Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct

hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...

ancestors, and related non-human

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s, particularly from an evolutionary perspective. This subfield of anthropology systematically studies

human beings Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are great apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intellige ...

from a biological perspective.

Branches

As a subfield of anthropology, biological anthropology itself is further divided into several branches. All branches are united in their common orientation and/or application of evolutionary theory to understanding human biology and behavior. *

Bioarchaeology Bioarchaeology (osteoarchaeology, osteology or palaeo-osteology) in Europe describes the study of biological remains from archaeological sites. In the United States it is the scientific study of human remains from archaeological sites. The term ...

is the study of past human cultures through examination of human remains recovered in an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

context. The examined human remains usually are limited to bones but may include preserved soft tissue. Researchers in bioarchaeology combine the skill sets of

human osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practiced by osteologists . A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morp ...

, paleopathology, and

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, and often consider the cultural and mortuary context of the remains. *

Evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

is the study of the evolutionary processes that produced the

diversity of life Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, starting from a single common ancestor. These processes include

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

common descent Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

, and

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

. *

Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regard to the ancestral problems they evolved ...

is the study of psychological structures from a modern

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the p ...

s – that is, the functional products of

sexual selection in human evolution The concept of sexual selection was introduced by Charles Darwin as an element of his theory of natural selection. Sexual selection is a biological way one sex chooses a mate for the best reproductive success. Most compete with others of the sam ...

. *

Forensic anthropology Forensic anthropology is the application of the anatomical science of anthropology and its various subfields, including forensic archaeology and forensic taphonomy, in a legal setting. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification ...

is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practiced by osteologists . A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone mo ...

in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of

decomposition Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...

. *

Human behavioral ecology Human behavioral ecology (HBE) or human evolutionary ecology applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimization to the study of human behavioral and cultural diversity. HBE examines the adaptive design of traits, behaviors, and ...

is the study of behavioral adaptations (foraging, reproduction, ontogeny) from the evolutionary and ecologic perspectives (see

behavioral ecology Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for ethology, animal behavior due to ecology, ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined Tinbergen's f ...

). It focuses on human adaptive responses (physiological, developmental, genetic) to environmental stresses. *

Human biology Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

is an interdisciplinary field of biology, biological anthropology,

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

and medicine, which concerns international, population-level perspectives on health,

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

, and

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

. *

Paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

is the study of fossil evidence for

human evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...

, mainly using remains from extinct hominin and other primate species to determine the morphological and behavioral changes in the human lineage, as well as the environment in which human evolution occurred. * Paleopathology is the study of disease in antiquity. This study focuses not only on pathogenic conditions observable in bones or mummified soft tissue, but also on nutritional disorders, variation in stature or

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

of bones over time, evidence of physical trauma, or evidence of occupationally derived biomechanic stress. *

Primatology Primatology is the scientific study of non-human primates. It is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychol ...

is the study of non-human primate behavior, morphology, and genetics. Primatologists use

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

methods to infer which traits humans share with other primates and which are human-specific adaptations.

History

Origins

Biological anthropology looks different today from the way it did even twenty years ago. Even the name is relatively new, having been known as 'physical anthropology' for over a century, with some practitioners still applying that term. Biological anthropologists look back to the work of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

as a major foundation for what they do today. However, if one traces the intellectual genealogy back to physical anthropology's beginnings—before the discovery of much of what we now know as the hominin fossil record—then the focus shifts to human biological variation. Some editors, see below, have rooted the field even deeper than formal science. Attempts to study and classify human beings as living organisms date back to Ancient Greece. The Greek philosopher

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

( 428– 347 BC) placed humans on the ''

scala naturae The great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain begins with God and descends through angels, humans, animals and plants to minerals. The great ...

'', which included all things, from inanimate objects at the bottom to deities at the top. This became the main system through which scholars thought about nature for the next roughly 2,000 years. Plato's student

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

( 384–322 BC) observed in his ''

History of Animals ''History of Animals'' (, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; , "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth centur ...

'' that human beings are the only animals to walk upright and argued, in line with his

teleological Teleology (from , and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology. In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Applet ...

view of nature, that humans have

buttocks The buttocks (: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a lay ...

and no tails in order to give them a soft place to sit when they are tired of standing. He explained regional variations in human features as the result of different climates. He also wrote about

physiognomy Physiognomy () or face reading is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without referenc ...

, an idea derived from writings in the

Hippocratic Corpus The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum''), or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus cov ...

Scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

physical anthropology began in the 17th to 18th centuries with the study of

racial classification Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...

( Georgius Hornius,

François Bernier François Bernier (25 September 162022 September 1688) was a French physician and traveller. He was born in Joué-Etiau in Anjou. He stayed (14 October 165820 February 1670) for around 12 years in India. His 1684 publication "Nouv ...

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has be ...

). The first prominent physical anthropologist, the German physician

(1752–1840) of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, amassed a large collection of human skulls (''Decas craniorum'', published during 1790–1828), from which he argued for the division of humankind into five major races (termed

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Common meanings *Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it ** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...

Mongolian Mongolian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia * Mongolian people, or Mongols * Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924 * Mongolian language * Mongolian alphabet * ...

, Aethiopian, Malayan and American), now recognised as outdated and obsolete. In the 19th century, French physical anthropologists, led by

Paul Broca Pierre Paul Broca (, also , , ; 28 June 1824 – 9 July 1880) was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involve ...

(1824–1880), focused on

craniometry Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is d ...

while the German tradition, led by

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow ( ; ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder o ...

(1821–1902), emphasized the influence of environment and disease upon the human body. In the 1830s and 40s, physical anthropology was prominent in the debate about

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, with the scientific, monogenist works of the British abolitionist

James Cowles Prichard James Cowles Prichard (11 February 1786 – 23 December 1848) was a British physician and ethnologist with broad interests in physical anthropology and psychiatry. His influential ''Researches into the Physical History of Mankind'' touched upon ...

(1786–1848) opposing those of the American polygenist

Samuel George Morton Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer. As one of the early figures of scientific racism, he argued against monogenism, the single creation story of the Bible, instead sup ...

(1799–1851). In the late 19th century, German-American anthropologist

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

(1858–1942) strongly impacted biological anthropology by emphasizing the influence of culture and experience on the human form. His research showed that head shape was malleable to environmental and nutritional factors rather than a stable "racial" trait. However,

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that the Human, human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "race (human categorization), races", and that empirical evi ...

still persisted in biological anthropology, with prominent figures such as

Earnest Hooton Earnest Albert Hooton (November 20, 1887 – May 3, 1954) was an American physical anthropologist known for his work on racial classification and his popular writings such as the book ''Up From The Ape''. Hooton sat on the Committee on the Negro, ...

and

Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...

promoting theories of racial superiority and a European origin of modern humans.

"New physical anthropology"

In 1951, Sherwood Washburn, a former student of Hooton, introduced a "new physical anthropology." He shifted the focus from racial typology to concentrate upon the study of human evolution, moving away from classification towards evolutionary process. Anthropology expanded to include

paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

and

primatology Primatology is the scientific study of non-human primates. It is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychol ...

. Haraway, D. (1988) "Remodelling the Human Way of Life: Sherwood Washburn and the New Physical Anthropology, 1950–1980", in ''Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology'', of the ''History of Anthropology'', v.5, G. Stocking, ed., Madison, Wisc., University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 205–259. The 20th century also saw the

modern synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...

in biology: the reconciling of

's theory of

and

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...

's research on heredity. Advances in the understanding of the molecular structure of DNA and the development of

chronological dating Chronological dating, or simply dating, is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "d ...

methods opened doors to understanding human variation, both past and present, more accurately and in much greater detail.

Notable biological anthropologists

Zeresenay Alemseged Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged is a paleoanthropologist who is a faculty member at the University of Chicago. In 2013, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts ...

John Lawrence Angel John Lawrence Angel (1915–1986) was a British-American biological anthropologist born on 21 March 1915 in London. His writings have had the biggest impact on paleodemography. Education His mother, Elizabeth, was an American classicist, and ...

* George J. Armelagos * William M. Bass * Caroline Bond Day * Jane E. Buikstra * William Montague Cobb *

Carleton S. Coon Carleton Stevens Coon (June 23, 1904 – June 3, 1981) was an American anthropologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is best known for his scientific racist theories concerning the parallel evolution of human races, which ...

* Robert Corruccini *

Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of '' Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct hominin ...

Robin Dunbar Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar (born 28 June 1947) is a British biological anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and specialist in primate behaviour. Dunbar is professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology of the Social and Evolutionary Neuros ...

Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt (Egon Rudolf Ernst Adolf Hans Dubslaff Freiherr von Eickstedt) (April 10, 1892 – December 20, 1965) was a German physical anthropologist who classified humanity into races. His study in the classification of hu ...

* Linda Fedigan * A. Roberto Frisancho * Robert Foley *

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

Joseph Henrich Joseph Henrich (born 1968) is an American anthropologist and professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Before arriving at Harvard, Henrich was a professor of psychology and economics at the University of British Columbia. H ...

Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Sarah Hrdy (née Blaffer; born July 11, 1946) is an American anthropologist and primatologist who has made major contributions to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. She is considered "a highly recognized pioneer in modernizing our unders ...

Anténor Firmin Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin (18 October 1850 – 19 September 1911), better known as Anténor Firmin, was a Haitian barrister and philosopher, pioneering anthropologist, journalist, and politician. Firmin is best known for his book (), which ...

Dian Fossey Dian Fossey ( ; January 16, 1932 – ) was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of ...

* Birute Galdikas * Richard Lynch Garner *

Colin Groves Colin Peter Groves (24 June 1942 – 30 November 2017) was a British-Australian biologist and anthropologist. Groves was professor of biological anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Education Born in Englan ...

Yohannes Haile-Selassie Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye (born 23 February 1961) is an Ethiopian Paleoanthropology, paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-''Homo sapiens'' hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys. ...

* Ralph Holloway *

William W. Howells William White Howells (November 27, 1908 – December 20, 2005) was a professor of anthropology at Harvard University. Howells, grandson of the novelist William Dean Howells, was born in New York City, the son of John Mead Howells, the archit ...

Donald Johanson Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is best known for discovering the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia. Biography Ea ...

Robert Jurmain Robert Jurmain is a professor emeritus of anthropology at San Jose State University. Jurmain holds an A.B. in anthropology from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Harvard. He joined the San Jose State faculty in 1975, and taught th ...

Melvin Konner __NOTOC__ Melvin Joel Konner (born August 30, 1946) is an American anthropologist who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University. Biography Raised in an Orthodox Jewi ...

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul (mammal), Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now ...

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...

* Frank B. Livingstone * Owen Lovejoy * Ruth Mace * Jonathan M. Marks * Robert D. Martin *

Russell Mittermeier Russell Alan Mittermeier (born November 8, 1949) is an American primatologist and herpetologist. He has written several books for both popular and scientist audiences, and has authored more than 300 scientific papers. Biography Russell A. Mi ...

Desmond Morris Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his televis ...

* Douglas W. Owsley *

David Pilbeam David Pilbeam (born 21 November 1940 in Brighton, Sussex, England) is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and curator of paleoanthropology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He is a member of ...

Kathy Reichs Dr. Kathleen Joan Reichs (PhD) (née Toelle, born July 7, 1948) is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic. She is a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is well known ...

Alice Roberts Alice May Roberts (born 19 May 1973) is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK from Januar ...

* Pardis Sabeti *

Robert Sapolsky Robert Morris Sapolsky (born April 6, 1957) is an American academic, neuroscientist, and primatologist. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, and is a professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery. His re ...

* Eugenie C. Scott * Meredith Small *

Chris Stringer Christopher Brian Stringer is a British physical anthropologist noted for his work on human evolution. Biography Growing up in a working-class family in the East End of London, Stringer first took an interest in anthropology during primary s ...

Phillip V. Tobias Phillip Vallentine Tobias (14 October 1925 – 7 June 2012) was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossi ...

* Douglas H. Ubelaker *

Frans de Waal Franciscus Bernardus Maria de Waal (29 October 1948 – 14 March 2024) was a Dutch-American primatologist and ethologist. He was the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in ...

* Sherwood Washburn * David Watts * Tim White *

Milford H. Wolpoff Milford Howell Wolpoff is a paleoanthropologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and its museum of Anthropology. He is the leading proponent of the multiregional evolution hypothesis that explains the evolution of ''Ho ...

Richard Wrangham Richard Walter Wrangham (born 1948) is an English anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking. ...

Teuku Jacob Teuku Jacob (6 December 1929 – 17 October 2007) was an Indonesian paleoanthropologist. As a student of Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald in the 1950s, Jacob claimed to have discovered and studied numerous specimens of ''Homo erectus''. He c ...

* Biraja Sankar Guha

References

External links

* American Association of Biological Anthropologistsbr>

British Association of Biological Anthropologists and Osteoarchaeologists

Human Biology Association

Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology

– Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.

Journal of Anthropological Sciences
– free full text review articles available
Mapping Transdisciplinarity in Anthropology
pdf
Fundamental Theory of Human Sciences
ppt
American Journal of Human Biology

Human Biology, The International Journal of Population Genetics and Anthropology

Economics and Human Biology

Laboratory for Human Biology Research at Northwestern University

The Program in Human Biology at Stanford

Academic Genealogical Tree of Physical Anthropologists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biological Anthropology Biological anthropology,