Beth Shapiro

Beth Shapiro travels through time—observing mammoths, dodos, and other extinct animals; witnessing the last ice age and arrival of humans in North America; watching genetic diversity shrink in one species while blossoming in another.

Her journey is made possible by ancient DNA samples and statistical models that give science a whole new view of our tumultuous past.

This very new field uses genetic information gleaned from ancient animals and plants to discover how evolution happens over time and territory. By analyzing DNA samples from species at not just one, but many moments in time, researchers can trace changes in populations, and overlay those changes with concurrent environmental events. The precision this allows is unprecedented.