Matthew Hill works at the intersection of archaeology, vertebrate paleontology, and ecology to address questions about the people who lived on the eastern Great Plains and Upper Midwest at the end of the last Ice Age (ca. 12,000-9,000 years ago). Current research falls into several areas, including the cause of terminal extinction or regional extinction of Ice Age animals such as muskox, moose, caribou, ground sloth, and flat-headed peccary. Other active research concerns the diet and subsistence activities of late prehistoric villagers in central Iowa, Late Paleoindian ritual practices in the western Great Lakes, colonization and settlement of the Upper Midwest, and the formation of ancient bone assemblages in fluvial contexts.