This Spring, several lab members presented their research at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) annual meeting in New Orleans LA. Stony Brook undergraduate Jordan Guerra (co-author on two AAPA abstracts) received a prestigious IDEAS (Increasing Diversity in Evolutionary Anthropological Sciences) scholarship from the AAPA Committee on Diversity to attend this conference - congrats Jordan!
IDPAS student Abigail Nishimura (lead author, along with Peter Fernandez [SBU Anatomical Sciences postdoctoral research fellow], Jordan Guerra, and Gabrielle Russo) presented her research on the "Functional morphology of the occipital condyles in anthropoids"; and Gabrielle (lead author, along with Jeroen Smaers [SBU Anthropology] and Chris Kirk [UT Austin]) presented work on "The evolution of foramen magnum position and orientation in anthropoids" as part of an invited symposium on "The axial skeleton: morphology, function, and pathology of the spine and thorax in hominoid evolution".
The FML also said farewell to D'Arcy Marsh, who graduated this Spring with Honors in Anthropology (and a Biology minor). D'Arcy started working in the lab in Summer 2015. She completed her Honors thesis under the advising of Frederick Grine. We will miss you D'Arcy!
Congratulations D'Arcy!
Finally, Abigail and Gabrielle took a trip to West Babylon High school in late May where they presented a workshop on "Becoming Bipedal" to several high school classes. The workshop activity allows students to compare bones from modern humans, chimpanzees, and extinct hominins to see "what it takes" to be bipedal (walk on two legs). Some of the creative activities include morphing Play doh models of chimpanzee pelves into human pelves, tracing footprints, measuring cranial volume, and drawing hind limb bones.