Last week Sam and Deepthi attended the British Ecological Society Macroecology conference held at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Sam presented his work on building spatially explicit neutral models at very large scales and the importance of long distance dispersal. Deepthi talked about her ongoing PhD work that examines diversity maintenance mechanisms on islands and the role of immigration in shaping latitudinal diversity gradients.

Both of them got a ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour of the spirit collection and the fossil mammal collection at the museum. They saw a giant squid, a Toxodon, and some of Darwin’s personal collections. They also learnt about evidence of cannibalism from early human fossils.

Giant squid at the Natural History Museum