A faunistic review of the modern and fossil molluscan fauna from Lake Pamvotis, Ioannina, an ancient lake in NW Greece: implications for endemism in the Balkans In: Griffiths HI, Kry štufek B, Reed JM (eds) Balkan biodiversity: pattern and process in the European hotspot. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. p 243-260.
  • Aubry S, Magnin F, Bonnet V, Preece RC (2005) Multi-scale altitudinal patterns in species richness of land snail communities in south-eastern France. Journal of Biogeography 32: 1-14.
  • Preece RC (2005). Hygromia cinctella in Ireland. Journal of Conchology 38: 604.
  • Green CP, Branch NP, Coope GR, Field MH, Keen DH, Wells JM, Schwenninger J-L, Preece RC, Schreve DC, Canti MG, Gleed-Owen CP (2005) Marine Isotope Stage 9 environments of fluvial deposits at Hackney, north London, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 25: 89-113.
  • Parfitt SA, BarendregtRW, Breda M, Candy I, Collins MJ, Coope GR, Durbidge P, Field MH, Lee JR, Lister AM, Mutch R, Penkman KEH, Preece RC, Rose J, Stringer CB, Symmons R, Whittaker JE, Wymer JJ, Stuart AJ (2005) The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe. Nature 438: 1008-1012.
  • Preece RC, Penkman KEH. (2005) New faunal analyses and amino acid dating of the Lower Palaeolithic site at East Farm, Barnham, Suffolk. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 116: 363-377.
  • Limondin-Lozouet N, Gauthier A, Preece R (2005) Enregistrement des biocénoses de la première moitié de l'Holocène en contexte tufacé à Saint Germain-le-Vasson (Calvados). Quaternaire 16: 255-271.
  • Gittenberger E, Groenenberg DSJ, Kokshoorn B, Preece RC (2006) Molecular trails from hitch-hiking snails. Nature 439: 409.
  • Gittenberger E, Preece RC, Ripken TEJ (2006) Balea heydeni von Maltzan, 1881 (Pulmonata: Clausiliidae): an overlooked but widely distributed European species. Journal of Conchology 39: 145-150.
  • Garnett ER, Andrews JE, Preece RC, Dennis PF (2006) Late-glacial and early Holocene climate and environment from stable isotopes in Welsh tufa. Quaternaire 17: 31-42.
  • Preece RC (2006) Obituary: David Henry Keen 1947-2006. Journal of Conchology39: 233-240.
  • Preece RC, Gowlett JAJ, Parfitt SA, Bridgland DR, Lewis SG (2006) Humans in the Hoxnian: habitat, context and fire use at Beeches Pit, West Stow, Suffolk, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science 21: 485-496.
  • Wenban-Smith FF, Allen P, Bates, MR, Parfitt SA, Preece RC, Stewart JR, Turner C, Whittaker JE (2006) The Clactonian elephant butchery site at Southfleet Road, Ebbsfleet, UK. Journal of Quaternary Science 21: 471-483.
  • Frogley MR, Preece RC (2007) A review of the aquatic Mollusca from Lake Pamvotis, Ioannina, an ancient lake in NW Greece. Journal of Conchology 39: 271-295.
  • Preece RC, Parfitt SA, Bridgland DR, Lewis SG, Rowe PJ, Atkinson TC, Candy I, Debenham NC, Penkman KEH, Rhodes EJ, Schwenninger J-L, Griffiths HI, Whittaker JE, Gleed-Owen C (2007) Terrestrial environments during MIS 11: evidence from the Palaeolithic site at West Stow, Suffolk, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 1236-1300.
  • Gao C, Boreham S, Preece RC, Gibbard PL, Briant RM (2007) Fluvial response to rapid climate change during the Devensian (Weichselian) Lateglacial in the River Great Ouse, southern England, UK. Sedimentary Geology 202: 193-210.
  • Preece RC, Parfitt SA (2007) The Cromer Forest-bed Formation: some recent developments relating to early human occupation and lowland glaciation. In Candy I, Lee JR, Harrison AM (eds). The Quaternary of Northern East Anglia. QRA Field Guide.
  • Preece RC, Andrews JE (2007) Tufa formation at the Lateglacial/Holocene transition: Comments on the article by Trevor Faulkner. Quaternary Newsletter No 112, 29-30.