BERLIOZ Émilie
CNRS Researcher
Main research topic
My research focuses on the palaeoecology of large herbivores from the European Pleistocene. I analyse their responses to past climatic oscillations in order to anticipate their future ecological trajectories under the combined pressures of global warming and anthropisation. Rooted in the field of Conservation Palaeobiology, this approach bridges fossil archives and modern data to better guide species management and conservation strategies.
Topics of study
Quaternary ecological dynamics: I reconstruct the ecologies, niche-partitioning, and palaeoenvironments of large herbivores (equids, bovids, and cervids) from archaeological and palaeontological sites across the European Quaternary. These analyses make it possible to identify how their ecological responses evolved in relation to past climatic oscillations.
Human-herbivore-environment interactions: I study the relationships between Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens and the herbivores they hunted. By combining ecological and archaeological data, I help to understand how human populations adapted their subsistence, mobility and land use strategies in response to climatic fluctuations, revealing their resilience in changing environments.
The case of the rusa deer in New Caledonia: In New Caledonia, I study the ecological impact of the rusa deer (Rusa timorensis), a cervid introduced in the 19th century and now highly invasive, on natural and anthropised habitats. Between 2018 and 2019, I built a reference database for this species that is unic in the world, currently accessible for consultation at the Palévoprim lab.
Multi-scale eco-indicators: I integrate several eco-indicators extracted from the masticatory apparatus (dental micro-wear textures (DMTA), dental meso-wear, stable isotopes, mandibular morphometry) in order to reconstruct different aspects of herbivore ecology at different scales of time, space and (socio)ecosystem structure.
Other responsabilities
- Initiator, co-founder, co-organiser and member of the scientific committee of the Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists and Palaeontologists (VCWAP).
- Founding member and board member of AWAP (Association of Early Career Women Archaeologists and Palaeontologists).
- Member of the Conservation Paleobiology Network.
- Member of “L’Odyssée du cerf” (The Deer Odyssey), World Deer Conservation Centre, Carentoir, France.
- Listed in the Francophone professional directory Les Expertes.
Other affiliations
- External collaborator at the EvoAdapta lab, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain: https://www.evoadapta.unican.es/en/home/
Contact
Iconic publications
Berlioz E., Torres-Román R., Gort-Esteve A., Merino M. L., Veiberg V., Azorit Casas C. 2025 – Morphological insights from Ecology and Evolution: Mandibular plasticity and phenotypic variation in Cervini from different populations and contrasted habitats – Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy – Doi:10.4404/hystrix-00779-2025
Thiery G., Francisco A., Louail M., Berlioz E., Blondel C., Brunetière N., Ramdarshan A., Walker A. Ec., Merceron G. 2024 – Introducing ’trident’: a graphical interface for discriminating groups using dental microwear texture analysis – Peer Community In Paleontology, 4, e90. – DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.467
Alifieri E., Berlioz E., Gkeme A. G., Kostopoulos D. S., Merceron G. 2024 – Tooth wear analyses track niche partitioning at Gerakarou, a 1.8 Ma old site from Greece – Quaternary Science Reviews 334, 108712 – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108712
Frantz A. C., Luttringer A., Colyn M., Kazilas C., Berlioz B. 2023 – « Landscape structure does not hinder the dispersal of an invasive herbivorous mammal in the New Caledonian biodiversity hotspot » – Eur J Wildl Res 70, 6 – doi.org/10.1007/s10344-023-01757-0
Berlioz E., Leduc C., Hofman-Kamińska E., Bignon-Lau O., Kowalczyk R., Merceron G. 2022 – Dental microwear foraging ecology of a large browsing ruminant in Northern Hemisphere: The European moose (Alces alces) – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 586: 110754 – doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110754
Gildas Merceron, Emilie Berlioz, Hubert Vonhof, Daniel Green, Mathieu Garel, Thomas Tütken, 2020 – Tooth tales told by dental diet proxies: An alpine community of sympatric ruminants as a model to decipher the ecology of fossil fauna – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110077
Hofman-Kamińska, E., Ramdarshan, A., Makowiecki, D., Berlioz, E., Piličiauskienė, G., Merceron, G., Bocherens, H., Kowalczyk, R. (2018). Foraging habitats and niche partitioning of European large herbivores during the Holocene – insights from 3D dental microwear texture analysis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Berlioz, E. (2017). Ecologie alimentaire et paléoenvironnements des cervidés européens du Pléistocène inférieur : le message des textures de micro-usure dentaire. Thèse de doctorat, Université de Poitiers.
Berlioz, E., Azorit, C., Blondel, C., Tellado Ruiz, M. S., & Merceron, G. (2017). Deer in an arid habitat: dental microwear textures track feeding adaptability. Hystrix, in press.
Berlioz, E., Kostopoulos, D. S., Blondel, C., & Merceron, G. (2017). Feeding ecology of Eucladoceros ctenoides as a proxy to track regional climatic oscillations in Europe during the Early Pleistocene. Comptes Rendus Palevol, in press.
Bignon-Lau, O., Catz, N., Berlioz, E., Veiberg, V., Strand, O., & Merceron, G. (2017). Dental microwear textural analyses to track feeding ecology of reindeer: a comparison of two contrasting populations in Norway. Mammal Research, 62(1), 111–120.