New research led by UNM Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sherry V.
Nelson examines carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in the tooth enamel
from a chimpanzee community to understand the environment of fossil apes
and early humans. Nelson's research, “Chimpanzee fauna isotopes provide
new interpretations of fossil ape and hominin ecologies,” was
recently released and is available here.
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| Kibale Chimp in a canopy [Credit: Ronan Donovan] |
UNM Anthropology Professor Martin Muller and Harvard Human Evolutionary
Biology Professor Richard Wrangham co-direct the Kibale Chimpanzee
Project, a long-term field study of the behavior, ecology, and
physiology of wild chimpanzees in Uganda. When animals die in the
forest, their skeletons are preserved for researchers like Nelson.
Nelson wants to eventually look at the diet of hominids to explore what
they ate and how they were able to thrive and spread. At UNM Nelson
teaches Human Origins, Evolution and Human Emergence, Paleoanthropology,
Human Behavioral Evolution, Primate Evolution, and a lab course in
paleoecology.
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