Xénia Keighley completed her PhD as part of the Marie Curie Horizon 2020 ArchSci2020 network, investigating ancient genomics of the Atlantic walrus. She has been based at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and defended her PhD thesis in January 2021. Xénia’s academic background is in Biology, with a Bachelor of Philosophy (Science)(Honours) awarded by the Australian National University. Her undergraduate studies focused on taxonomy, phylogeography, botany and environmental sciences.