Biological Anthropology
Quick Links to programs with biological Anthropology
| Brain Evolution | Evolutionary Genetics |
| Demography | Osteology |
| Developmental Biology | PaleoAnthropology |
Program description
Biological anthropology at Penn State covers a very broad area of the life sciences, from very focused studies of molecular genetics and evolution, to broader areas of the nature of human populations and their behavior. Our work involves field sites as well as laboratories. We integrate with many other units on campus, and there are even a few ways to obtain graduate degrees here. We are actively engaged in research in various areas that are highly specialized, such as molecular and developmental genetics, morphometrics, and osteology, as well as areas that are much more integrative across traditional subdisciplines, including demographic processes, historical demography and paleodemography, that involve culture, history, and biology. Each student tracks his or her own course with a chosen section of these programs. Spread across these interest areas are broader interests in the history of biology, which informs both our research and out teaching. Similarly, our interests also involve active work in bioethics and in forensic areas of anthropology, because human biology always is of interest to, and has impact on, society in general.
research emphasis
Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, and Society:
Genetic variation is spread among humans in an orderly way, because of the orderly evolutionary processes by which it was produced. Genetic variation underlies all human physical traits, including many diseases, but also normal variation as well, including interesting traits like human skin pigmentation and behavior. In regard to behavior, we have conceptual interests in evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology. The Darwinian paradigm is used to investigate the evolution of human behavior, cognition, mind and sociality utilizing everything from evolutionary molecular genetics to comparative primatology to game theory.
Paleoanthropology:
Our origins of a species can be understood in terms of our ancient as well as modern relationships to other primates. Fossils provide the only direct evidence of the ancestral states through which we have come to be what we are today.
Demography and Population Studies:
Biological variation occurs in populations, whose dynamics of growth, birth, death, and migration influence the pattern of variation. Population dynamics relate to human, history, ecology, evolution and well-being. Demography involves biology, culture, social organization, and economics, and is therefore one of the most integrative concepts in all of anthropology.
Developmental Biology and Evolution:
The traits of an adult human develop when we are embryos. Understanding the developmental basis of morphology, for example of the head and skeleton, are very important subjects in human and primate evolution as well as human well-being. We use mouse embryos as models, as well as pedigreed baboons, and human data, to approach the nature and genetic basis of the development of these traits. These findings are coordinated with studies of variation among living and fossil primates, to understand how the traits we see today got here through the evolutionary process. Our current research involves the face and skull, teeth, and brain.
Historical and Forensic Osteology:
The skeleton holds us together and is also the trait preserved in the fossil record, as well as being important in forensic studies. Skeletal biology provides information about our shallow history and evolutionary past as well.
department bioanthropologists
- Anne Buchanan, Research Associate in Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society, (abw1@psu.edu)
- Nina G Jablonski Head of Anthropology Department Human Biology, Primatology (ngj2@psu.edu)
- Jeffrey A. Kurland, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Behavioral Evolution (jak@psu.edu)
- Stephen Matthews Ph.D., Associate Professor Demographics (sxm27@psu.edu)
- George Milner, Professor, Mississippian and Southeastern N. American Chiefdoms; ost@psu.edu
- David A. Puts, Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology; dap27@psu.edu
- Joan Richtsmeier, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology; LAB (jta10@psu.edu)
- Pat Shipman, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Anthropology (pls10@psu.edu)
- Mark D. Shriver, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology; LAB (mds17@psu.edu)
- Alan Walker, Ph.D., Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology and Biology (axw8@psu.edu)
- Kenneth M. Weiss, Ph.D., Evan Pugh Professor of Biological Anthropology and Genetics, (LAB) and Science, Technology, and Society, (kenweiss@psu.edu)
- James W. Wood, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology and Demography (jww3@psu.edu)
department facilities and resources
For department facility and resource information, choose one of the following programs:
| Brain Evolution | Evolutionary Genetics |
| Demography | Osteology |
| Developmental Biology | PaleoAnthropology |
courses
For department course information, choose one of the following programs:
| Brain Evolution | Evolutionary Genetics |
| Demography | Osteology |
| Developmental Biology | PaleoAnthropology |
links and other related programs on campus
The Huck Institute Bioinformatics Institute
Department of Science, Technology, and Society
Genetics PhD program (see the Penn State IBIOS consortium web page)
Institute for Molecular and Evolutionary Genetics (IMEG)
MS program in Forensic Sciences
Rock Ethics Institute
