Dr. Chris Baumann
Postdoctoral researcher

Hölderlinstrasse 12
72070 Tübingen, Germany

S523
+49 (0) 7071 29-78900
chris.baumannspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de
ResearchGate Profile
 

Curriculum vitae

Since 11/2024Postdoctoral researcher at the Senckenberg HEP Institute (Tübingen) for the ERC Project MAMBA (Grant agreement ID: 101045245) 
11/23 - 10/24Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geoscience (University Tübingen) and the University of Glasgow (UK, Powerful Plants: EPSRC grant. No. EP/X025160/1)
01/22 - 10/23Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geosciences and Geography (Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Finland; Academy of Finland project no. 341622)
2020 - 2021Research associate in the laboratories of the Biogeology Research Group
2017 - 2020

PhD student at the University of Tübingen, Archaeological Sciences, Zooarchaeology, division under Prof. Dr. Nicholas Conard and Prof. Dr. Hervé Bocherens

PhD Project “Crazy like a fox? How the study of archaeological fox remains can help to understand human behavior in the Late Pleistocene of the Swabian Jura (Germany)”

2014 -2016M.Sc. in Archaeological Sciences - Zooarchaeology, University of Tübingen, Germany
2011 - 2014Self-employed taxidermist, specialized on bone preparation and mounting
2007 - 2011B.A. in Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Jena, Germany

Publications

2025

Baumann, C., Kandel, A. & Hussain, S.T. (2025): Evidence for the catalytic role of humans in the assembly and evolution of European Late Pleistocene scavenger guilds. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.109148. 

Baumann, C., Larbey, C., Ebner, M., Bocherens, H., Hardy, K. (2025): The effect of plant food treatment on stable isotopes and their relevance for archaeological studies: A methodological pilot study. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.  DOI: 10.1007/s10816-024-09690-5.

Krajcarz, M., Baumann, C., Bocherens, H., Presslee, S., Krajcarz, M.T. (2025): Collagen to collagen prey-predator trophic discrimination factors (Δ13C, Δ15N) in Late Pleistocene cave hyena – a case study of a bone-eating carnivore. Quaternary Research. DOI: 1110.1017/qua.2024.43.

2024

Hussain, S.T. & Baumann, C. (2024): The human side of biodiversity - coevolution of the human niche, palaeo-synanthropy and ecosystem complexity in the deep human past. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 379: 20230021.
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0021

2023

Krajcarz, M.J., Baca, M., Baumann, C., Bocherens, H., Popović, D., Sudoł-Procyk, M., Krajcarz, M. (2023): New insights into Late Pleistocene cave hyena paleoecology and population history – biomolecular study of bone accumulation from Perspektywiczna Cave, Poland. Radiocarbon. DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2023.89.

Baumann, C., Hussain, S.T., Roblíčková, M., Riede, F., Mannino, M. Bocherens, H. (2023): Evidence for hunter-gatherer impacts on raven diet and ecology in the Early Gravettian of Southern Moravia. Nature Ecolology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02107-8.

Furtwängler, A., Baumann, C., Majander, K., Wilkin, S., Tomoum, N., Rühli, F., Jaeggi, A., Eppenberger, P., Bender, N., Schuenemann, V.J. (2023): The Mummy Explorer – a self-regulated open-access online teaching tool. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoad009

Baumann, C. (2023): The paleo-synanthropic niche: a first attempt to define animal’s adaptation to a human-made micro-environment in the Late Pleistocene. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 63. DOI: 10.1007/s12520-023-01764-x

2022

Bergström, A., […] Baumann, C., […] & Skoglund, P. (2022): Gray wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs. Nature 607, 313–320. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04824-9

2021

Baumann, C., Pfrengle, S., Münzel, S.C., Molak, M., Feuerborn, T., Breidenstein, A., Reiter, E., Albrecht, G., Kind, C.-J., Verjux, C., Leduc, C., Conard, N.J., Drucker, D.G., Giemsch, L., Thalmann, O., Bocherens, H., Schuenemann, V.J. (2021): A refined proposal for the origin of dogs - The case study of Gnirshöhle, a Magdalenian cave site. Scientific Reports 11:5137. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83719-7

< 2021

Baumann, C., Wong, G.L., Starkovich, B.M., Münzel, S.C. & Conard, N.J. (2020): The role of foxes in the Upper Palaeolithic economies of the Swabian Jura (Germany). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12 (208). DOI: 10.1007/s12520-020-01173-4.

Drucker, D.G., Bridault, A., Baumann, C., Ducrocq, T. & Valentin, F. (2020): Environment and human subsistence in Northern France at the Late-Glacial to early Holocene transition. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12(194). DOI: 10.1007/s12520-020-01149-4.

Baumann, C., Bocherens, H., Drucker, D.G. & Conard, N.J. (2020): Fox dietary ecology as a tracer of human impact on Pleistocene ecosystems. PLOS ONE 15(7): e0235692. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235692

Krajcarz, M., Krajcarz, M.T., Bacac, M., Baumann, C., Makowiecki, D., van Neer, W., Noryśkiewicz, A.M., Popović, D., Sudoł-Procyk, M., Tomek, T., Wach, B., Wilczyński, J., Wojenka, M. & Bocherens, H. (2020): Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet. PNAS, 201918884. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1918884117

Baumann, C., Starkovich, B.M., Drucker, D.G., Münzel, S.C., Conard, N.J. & Bocherens, H. (2020): Dietary niche partitioning among Magdalenian canids in southwestern Germany and Switzerland. Quaternary Science Reviews 227, 106032. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106032

Wißing, C., Rougier, H., Baumann, C., Comeyne, A., Crevecoeur, I., Drucker, D.G., Gaudzinski-Windheuser, S., Germonpre, M., Gomez-Olivencia, A., Krause, J., Matthies, T., Naito, Y.I., Posth, C., Semal, P., Street, M. & Bocherens, H., (2019): Stable isotopes reveal patterns of diet and mobility in the last Neandertals and first modern humans in Europe. Scientific Reports 9, 4433. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41033-3

Baumann, C. & Gornetzki, K. (2017): Postcranial differences in sex and species of pine marten (Martes martes L., 1758) and beech marten (Martes foina Erxl., 1777). Palaeodiversity 10, 7 – 23. DOI: 10.18476/pale.v10.a2

Teaching

Winter semester 2024/2025 & Summer semester 2025

  • Bio-BEE-211: Säugetiere im Freiland (Lecture, Seminar, Excusion)
  • Bio-3160: Zoologie II: Faunistische und floristische Freilandmethoden (Seminar)
  • Bio-BEE-209: Vertebraten II (Excursion)
  • tba: Cave ecology and archaeology (Seminar)
  • Geowiss-M401-Ü2: Isotopes in bones and teeth (Lab course)

Teaching experience

  • Säugetiere im Freiland
    Lecture, Seminar, Excursion | 2018 - present
  • Zoologie II: Faunistische und floristische Freilandmethoden
    Seminar (Guest lecturer), Excursion (Guest lecturer) | 2018 - present
  • Vertebraten II
    Excursion (Guest lecturer) | 2017, 2018, 2025
  • Isotopes in bones and teeth
    Lecture (Guest lecturer), Practical course (Guest lecturer) | 2020 - present
  • Betreuen von Sammlungen
    Lecture, Seminar | 2015 – 2019
  • Domestication as a research concept
    Seminar | 2017
  • Microfauna in archaeological context
    Seminar, Practical course | 2016 – 2018

Supervision

2024
  • Ayenne Sara Akarsu (Dept. of Biology: B.Sc. Biology): Pilotstudie zur Haarisotopenanalyse für die Wildkatze, Hauskatze und Hybride aus dem Markgräflerland und Taunus
2023
  • Theoni Panagiotopoulou (Dept. of Geoscience: M.Sc. Scientific Archaeology): “Magdalenian environments and ecosystems: The case of Gnirshöhle

Research

Research focus

  • Ecology of Pleistocene faunal communities in Europe
  • Trophic and ecological niche partitioning of carnivores
  • Anthropogenic impact on animal’s niches and resulting behavioral changes
  • Early symbiotic relationships between humans and animals, such as (paleo)-synanthropism and domestication

Projects

Methods & expertise

  • Advanced statistical (isotope) data processing with R
  • Bayesian statistics
  • Carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur stable isotopes from collagen and hair
  • Carbon and oxygen from carbonate
  • NAIP derivatization method

Scientific activities

Memberships
  • Board member of the Archäozoologenverband (AZV) 
    01/2024 - present | Website
    AZV Contact person at the University of Tübingen
  • Member of the Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte (GfU)
    07/2023 - present
  • Member of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA)
    11/2022 - present

Review editor for

Public outreach

2023

Grundkurs Archäologie, online public lecture (www.urmu.de

2018 – 2022

Archäoakademie Blaubeuren (www.urmu.de)

2019

Teaching mammal monitoring and conservative biology during the “ELI Nachhaltigkeitstage” (sustainability days) at the Elisabethenschule in Hofheim/Taunus (www.eli-hofheim.de

2014 – 2019 

"Steinzeitwerkstatt" (Stone Age Workshop) as well as workshops for the “Tag der Offenen Höhle” (Open Cave Day) at the Museum of Prehistory (www.urmu.de), Blaubeuren