Pleistocene Human Evolution
The first goal of Paleoanthropology work group concerns
- the reconstruction of the course of Pleistocene human evolution in Africa and Eurasia,
- the recognition of adaptation and gene flow among extinct hominin groups
- and the identification of possible core areas for human evolution.
We approach these questions from the perspective of the skeletal morphology of the fossil hominins themselves and with targeted interdisciplinary fieldwork, as well as through collaborations with paleogenetic and other interdisciplinary analyses.
Emphasis is placed on the quantitative study of the human fossil record, framed within the theoretical perspective of the comparative approach. Traditional craniometrics as well as 3-D geometric morphometrics, virtual anthropology and high resolution imaging are prominent among our methodologies.
Paleoanthropology fieldwork is strictly interdisciplinary and includes geologists, paleontologists, paleolithic archaeologists, archaeologists in addition to paleoanthropologists. (PaGE)
Several projects on this research topic are currently running:
Neanderthal Evolution and Modern Human Origins in Europe and Africa
This topic is one of the core research areas of Prof. Harvati.
She has published extensively on the topic, and has been is currently involved in several related projects:
- the study of the Neanderthal remains from Kalamakia and Lakonis and Apidima Greece e.g. Harvati et al. 2003 [pdf], 2009 [pdf], 2011, 2013),
- the new description of the Neanderthal dental remains from Taddeo and Cavallo caves, Italy (Benazzi et al., 2011a,b [pdf]),
- the description and comparative analysis of the early modern humans from Romania (Harvati et al. 2007; Harvati and Roksandic 2016)
- the paleogenetic analysis of Pleistocene humans in Europe (e.g. Fu et al. 2015 Nature; Prosth et al. 2016 Current Biology; Weyrich et al. 2017 Nature)
- the description and comparative analysis of the African early modern humans from Hofmeyr, South Africa (Grine et al. 2007 Science) and Jebel Irhoud, Morocco (Hublin et al. 2016 Nature).
