I am a vertebrate paleontologist with an interest in avian evolution, (island) biogeography, Quaternary paleoecology and extinction. I use fossil and archaeologial bird remains from Island Southeast Asia and Scandinavia to study long-term patterns in avian biodiversity and the processes that have shaped modern bird distributions.

I am also the curator for the modern osteological collections at the University Museum. Our osteological collection contains >14.000 skeletal specimens, making it one of the largest collections in Scandinavia.The collection has a geographical focus on Scandinavia but contains specimens from other areas of the world as well. Highlights of our collection include a large collections of Norwegian horse breeds and marine mammals from the North Atlantic region. A searchable database lives here. 

My research in the media

'These colossal storks flew over Indonesia’s island of 'hobbit’-size humans' - National Geographic, 13 July 2022

'Giant Flesh-Eating Stork Was Able To Fly, New Fossils Show' - Forbes, 15 July 2022

From 2015 to 2018 I wrote for the Guardians' now-defunct Lost Worlds Revisited blog. A list of my posts can be found here. 

Bioarchaeology ARK125

Evolutionary Biology BIO210

Selected publications

Walker, S.J., Meijer, H.J.M., Best, J., and Hansen, G., 2025. The introduction of chickens into Norway and their early use: New evidence from the Borgund Kaupang. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 35(5):221-232.  https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.70018 

Walker, S.J., Lislevand, T., and Meijer, H.J.M., 2023. A long-term study of size variation in Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis across Scandinavia, with a focus on Norway. Ecology and Evolution 13: e10789. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10789 

Meijer, H.J.M., Walker, S.J., Sutikna, T., Wahyu Saptomo, E., and Tocheri, M.W., 2022. Why did the chicken cross the Wallace Line? Archaeological evidence suggests human-mediated dispersal of Gallus to Flores first occurred at least ~2.25 ka cal. BP. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3192

Meijer, H.J.M., Sutikna, T., Saptomo, E.W., and Tocheri, M.W., 2022. More bones of Leptoptilos robustus from Flores reveal new insights into giant marabou stork paleobiology and biogeography. Royal Society Open Science 9: 220435.

van den Bergh, G.D, Alloway, B.V., Michael Storey, M,  Setiawan, R., Yurnaldi, D., Kurniawan, I., Moore, M., Jatmiko, Brumm, A., Sutikna, T.,  Setiabudi, E., Prasetyo, U.W., Puspaningrum, M.R., Yoga, I., Meijer, H.J.M., Flude, S., Kohn, B., Pillans, B., Dosseto, T., Insani, H., Hayes, S., Westgate, J.A., Pearce, N.J.G., Awe Due, R. Lindelof, P.E., Morwood, M.J. An integrative tephrostratigraphic framework for the So’a Basin, central Flores (Indonesia) and its implications for faunal turnover and first island occupation by hominins. Quaternary Science Reviews, 294: 107721.

Louys, J., Braje, T.J., Chun-Hsiang Chang, Cosgrove, R., Fitzpatrick, S.M., Fujita, M., Hawkins, S., Ingicco, T., Kawamura, A., MacPhee, R.D.E., McDowell, M., Meijer, H.J.M., Piper, P., Roberts, P., Simmons, A.H., van den Bergh, G.D., van der Geer, A.A.E., Kealy, S., O’Connor, S., 2021. Impact of Pleistocene hominins on island biotas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (20).

INDICAVE: Synthesizing the Norwegian record of caves and rockshelters as an indicator-grid to
reconstruct Holocene-wide Human Ecodynamics

INDICAVE explores how caves and rockshelters were integrated in the overall archaeological record of Holocene coastal Norway (11.500-500 cal BP). This will be studied through five secondary objectives: (1) Perform key-hole excavations and cutting-edge methods on four caves and rockshelters which are strategically selected to provide maximal spatiotemporal distribution along the entire Norwegian coast. (2) Explore the use(s) and role(s) of caves and rockshelters by analyzing their artefactual and faunal record, in comparison with open-air settlements. (3) Perform aDNA and isotopic analyses of cave and rockshelter human remains to construct a densely sampled Holocene transect of human demographic, dietary and genetic variability. (4) Compile the first national database of archaeological caves and rockshelters to evaluate their material record compared to open-air sites. (5) Construct an indicator-grid from the selected cave and rockshelter sequences and synthesize Holocene-wide long-term relationships between humans and coastal ecosystems.