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I am a human paleontologist studying morphological and behavioral
adaptation in archaic and modern humans of the Middle and Late
Pleistocene. My recent research includes:
1)
functional morphological and biomechanical analyses of upper
limb bones for the information they contain about adaptive and
technological change in the later stages of human evolution.
Over the past several years I have been analyzing skeletal robusticity
and patterns of upper limb bilateral asymmetry in Neandertals
and early modern humans, primarily through analysis of humeral
diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry. By comparing fossil samples
with samples of recent humans from foraging, agricultural and
industrialized populations this work is adding to our understanding
of the behavioral shifts in the late Pleistocene and the role
of adaptive evolution in the origins of modern humans.
2)
experimental work (with Drs.
Daniel Schmitt
and William
Hylander) aimed at better understanding how mechanical forces
generated during specific subsistence and technological activities
influence postcranial skeletal morphology. This work involves
analysis of kinematic, electromyographic, force plate and accelerometer
data on humans engaged in a variety of manipulative behaviors.
3)
experimental analysis of the effects of human nasal morphological
variation on airflow dynamics in the upper respiratory tract.
This work combines flow studies using water and dye flowing through
anatomically accurate nasal models with computer analysis of
upper respiratory tract geometry to better understand how ecogeographic
variation in human nasal morphology relates to climatic adaptation
(specifically, demands of warming and humidifying inspired air
in different environments). The ultimate goal of this work is
a better understanding of the adaptive significance of Neandertal
nasal anatomy.
4) paleontological
and archeological fieldwork in southern Africa. In collaboration with
Drs. Lee Berger (Palaeo-Anthropological
Unit for Research and Exploration, Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontology,
University of the Witwatersrand),
James Brink (Florisbad
Quaternary Research Department, National
Museum Bloemfontein) and Peter Ungar (Department
of Anthropology, University of Arkansas) our team has been conducting
surveys of Middle and Late Pleistocene fossil-bearing deposits in the
Free State Province of South Africa and in northern Botswana (for more
information, check out National
Geographic Outpost). Given the importance of southern Africa to our
understanding of the origins of modern humans (evidence suggests that
both modern humans and some aspects of modern behavior developed first
in this region), the goal of this work is to increase the geochronological,
paleoecological, paleontological and archeological data necessary to reconstruct
the Quaternary evolutionary history of the genus Homo in this region.
Undergraduate and graduate students have been actively involved in this
fieldwork through the Duke
Paleoanthropology Field School.
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REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Churchill, S.E. and F.H. Smith (2000) The authors of the early
Aurignacian of Europe. Yearb. Phys. Anthropol. (in press)
Churchill, S.E., J.S. Brink, L.R. Berger, R. A. Hutchison,
L. Rossouw, D. Stynder, P.J. Hancox, D. Brandt, S. Woodborne,
J.C. Loock, L. Scott and P. Ungar (2000) Erfkroon: A new Florisian
fossil locality from fluvial contexts in the western Free State,
South Africa. S. Afr. J. Sci. 96:161-163.
Churchill, S.E. (1998) Cold adaptation, heterochrony and the
Neandertals. Ev. Anthropol. 7:46-61.
Churchill, S.E. (1997) Morphological evolution, behavior change
and the origins of modern humans. In G.A. Clark and C.M. Willermet,
eds., Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research.
New York: Aldine de Gruyter, pp. 202-219.
Churchill, S.E. and V. Formicola. (1997) A case of marked
bilateral asymmetry in the upper limbs of an Upper Paleolithic
male from Barma Grande (Liguria), Italy. Int. J. Osteoarch.
7:18-38.
Churchill, S.E., A.H. Weaver and W.A. Niewoehner. (1996) Late
Pleistocene human technological and subsistence behavior: Functional
interpretations of upper limb morphology. In A. Bietti and S.
Grimaldi, eds., Reduction Processes ("Chaînes Opératoires")
in the European Mousterian. Quaternaria Nova 6:18-51.
Churchill, S.E. (1996) Particulate versus integrated evolution
of the upper body in late Pleistocene humans: a test of two models.
Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 100:559-583.
Churchill, S.E., O.M. Pearson, F.E. Grine, E. Trinkaus and
T.W. Holliday. (1996) Morphological affinities of the proximal
ulna from Klasies River Main Site: Archaic or Modern? J. Hum.
Evol. 31:213-237.
Trinkaus, E., S.E. Churchill and C.B. Ruff. (1994) Postcranial
robusticity in Homo, II: Humeral bilateral asymmetry and bone
plasticity. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 93:1-34.
Churchill, S.E. (1993) Weapon technology, prey size selection
and hunting methods in modern hunter-gatherers: implications
for hunting in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. In G.L. Peterkin,
H.M. Bricker and P.A. Mellars, eds., Hunting and Animal Exploitation
in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia. Archeological
Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 4:11-24.
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