Dr James Hansford
Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence in the Biosciences
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London
Research
Conservation Palaeontology, Historical Biodiversity, Madagascar
Interests
I am a zoologist and conservation palaeontologist working at the interface of conservation science, palaeobiology, artificial intelligence, and biodiversity policy. My research asks how deep-time, historical, and archival evidence can improve our understanding of species decline, extinction, recovery, and ecosystem change.A major focus of my work is the reconstruction of historical species distributions and conservation baselines. I use palaeontological data, digitised natural history literature, archival records, and AI-assisted methods to recover biodiversity evidence from periods before modern monitoring began. This work is particularly relevant to conservation assessment frameworks such as the IUCN Green Status of Species, where robust estimates of historical range and recovery potential are essential for understanding how far species have declined and what meaningful recovery could look like.
Much of my research focuses on Madagascar, a global biodiversity hotspot with exceptional endemism and a profound history of ecological change. By integrating evidence from extinct megafauna, threatened living species, and historical records, I aim to place Madagascar’s current conservation challenges in a deeper temporal context and support more ambitious, evidence-based recovery planning for its unique biodiversity.
