Research
We take a comparative approach to understanding human uniqueness, combining biological anthropology, palaeontology, and evolutionary biology to investigate how and why humans and other primates came to look and behave as they do today. Our work draws on a broad methodological toolkit:
3D Morphometrics & Shape Analysis
We use geometric morphometrics and 3D scanning to quantify anatomical variation across primates and hominins, identifying patterns of shape change through evolutionary time and testing hypotheses about adaptation and constraint. By capturing the geometry of bones in fine detail, we can compare skeletal form across species and fossil specimens in ways that traditional linear measurements cannot.
Virtual Computational Biomechanics
We use computational modelling — including finite element analysis, musculoskeletal simulation, and computational fluid dynamics — to reconstruct the mechanical performance of biological structures in living and extinct species. This lets us test functional hypotheses about locomotion, feeding, and tool use that cannot be addressed through morphology alone, opening a window onto the behaviour of animals known only from fossils.
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods
We develop and apply statistical methods for analysing trait evolution along phylogenetic trees — estimating divergence times, modelling rates of morphological and life-history change, and testing macroevolutionary hypotheses across primates and hominins. By situating traits within an explicit evolutionary framework, we can ask not just what changed, but when, how fast, and under what selective pressures.
Human Brain & Body Evolution
A major focus is the evolution of encephalization and body size in the hominin lineage — including the timing, tempo, and drivers of brain expansion, and what distinguishes Homo sapiens from earlier hominins and our primate relatives. We combine phylogenetic modelling with the fossil record to understand how and why the human brain grew so large, and what ecological and social factors shaped body size across our lineage.
Primate Adaptive Evolution
We investigate the adaptive radiation of primates — how they diversified into different ecological niches, how their locomotor and dietary anatomy evolved, and what drives macroevolutionary patterns of diversification and body plan innovation. New World monkeys, apes, and fossil primates from across the globe all feature in this work, which integrates morphological, biomechanical, and phylogenetic data.
Palaeoanthropological Fieldwork
We participate in the Palaeo-Primate Project in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, recovering Miocene fossil primates from the southern East African Rift — some of the oldest known from coastal woodland environments. This fieldwork grounds our evolutionary questions in the direct evidence of the fossil record.