Tina Lüdecke

Tina Lüdecke is a Junior Group Leader of the Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption (HoMeCo) at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. She also holds several honorary and guest researcher positions including at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, National Museums of Kenya, and Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre. Her research focuses on early hominin diets and paleo-food webs using stable isotope analysis.

Dr. Lüdecke's educational background includes:

• PhD from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (2016) - 'Stable isotope-based reconstruction of Neogene terrestrial archives' (magna cum laude)
• Visiting PhD at Stanford University, School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Science (2014)
• Diploma (M.Sc.) from Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-University-Hannover, Germany - 'Late Cenozoic Paleoenvironmental signatures of the Central Anatolian Plateau'

Dr. Lüdecke investigates early hominin diets and their ecological context, with a focus on the onset and evolution of meat consumption and the position of Plio-Pleistocene hominins in African paleo-food webs, using stable isotopes in tooth enamel. She also reconstructs Neogene paleolandscapes inhabited by early hominins, examining C4 grassland expansion in relation to changes in seasonality, precipitation, temperature, atmospheric pCO₂, and tree cover. Her work combines extensive field research with geochemical approaches — stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and zinc, clumped isotopes, and multi-element analyses — applied to fossil tooth enamel, pedogenic carbonates, and other proxy materials. Her research spans the Miocene to Pleistocene in eastern and southern Africa, including early hominin sites of the Afar Depression (Ethiopia), Manyara Basin (Tanzania), Karonga Basin (Malawi), Urema Basin (Mozambique), and the Cradle of Humankind (South Africa).

Dr. Lüdecke's recent publications reflect her pioneering work in nitrogen isotope analysis of tooth enamel to reconstruct ancient diets. Her research has demonstrated that enamel nitrogen reliably preserves dietary isotopic signatures, establishing it as a powerful new paleodietary proxy. Her most recent work challenges previous assumptions about early hominin meat consumption, showing that Australopithecus from Sterkfontein (South Africa) did not consume significant amounts of mammalian meat. Her publications span diverse fields including paleoanthropology, geochemistry, stable isotope analysis, paleoecology, and archaeology.

Her notable scientific awards include:

• International Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Research Grant (2023)
• German Science Foundation (DFG) Emmy Noether Program, Junior Research Group (2021)
• National Geographic Explorer Grant (2018)
• DFG – ICDP Priority Program personal grants (2017, 2019)
• Hermann-Willkomm-Stiftung travel grants (2011, 2012)

Dr. Lüdecke supervises multiple graduate students and postdoctoral fellows including Dr. Jana Storsberg, Marissa Vink, Miguel A. Soares Remiseiro, Sven Brömme, and Dr. Jennifer Leichliter. She has secured significant grant funding totaling approximately 2,768,000 € for her research, including major awards from the German Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and International Human Frontier Science Program. Her research group, HoMeCo, focuses on the onset and evolution of early hominin meat consumption.

Dr. Lüdecke is actively involved with the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, where she serves as the leading geochemist. She also collaborates with institutions worldwide including the National Museums of Kenya, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt. Her field research spans multiple continents, focusing on early hominin sites across eastern and southern Africa as well as out-of-Africa localities.