Marc Dickinson
NERC Independent Research Fellow
Profile
Biography
Marc Dickinson is an analytical chemist specialising in the development of innovative methods for the analysis and dating of Quaternary fossils. His research focuses on advancing techniques to characterise both the inorganic and organic components of tooth enamel, enabling the identification of preserved proteins and amino acids and the construction of robust chronological frameworks.
He completed an integrated master’s degree in chemistry at the University of York before undertaking a NERC CASE-funded PhD in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London, and the University of York. His doctoral research developed novel preparation protocols to isolate closed-system proteins from tooth enamel, establishing a new approach to enamel amino acid dating.
Following his PhD, Marc remained at York, where he held a series of postdoctoral research positions across the Departments of Chemistry and BioArCh. During this time, he constructed geochronologies for a wide range of taxa from key archaeological and palaeontological sites worldwide, pioneered new microfluidic approaches for amino acid analysis, and investigated diagenetic processes affecting enamel preservation.
Research
Overview
Our research centres on the development and application of amino acid geochronology to fossil tooth enamel, with the aim of building robust chronological frameworks for Quaternary archaeology, palaeontology, and human evolution. By targeting the predictable breakdown of proteins and amino acids preserved within enamel, we are advancing methods capable of directly dating mammalian remains beyond the limits of conventional techniques, extending into the deep Quaternary timescale.
A key focus of our work is expanding amino acid dating across a wide variety of taxa, including large mammals such as elephants and hippopotamuses, to generate reliable and widely applicable geochronologies across diverse regions. This builds on methodological advances in isolating intra-crystalline proteins (protected within enamel mineral matrices) which behave as closed systems and retain endogenous biomolecular signals over geological timescales. These developments are helping to transform enamel into a powerful archive for directly dating fossil material and reconstructing evolutionary timelines.
Our research also contributes to broader palaeoproteomic studies, demonstrating that enamel can preserve molecular information over millions of years and provide insights into taxonomy, phylogeny, and even biological traits in extinct species. Through integration of analytical chemistry, biomolecular preservation studies, and archaeological application, our work is improving the precision and scope of Quaternary dating and enabling new perspectives on long-term environmental change and human evolution.
Projects
Publications
Selected publications
Dickinson, M.R., Adams, N.F., Scott, K., Lister, A.M., Penkman, K.E.H. 2024. Amino acid dating of Pleistocene mammalian enamel from the River Thames terrace sequence: a multi-taxon approach. Quaternary Geochronology, 82, 101543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2024.101543
Madupe, P.P., Koenig, C., Patramanis, I., Rüther, P.L., Hlazo, N., Mackie, M., Tawane, M., Krueger, J., Taurozzi, A. J., Troché, G., Kibii, J., Pickering, R., Dickinson, M.R., Sahle, Y., Kgotleng, D., Musiba, C., Manthi, F., Bell, L., DuPlessis, M., Gilbert, C., Zipfel, B., Kuderna, L.F.K., Lizano, E., Welker, F., Kyriakidou, P., Cox J., Mollereau, C., Tokarski, C., Blackburn, J., Ramos-Madrigal, J., Marques-Bonet, T., Penkman, K., Zanolli, C., Schroeder, L., Racimo, F., Olsen, J. V., Ackermann, R. R., Cappellini, E. 2025. Enamel Proteins Reveal Biological Sex and Genetic Variability within Southern African Paranthropus. Science, 388, 969-973. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adt9539
Patinglag, L., Dickinson, M.R., Hill, M., Penkman, K.E.H., and Shaw, K.J 2025. Mammothfluidics: Amino Acid Dating of Fossilised Teeth using a Modular Microfluidic System. Quaternary Geochronology, 91, 101705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2025.101705
Paterson, R.S., Mackie, M. Capobianco, A., Heckeberg, N.S., Fraser, D., Munir, F., Patramanis, I., Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Liu, S., Ramsøe, A.D., Dickinson, M.R., Baldreki, C., Gilbert, M., Sardella, R., Bellucci, L., Scorrano, G., Racimo, F., Willerslev, E., Penkman, K.E.H., Olsen, J.V., MacPhee, R.D.E., Rybczynski, N., Höhna, S., Cappellini, E., 2025. A 20+ Ma old enamel proteome from Canada’s High Arctic reveals diversification of Rhinocerotidae in the Middle Eocene-Oligocene. Nature, 643, 719-724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09231-4
Dickinson, M.R., Lister, A.M. and Penkman, K.E.H. 2019. A new method for enamel amino acid racemization dating. Quaternary Geochronology, 50, 29-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2018.11.005
Dekker, J.A.A., Peters, C., Winter, R.M., Collins, M., Dickinson, M.R., Harvey, V., Hill, E., Nair, B.A.B., Tsutaya, T., Viñas Caron, L., Warinner, C., Welker, F. and Fagernäs, Z., 2025. Open science, communication, and collaboration for the future of palaeoproteomics. Peer Community Journal, 5, e77. https://zenodo.org/records/15690650
