Institut

Studium

Dr. Jeremy McCormack

Research Interests

Jeremy McCormack is a geoscientist specialising on geochemical tracers in carbonate and bioapatite to reconstruct the environment and climate of the past and the ecology of extant and ancient organisms. One focus of Jeremy’s research is the use of carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in continental carbonates, especially lacustrine carbonates, as proxies of past climate and lake hydrology. Jeremy investigated the strengths and limitations of various lake carbonate components (biogenic and inorganic) and mineral phases (aragonite, calcite, dolomite) as palaeoenvironmental proxies. 

Currently, Jeremy is using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) analysis to investigate stable zinc isotopes in bioapatite as a dietary and trophic level proxy. Non-traditional isotopes such as zinc offer significant advantages for archaeological, ecological and palaeontological research being potentially diagenetically more resistant and metabolically independent from the traditional nitrogen isotope proxy in collagen. 

Education

2015 – 2019 Dr. rer. nat.
Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics – Bochum, Germany
From Lacustrine Carbonates to Palaeohydrology - How Robust are Our Proxies?
2012 – 2014 Master of Science in Geoscience (Geology and Palaeontology) 
Goethe-University Frankfurt, Institute of Geosciences – Frankfurt, Germany
Sediment-petrographical and geochemical studies on bonebed strata at the Muschelkalk - Keuper boundary at Palzem (Mosel)
2008 – 2012 Bachelor of Science in Geoscience 
Goethe-University Frankfurt, Institute of Geosciences – Frankfurt, Germany
Isotope geochemical research of the Sinemurian-Pliensbachian boundary of northern Germany (written in German)

Academic positions

since 2022 Postdoc
Institute for Geoscience - Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
2019 – 2022 Postdoc
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Evolution – Leipzig, Germany 
2015 – 2018  Ph.D.-student, scientific employee
Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute of Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics – Bochum, Germany 

Publications

2022
McCormack, J., Bourgon, N., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Rezek, Z., Smith, G. M., Hublin, J.-J., Dabain, M. & Fewlass, H. (2022). Combining collagen extraction with mineral Zn isotope analyses from a single sample for robust palaeoecological investigations. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14, 137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01601-7

McCormack, J., Griffiths, M., Kim, S. L., Shimada, K., Karnes, M., Maisch, H., Pederzani, S., Bourgon, N., Jaouen, K., Becker, M. A., Jöns, N., Sisma-Ventura, G., Straube, N., Pollerspöck, J., Hublin, J.-J., Eagle, R. A. & Tütken, T. (2022). Trophic position of Otodus megalodon and great white sharks through time revealed by zinc isotopes. Nature Communications 13, 2980 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30528-9

2021
Bourgon, N., Jaouen, K., Bacon, A.-M., Dufour, E., McCormack, J., Tran, N.-H., Trost, M., Fiorillo, D., Dunn, T. E., Zanolli, C., Zachwieja, A., Duringer, P., Ponche, J.-L., Boesch, Q., Antoine, P.-O., Westaway, K. E., Joannes-Boyau, R., Suzzoni, E., Frangeul, S., Crozier, F., Aubaile, F., Patole-Edoumba, E., Luangkhoth, T., Souksavatdy, V., Boualaphane, S., Sayavonkhamdy, T., Sichanthongtip, P., Sihanam, D., Demeter, F., Shackelford, L. L., Hublin, J.-J., & Tütken, T. (2021). Trophic ecology of a Late Pleistocene early modern human from tropical Southeast Asia inferred from zinc isotopes. Journal of Human Evolution, 161: 103075.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

McCormack, J., Szpak, P., Bourgon, N., Richards, M., Hyland, C., Méjean, P., Hublin, J.-J., & Jaouen, K. (2021). Zinc isotopes from archaeological bones provide reliable trophic level information for marine mammals. Communications Biology, 4(1): 683.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote    Downloads

McCormack, J., & Kwiecien, O. (2021). Coeval primary and diagenetic carbonates in lacustrine sediments challenge palaeoclimate interpretations. Scientific Reports, 11: 7935.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote    Downloads

2019

McCormack, J., Viehberg, F., Akdemir, D., Immenhauser, A., and Kwiecien, O. (2019). Ostracods as ecological and isotopic indicators of lake water salinity changes: The Lake Van example, Biogeosciences,
DOI

McCormack, J., Nehrke, G., Jöns, N., Immenhauser, A., & Kwiecien, O. (2019). Refining the interpretation of lacustrine carbonate isotope records: Implications of a mineralogy-specific Lake Van case study. Chemical Geology, 513, 167-183.
DOI

2018

McCormack, J., Bontognali, T. R. R., Immenhauser, A., & Kwiecien, O. (2018). Controls on cyclic formation of Quaternary early diagenetic dolomite. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(8), 3625-3634.
DOI

2015

McCormack, J. M., Bahr, A., Gerdes, A., Tütken, T., & Prinz-Grimm, P. (2015). Preservation of successive diagenetic stages in Middle Triassic bonebeds: Evidence from in situ trace element and strontium isotope analysis of vertebrate fossils. Chemical Geology, 410, 108-123.
DOI