Welcome!
The Paleoanthropology Society was founded in 1992. It recognizes that paleoanthropology is multidisciplinary in nature and the organization's central goal is to bring together physical anthropologists, archaeologists, paleontologists, geologists and a range of other researchers whose work has the potential to shed light on hominid behavioral and biological evolution.
Meeting Update
The Paleoanthropology Society announces, with regret, cancellation of our 2020 annual meeting in Los Angeles. Our "host organization", the AAPA, has cancelled their meeting which provided us with rooms, and the current health situation militates against a large gathering in any case. Registration fees will be returned unless members wish to notify us that they would consider their fee a donation to the Society.
The Society is exploring the possibility of uploading to our website posters as well as poster or possibly video presentations of planned oral talks. We shall make further information available on the website (www.paleoanthro.net).
Prof. John Kappelman of the University of Texas at Austin has generously made available to all colleagues at no cost the current version of his software package Virtual Laboratories for Physical Anthropology, in case this will help us to prepare approaches to online instruction. Details are available on our website.
News & Announcements
Univ. Chicago Early Hominin Paleobiology
The University of Chicago's Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy in the Biological Sciences Division is searching for a tenure-track assistant or tenured associate professor of early hominin paleobiology or paleoecology to begin in autumn of 2021 or after. We welcome applicants with research programs in hominin evolution or paleoanthropology, broadly defined, focused on morphology, function, behavior, paleoecology, and/or related areas. The appointee will complement, expand and strengthen existing research on human evolution in the UChicago academic community. The Department (https://pondside.uchicago.edu/oba/) is home to faculty and learners with wide-ranging interests in anatomy, behavior, biomechanics, development, genomics, neuroscience, paleontology, phylogenetics, physiology and organismal evolution. The University of Chicago is a vibrant center of scientific discovery and innovation, with outstanding colleagues and graduate students affiliated with numerous degree-granting programs, and abundant opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration. The appointee will have access to state-of-the-art core facilities, competitive research space and start-up funding, with the potential for interactions across the Biological Sciences Division, as well as with programs in geosciences, genetics, and with our affiliates Argonne National Laboratory, Field Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Park Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Botanic Garden, Morton Arboretum, and the Marine Biological Laboratory.
2021 Rohlf Medal Nominations
The Rohlf Medal was established in 2006 by the family and friends of F. James Rohlf to mark his 70th birthday. He has been a longtime Stony Brook University faculty member and is currently Emeritus Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, and Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology.
Recipients of the Rohlf Medal will be recognized for excellence in their sustained body of work on the development of new morphometric methods or for their applications in the biomedical sciences, including evolutionary biology, population biology, physical anthropology, and medicine. The term "morphometrics" is intended to include high-dimensional pattern analyses of biological shape, especially those that analyze shape in a comprehensive way, or of covariation of shape with other variables. The award can recognize a body of work that has significantly advanced the field, including: mathematical or statistical theory underlying morphometric methods, software that implements or visualizes new methods, or a body of biological findings that rely crucially on contemporary morphometric methods and represent major advances.
NSF SPARC Solicitation
SPARC (SPatial Archaeometry Research Collaborations) is an NSF-funded Archaeology and Archaeometry program dedicated to promoting geospatial research in archaeology, hosted by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas, Dartmouth College, and University of Glasgow. Now in its 7th year, SPARC offers direct support to archaeological projects through awards in three categories:
- Fieldwork: On-site data collection
- Data & Analytics: Preparation, processing and analysis of geospatial data
- Publication: Presentation, publication and archiving of complex geospatial datasets