Russell Howard Tuttle (born August 18, 1939) is a distinguished
primate
Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...
morphologist,
paleoanthropologist
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 a
four-field (
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
,
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...
,
sociocultural anthropology
Sociocultural anthropology is a portmanteau used to refer to social anthropology and cultural anthropology together. It is one of the four main branches of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropologists focus on the study of society and culture, while ...
and
biological anthropology
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an ...
) trained Anthropologist. He is currently an active Professor of Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, History of Science and Medicine at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
. Tuttle was enlisted by
Mary Leakey
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also disc ...
to analyze the 3.4-million-year-old footprints she discovered in
Laetoli
Laetoli is a pre-historic site located in Enduleni ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The site is dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its Hominina footprints, preserved in volcanic ash. The site of the Laetoli footp ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
. He determined that the creatures that left these prints walked bipedally in a fashion almost identical to human beings. He currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Tuttle was named
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1985 and a
(AAAS) in 2003.
References
External links
Biography at University of Chicago Anthropology Department"Bio-History in the Anthropocene: Interdisciplinary Study on the Past and Present of Human Life"
Kyle Harper, Lynn K. Nyhart, Jonathan Lyon, Joanna Radin, Julia A. Thomas, Russell H. Tuttle. ''Chicago Journal of History'' Vol-VII Autumn 2016.
1939 births
Living people
American anthropologists
21st-century American biologists
American paleoanthropologists
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
People from Chicago
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