Paleoanthropology Research

I lead a long-term project at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya that I initiated in 2003 tracing changes in living mammal habitat affiliations and predator-prey pressure across time and space using bones from recently dead animals, in order to interpret past ecologies and mammal community dynamics in the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record. I now work with project co-director Dr. Kris "Fire" Kovarovic (Durham University), along with research collaborators Dr. Kari Lintulaakso (Finnish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS, University of Helsinki) and Dr. Ogeto Mwebi (National Museums of Kenya). You can read more about the Ol Pejeta research project on the Smithsonian’s Human Origins website.

I am a member of the team led by Dr. Rick Potts (Smithsonian Institution) and Dr. Rahab Kinjanjui (National Museums of Kenya) doing research at Olorgesailie, Kenya, to understand the habitats and animals encountered by early humans there between 1.2 million and 490,000 years ago. I helped to direct field excavations at Olorgesailie between 2005 and 2010, and I am currently studying fossils from excavations at Olorgesailie dating from the mid-1980s to now. You can read more about the Olorgesailie research project on the Smithsonian’s Human Origins website, and you can take a journey with me to the Olorgesailie field site to see what it's like to do archaeological fieldwork, peek behind the scenes in the field camp, and learn about all the different roles people play on a fieldwork team in a recorded NMNH webinar.

I am a member of the team led by Dr. Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce (Appalachian State University) doing research at Engare Sero, Tanzania, which has the largest assemblage of Homo sapiens footprints yet discovered (~400), dated to between 19,000 and 6,000 years old. You can read more about the Engare Sero research project on the Appalachian State University website, and you can learn more about how these footprints help us better understand the lives of the early modern humans who made them in a recorded NMNH webinar.

I am a member of the team led by Dr. Sabrina Curran (Ohio State University), Dr. Claire Terhune (University of Arkansas), and Dr. Alexandru Petculecu (“Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology) doing research on fossils from the Olteţ River Valley in Romania, searching for evidence of early human presence and reconstructing the ancient environments there using fossils dating back to about 2 million years ago. You can read more about this research project on the Ohio State University website.

I am co-leading a team with Jennifer Parkinson (University of San Diego) studying Pleistocene fossils from Friesenhahn Cave in Texas housed at the Vertebrate Paleontology Lab of the University of Texas at Austin, documenting chewing damage left by ancient carnivores such as saber-toothed cats (Homotherium serum) on their prey animals such as mammoths, peccaries, and bison.