Doctoral thesis by Els Thieren at the Faculty of Sciences KU Leuven on the identification of the sturgeon species occurring in the North Sea during prehistoric and historic times. The study material includes both modern and archaeological specimens.

The project focuses on the early radiation of European mammals at the beginning of the Cenozoic era, and their evolution until the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. Study of mammals from new localities allows discerning adaptive radiation, endemic evolution and dispersal of mammals just after the dinosaur’s extinction.

Our group has recently demonstrated the antiquity of this domestication of the dog. The study of canid assemblages from prehistoric sites will allow us to address the importance fossil dogs and wolves had for prehistoric people. We will test different hypotheses to infer the several roles the large canids played in the life of prehistoric people.

The Geobelphot (valorisation of the Belgian geological heritage) programme consists of gathering basic documentation on remarkable Belgian geological sites (as slides, pictures, geological descriptions).

The goal of the programme concerns the possibility of creating a performing computer system (Brussels Urban Geology) that will allow a fast and direct access to 2D and 3D geology of the Brussels subsoil using GIS.