Students in my laboratory study the morphology of living and fossil mammals, including primates. They also utilize the Mammalogy and Vertebrate Paleontology collections at the Yale Peabody Museum. As curator of these collections, I conduct summer field research to collect new specimens. Please contact me if you’re interested in conducting laboratory, museum, or paleontological field research.

UNDERGRADUATES

Senior Essay Advisor

Holly Sexton, Anthropology (2024): MicroCT Analysis of Linear Enamel Hypoplasias in select Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus, Gorilla gorilla gorilla, and Pan troglodytes troglodytes specimens from the Yale Peabody Museum Collections

Nicholas Collyge, Anthropology (2023): An Oral Health Analysis of Individuals Recovered from a Potential Battlefield Site in Ridgefield, CT

Alice Zhang, Anthropology (2023): Functional Morphology of the Primate Hip and Knee in Locomotor Behavior: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis. Awarded the Peter and Marion Schwartz Family Foundation Prize in Biological Anthropology and a Greg Yamanaka Senior Essay Prize.

Kyra Gee, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2022): Postcranial Skeletal Variation in Three Species of Arboreal and Terrestrial Rats (Rodentia: Muridae: Rattus). Awarded the William R. Belknap Prize.

Katherine Handler, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2022): Splendid Isolation: A Taxonomic Revision of Tupaia splendidula (Mammalia, Scandentia)

Kara Weiss, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2019): Functional Skeletal Morphology of Pencil-Tailed Tree Mice (Rodentia: Muridae: Chiropodomys)

Sita Sunil, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2019): Ecology, Diversity, Life, and Death: Assessment of the Hylobatid Skeletal Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Stephanie Cruz-Rincon, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2018): Species Boundaries within the Tupaia belangeri-glis Species Complex (Scandentia, Tupaiidae) and a Test of the Island Rule

Katharine Walls, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2018): A Review of the Pongo Skeletal Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Awarded the William R. Belknap Prize and Honorable Mention for the Greg Yamanaka Senior Essay Prize.

Remick Kawawaki, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2017): The Origin and Evolution of Bipedalism: An Analysis of Hypotheses Behind the Modern Hominin Gait

Aimy Yu, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2016): Morphological Differentiation in White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) Populations from in and around New York City

Kristina Thorson, Anthropology (2016): Morphological Systematics of the Yale Peabody Museum’s Unknown Primates Collection

Dillon Thompson, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2015): Crossroads at Kra: disentangling the Tupaia glis-T. belangeri Complex on the Malay Peninsula

Megan Kirkham, Anthropology (2015): An Inventory and Assessment of the Yale Peabody Museum’s Pan troglodytes Collection

Kylie Williamson, Anthropology (2014): Macroscopic Analysis of Linear Enamel Hypoplasias in a Sample Population from Colonial Era New Haven, CT

Rachel Milewicz, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2013): Taxonomic Boundaries in the Northern Treeshrew Tupaia belangeri Based on Craniodental Morphometrics

Vincent Yu, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2013): The Island Rule: a Case Study Using Treeshrews

Aspen Reese, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2012): Skeletal Indicators of Ecological Specialization in Pika (Mammalia, Ochotonidae).Awarded the Greg Yamanaka Senior Essay Prize.

Mollie DiBrell, Anthropology (2012): A Paleopathological Review of Skeletal Remains from Venezuelan Archaeological Sites. Awarded Honorable Mention for the Schwartz Prize for best Biological Anthropology senior essay.

Courtney Stage, Anthropology (2012): “Gargantua the Great:” the Physical Legacy of a Circus Star—an Anthropological Analysis of Injury and Illness in One Captive Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Ashley Andrada, Anthropology (2011): Early Onset Osteoporosis and a Case Study of the Condition in Early Bronze Age Remains from Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan

Ana Marichal, Anthropology (2011): Postcranial Indicators of Health, Disease and Occupation in Four Skeletons From an 1850’s New Haven Cemetery

Kaitlyn Sanders, Anthropology (2010): The “Ordinary People:” the Maori and their Physical Legacy

Simone Ellis, Anthropology (2008): Assessing Biological Race: Identification of Provenienced and Unknown Human Crania using Fordisc 3.0.Awarded Honorable Mention for the Greg Yamanaka Senior Essay Prize.

Aaron Lange, Anthropology (2003): Human Variation in Bone Remodeling

Misha Mytar, Anthropology (2002): Changes in Subsistence and Changes in Health: the Transition from Foraging to Farming

Summer Interns

Gabrielle Roman, Environmental Studies (2024): Molecular Phylogeny of Treeshrews (Mammalia, Scandentia). Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship in the Sciences and Summer Environmental Fellowship

Gabrielle Roman, Environmental Studies (2023): Species Boundaries Among Nicobar Treeshrews (Scandentia, Tupaiidae) from Southeast Asia. Yale Peabody Museum/Smithsonian Institution Joint Summer Internship

Kyra Gee, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2021): Postcranial Skeletal Variation in Arboreal and Terrestrial Rats (Rodentia: Muridae: Rattus). Summer Environmental Fellowship and Richter Summer Fellowship

Kara Weiss, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2017 & 2018): Functional Skeletal Morphology of the Pencil-Tailed Tree Mouse. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Summer Internship, Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship in the Sciences, and Michele Dufault Summer Research Fellowship

Tiffany Bell, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2013): Using Hand Proportions to Test Taxonomic Boundaries within the Tupaia splendidula Species Group (Scandentia, Tupaiidae). Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship in the Sciences and Richter Summer Fellowship

Natalie Morningstar, Anthropology (2012): A Morphometric Reevaluation of Tupaia Taxonomy. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Summer Internship

Aspen Reese, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2011): Postcranial Morphological Variation between Pika Ecotypes. Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Summer Internship

Rae Ellen Bichell, Anthropology (2011): The Origin of Primates: an expedition to collect fossil mammals from a Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary site in Montana. Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Senior Essay Reader

Natalie Morningstar, Anthropology (2013): Amino Acid and Nucleotide Variation in the Opsin Gene of a Cathemeral Monochromat (Aotus azarae azarae). Awarded Honorable Mention for the Schwartz Prize for best Biological Anthropology senior essay.

Abigail Nishimura, Anthropology (2013): Developing a Methodology for Quantifying Hair Morphology. Awarded Schwartz Prize for best Biological Anthropology senior essay.

Joan Weaver, Anthropology (2013): Implementing Conservation Genetics for the Promotion of Cross River Gorilla Diversity and Survival

Rae Ellen Bichell, Anthropology (2012): Climate and Endurance Running in Human Evolution

Katelyn Martin, Archaeological Studies (2012): Isolation and Characterization of Hemozoin for the Detection of Malaria in Human Remains

Matt Wade, Anthropology (2012): Mysteries of the Human Microbiome: Exploring Transmission and Persistence

Amy Shapiro, Anthropology (2005): Homo erectus and Deinonychosaurs Compared: Implications for the Evolution of the Hominin Lineage

Kate Franklin, Archaeological Studies (2004): The Cuzco Valley Remains of the Yale Peruvian Expeditions, 1911-1915: An Osteological Summary in Historical Context

Sara Wright, Anthropology (2003): The Origin of A Species: Explorations in Estimating a Speciation Date for Homo erectus. Awarded Sapir Prize for best Anthropology senior essay.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Primary Graduate Advisor

Amanda Leiss, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2022): Paleoenvironmental Context of Early Stone Age Archaeology: An Analysis of the Gona Fauna Between ~3 and 1 Ma

External Dissertation Grants: Leakey Foundation, Sigma Xi, Wenner-Gren Foundation

Assistant Professor; Sociology, Anthropology, Criminology, & Social Work; Eastern Connecticut State University

Stephen Chester, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2013): Origin and Early Evolutionary History of Primates: Systematics and Paleobiology of Primitive Plesiadapiforms

External Dissertation Grants: National Science Foundation, Leakey Foundation, American Society of Mammalogists, Sigma Xi, Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant (AMNH), Doris O. and Samuel P. Welles Fund (UCMP)

Alexandra Neinast, Forestry and Environmental Studies (MESc, 2013): Taxonomic Boundaries in the Cercopithecus mitis Species Group Based on Cranial Morphometrics

Jessica Hunt, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2004): Morphological Integration of the Catarrhine Cranium: An Ontogenetic and Phylogenetic Perspective

Dissertation Reader

Neelima Sharma, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (Ph.D., 2021): On the Role of Stability in Animal Morphology and Neural Control

Heather Kristjanson, Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 2019): Tupaiid Masticatory Anatomy and the Application of Extant Analogs to Reconstructing Plesiadapiform Jaw Adductors

Elaine Gomez Guevara, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2018): Genomics of Primate Longevity

Jessamy Doman, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2017): Paleontology and Paleoecology of the late Miocene Mpesida beds and Lukeino Formation, Tugen Hills succession, Baringo, Kenya

Matt Davis, Geology & Geophysics (Ph.D., 2016): The Functional Diversity of Large North American Mammals During the Last 50,000 Years

Timothy Webster, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2015): Genomics of a Primate Radiation: Speciation and Diversification in the Macaques

Alex Dornburg, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (Ph.D., 2014): Night of the Holocentrids: A Phylogenetic Perspective on the Evolutionary History of an Enigmatic Clade of Nocturnal Reef Fishes

Rachel Racicot, Geology & Geophysics (Ph.D., 2014): What Goes On Inside the Heads of Porpoises? Investigations of Porpoise (Cetacea: Phocoenidae) Skull Anatomy using CT Data

Ashley Gosselin-Ildari, Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University (Ph.D., 2013): The Evolution of Cercopithecoid Locomotion: A Morphometric, Phylogenetic, and Character Mapping Approach

Matthew Benoit, Geology & Geophysics (Ph.D., 2012): Multiphasic Allometric Analyses of the Felidae: Addressing Variation and Covariation in Endangered and Extinct Populations

Kevin Potts, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2008): Habitat Heterogeneity on Multiple Spatial Scales in Kibale National Park, Uganda: Implications for Chimpanzee Population Ecology and Grouping Patterns

Vera Weisbecker, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales (Ph.D., 2008): Postcranial Evolution in Marsupials: Comparative Analyses of Autopodial Diversity and Postcranial Skeletal Ontogeny

Tara Harris, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2005): Roaring, Intergroup Aggression, and Feeding Competition in Black and White Colobus Monkeys (Colobus guereza) at Kanyawara, Kibale National Park, Uganda

Justine Salton, Biology, City University of New York (Ph.D., 2005): Evolutionary Morphology of the Postcranial Skeleton in Afro-Malagasy Tenrecoidea (Mammalia)

Gary Aronsen, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2004): Positional Behavior and Support Use in Three Arboreal Monkeys of the Kibale Forest, Uganda: the Influences of Forest Structure, Microhabitats, and Energetics

James Rossie, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2003): Ontogeny, Homology, and Phylogenetic Significance of Anthropoid Paranasal Sinuses

Rebecca Fisher, Anthropology (Ph.D., 2002): Fetus to Adult: The Development and Evolutionary Significance of Pedal Muscle Variation

Master’s Thesis Reader

Keelin Baine, Archaeological Studies (MA, 2007): Dental Analysis of the Dolmen of Carcavelos

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

Julia Arenson, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Postdoctoral Associate

Christopher Gilbert, Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (2008-2010)

VISITING SCHOLARS

Greg Wilson Mantilla, Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (Spring 2023)

David Polly, Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (Spring 2019)

Jonathan Bloch, Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (Spring 2013)

Link Olson, Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (Spring 2011)

David Fox, Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (Spring 2010)