Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory

Contact Information

Phone: 212-992-9583

Research

The Evolutionary Morphology Lab in the Department of Anthropology at NYU focuses on visualization and quantification of bony morphology. In particular, Dr. Scott Williams and his students study the skeletons of living primates in order to understand how fossil primates behaved and interacted with their environments. We use laser surface and computed tomography scanning technologies as well as traditional morphometric techniques to measure bones and fossils and compare them to known animals. Our focus is on human evolution, so much of what we dedicate our studies to are the fossilized remains of hominins—members of the human lineage that are now extinct—along with modern humans and living apes, including gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Lab members have been involved in the study of two newly discovered species of early hominin, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi.