PD Dr. Fotios Alexandros Karakostis
Function: Senior Researcher & Junior Research Group Leader
Address:
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Institut für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie, Abt. Paläoanthropologie
Rümelinstr. 23
D-72070 Tübingen
Room 604, Hauptgebäude, 3. OG
+49-(0)7071-29-74070
alexandros.karakostis@uni-tuebingen.de
Consulting hours:
by arrangement
About
PD Dr. Fotios Alexandros Karakostis is Senior Researcher in Biological Anthropology (Permanent Academic Staff) and Junior Research Group Leader. His main research, teaching, and supervising activities focus on the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches for reconstructing habitual behavior in past humans and their interaction with the surrounding environment. He has created and experimentally validated novel methodological approaches, including the "Validated Entheses-based Reconstruction of Activity" ("V.E.R.A.") method, novel 3D geometric morphometric techniques for analyzing functional morphology, and biomechanical musculoskeletal modeling. His studies have provided new insights into manual dexterity and behavior across fossil hominins and recent human populations. Currently, he is the Leader of the Junior Research Group "Co-evolution of Tool Use and Language" (see website link below).
Academic and Professional Trajectory
2021 – 2025
Leader of the Junior Research Group “Co-evolution of Tool Use and Language”
DFG Center “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools”, University of Tübingen
Since 2023
Senior Academic Lecturer / Researcher
2023
Habilitation
2021
Permanent Lecturer / Researcher
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen
2018 – 2021
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment
2018
Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology
University of Tübingen
Selected recent publications
2024
Karakostis, F. A. & Jäger, G. (Editors). (2024). Biocultural Evolution: An Agenda for Integrative Approaches (Edited Volume). Kerns Verlag, Tübingen. http://tinyurl.com/BioculturalEvolution
2023
Karakostis, F. A. & Wallace, I. (2023). Climbing influences entheseal morphology in the humerus of mice: An experimental application of the V.E.R.A. methodology. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 181, 130-139. Doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24700
2022
Karakostis, F. A. & Hotz. G. (2022). Reflections of manual labor in the hand entheses of early industrial women workers with extensively documented life histories. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 183, e24636. Doi: 10.1002/ajpa.2463
2021
Karakostis, F. A., Hauefle D., Anastopoulou, I., Moraitis, K., Hotz, G., Tourloukis, V., Harvati, K. (2021). Biomechanics of the thumb and the evolution of human dexterity. Current Biology 31, 1317-1325. Doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.041
2018
Karakostis, F. A., Hotz, G., Tourloukis, V., Harvati, K. (2018). Evidence of precision grasping in Neandertal daily activities. Science Advances 4, eaat2369. Doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat2369