Skip to main content

Smithsonian Profiles

Search form

Kistler, Logan Curator of Archaeobotany and Archaeogenomics

I use archaeology, ancient DNA, and genomics to study the domestication of plants and humans' relationships with the environment.

You can reach me at Kistler L at SI dot edu.

Have a look at our new paper on maize and check back soon!

selected publications

article
- A Guide to Carrying Out a Phylogenomic Target Sequence Capture Project. Frontiers in Genetics. 10:Article 1407. 2020
- A domestication history of dynamic adaptation and genomic deterioration in Sorghum. Nature Plants. 5:369-379. 2020
- A re-evaluation of the domestication bottleneck from archaeogenomic evidence. Evolutionary Applications. 12:29-37. 2020
- Ancient Plant DNA as a Window Into the Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity of Our Food System. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 8:74. 2020
- Ancient Plant Genomics in Archaeology, Herbaria, and the Environment. Annual Review of Plant Biology. 71:605-629. 2020
- Study of plant remains from a fluvial shellmound (Monte Castelo, RO, Brazil) using the X-ray MicroCT imaging technique. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 26:Article-number 101902. 2020
- To curate the molecular past, museums need a carefully considered set of best practices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116:1471-1474. 2020
- Archaeogenomic evidence from the southwestern US points to a pre-Hispanic scarlet macaw breeding colony. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115:8740-8745. 2018
- Multiproxy evidence highlights a complex evolutionary legacy of maize in South America. Science. 362:1309-1313. 2018
- SONiCS: PCR stutter noise correction in genome-scale microsatellites. Bioinformatics. 2018
- A massively parallel strategy for STR marker development, capture, and genotyping. Nucleic Acids Research. 45. 2017
- A new model for ancient DNA decay based on paleogenomic meta-analysis. Nucleic acids research. 45:6310-6320. 2017
- Archaeogenomic evidence reveals prehistoric matrilineal dynasty. Nature Communications. 8:14115. 2017
- High-precision chronology for Central American maize diversification from El Gigante rockshelter, Honduras. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114:9026-9031. 2017
- Testing Convergent Evolution in Auditory Processing Genes between Echolocating Mammals and the Aye-Aye, a Percussive-Foraging Primate. Genome Biology and Evolution. 9:1978-1989. 2017
- Euarchontan Opsin Variation Brings New Focus to Primate Origins. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33:1029-1041. 2016
- Archaeogenomic insights into the adaptation of plants to the human environment: pushing plant-hominin co-evolution back to the Pliocene. Journal of Human Evolution. 79:150-157. 2015
- Comparative and population mitogenomic analyses of Madagascar's extinct, giant 'subfossil' lemurs. Journal of Human Evolution. 79:45-54. 2015
- Genomic evidence of geographically widespread effect of gene flow from polar bears into brown bears. Molecular Ecology. 24:1205-1217. 2015
- Gourds and squashes (Cucurbita spp.) adapted to megafaunal extinction and ecological anachronism through domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 201516109. 2015
- Insights into hominin phenotypic and dietary evolution from ancient DNA sequence data. Journal of Human Evolution. 79:55-63. 2015
- Recent advances in ancient DNA research and their implications for archaeobotany. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 24:207-214. 2015
- Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111:2937-2941. 2014
- Experimental investigation of pathogenic stress on phytolith formation in Cucurbita pepo var. texana (wild gourd). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 22:165-170. 2013
chapter
- Extraction of Ancient DNA from Plant Remains. 45-56. 2020
- Paleoethnobotany and Ancient DNA Analysis. 1-5. 2018
- Cultigen Chenopods in the Americas: A Hemispherical Perspective. 55-75. 2017
- Ancient DNA Extraction from Plants. 71-79. 2012