HOLLY DUNSWORTH
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER (PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST)
| Office: 403 C Carpenter Building | |
| Telephone: (814) 867-0454 Fax: (814) 863-1474 | |
| Email:
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Holly Dunsworth -- I’m a paleoanthropologist with ongoing fieldwork on Rusinga Island, located in the Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria. As a postdoctoral researcher in collaboration with Dr. Jablonski, I am focused on the Plio-Pleistocene record of mammalian evolution in East Africa, particularly the extinct members of the monkey genus Theropithecus. We are asking why this large-brained, large-bodied primate that had been thriving on the East African savanna for millions of years went extinct about 500 Kya, while another large-brained, large-bodied primate (us) clearly did not. Some of the other questions I ask in my research include: What were the circumstances that gave rise to the ape lineage (includes humans) back in the Miocene epoch? How can we distinguish fossils of the earliest apes from those of monkeys and in what sequence did ape features evolve? How can we track the evolution of growth and development of the postcranial skeleton in the primate fossil record and how can growth data inform behavioral reconstructions? What can the fossil and archaeological records tell us about the evolution of powerful and accurate overarm throwing?
My personal website for linking purposes is: www.personal.psu.edu/hmd120
