Pilbrow Lab - Physical (Biological) Anthropology
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Dr. Varsha Pilbrow |
How humans evolved is a question that fascinates lay people and scientists alike. The question is often seeped in controversy, largely because ancestral human fossil remains are rare and consist primarily of teeth and other skeletal elements that fossilize well. A major question then is: how much reliance can be placed on observations from such scant evidence for reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among our fossil ancestors?
Research in our laboratory focuses on determining the importance of hard-tissue anatomy for studying human evolution. In particular, we study the evidence for gene flow, genetic admixture and evolutionary diversification through dental morphology and skeletal morphology.
Research is conducted in the lab but also involves travel to museums around the world, and participation in palaeoanthropological and archaeological fieldwork in Africa, Europe and Asia.
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| Palaeoanthropological fieldwork at Pliocene hominin locality, Tanzania | Archaeological fieldwork at Chalcolithic locality, India |
Collaborations
National
Assoc Prof Chris Briggs, Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Melbourne
Prof Antonio Sagona, Centre for Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne
Prof Nicky Kilpatrick, Department of Dentistry, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne
Prof Colin Groves, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University
International
Prof Terry Harrison, Department of Anthropology, New York University
Asst Prof Shara Bailey, Department of Anthropology, New York University
Prof Bernard Wood, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University
Asst Prof Charles Roseman, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign