MSc in Archaeological Science

GEORGE LYRAS

Associate Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology

George Lyras is a palaeontologist with expertise on the study of vertebrate. He has extensive fieldwork experience, from participation to many palaeontological excavations in Greece and Italy (Sardinia).

His has also participated to the following funded projects: "Brain Evolution", "of Mice and Mammoths", "Island Biodiversity and Cultural Evolution" and "Pleistocene Faunas".

He is teaching the following subjects: Macropalaeontology, Palaeoecology, Evolutionary Palaeontology, Palaeoanthropology.

Selected peer-reviewed publications

Athanassiou A., van der Geer A.A.E., Lyras G. 2019. Pleistocene insular Proboscidea of the Eastern Mediterranean: a review and update. Quaternary Science Reviews 218: 306-321.

Lyras G.A., Giannakopoulou A., Werdelin L. 2019. The brain anatomy of an early Miocene felid from Ginn Quarry (Nebraska, USA). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 93: 345-355.

Lyras G., Giannakopoulou A., Lillis T.D., van der Geer A.A.E. 2019. Paradise Lost: Evidence for a devastating metabolic bone disease in an insular Pleistocene deer. International Journal of Paleopathology 24: 213-226.

Lyras G.A. 2018. Brain changes during phyletic dwarfing in elephants and hippos. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 92:167–181

Ingicco T., van den Bergh G.D., Jago-on C., Bahain J-J., Chacon G., Amano N., Forestier H., King C., Manalo K., Nomade S., Peirera A., Reyes M., Sémah A-M., Shao Q., Voinchet P., Falguères C., Celiberti V., Albers P., Lising M., Lyras G., Yurnaldi D., Bautista A., de Vos J. 2018. Earliest known hominin activity in the Philippines by 709 thousand years ago. Nature 557: 233–237.

Lyras G.A., Giannakopoulou A., Kouvari M., Papadopoulos G.C. 2017. Evolution of gyrification in carnivores. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 88: 187–203.

Van der Geer A.A.E., Lomolino M.V., Lyras G.A. 2017. “Island Life” before man: biogeography of palaeo-insular mammals. Journal of Biogeography 44(5): 995–1006.

Van der Geer A.A.E., Lyras G.A., MacPhee R.D.E., Lomolino M.V., Drinia H. 2014. Mortality in a predator-free insular environment: The dwarf deer of Crete. American Museum Novitates 3807: 1–26.

Lomolino M.V., van der Geer A.A.E., Lyras G.A., Palombo M.R., Sax D., Rozzi R. 2013. Of mice and mammoths: generality and antiquity of the island rule. Journal of Biogeography 40: 1427–1439.

Van der Geer A., Lyras G., de Vos J., Dermitzakis M. 2010. Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 479 pp, 200 ill. ISBN 13-978-1-4051-9009-1.