PhD Students

shanae.page[at]univ-poitiers.fr Main research question The Plio-Pleistocene southern African paleontological sites located in the “Cradle of Humankind” play a major role in the search for human origins. In particular, the caves and quarries at Sterkfontein are the richest hominin fossil complex site in Africa and documents more than 2 million years of human evolution. In addition to well-preserved hominin remains, Sterkfontein has yielded the largest fossil monkey assemblage. Besides representing sensitive ecological and biochronological markers, this group of primates is considered as a relevant “control group” for contextualizing hominin adaptations. Within this context, the objective of this PhD project is to use ecological specialisation of some of these species to reconstruct cercopithecid paleohabitats and test for possible niche partition. The locomotor strategies will be investigated by applying non-invasive imaging techniques to quantify variation in the inner and outer organisation of bones in key skeletal regions. In parallel, dietary behaviors will be reconstructed by using dental microwear analyses and additional proxies. This combined approach will be applied at a local (Sterkfontein) and regional (southern Africa) scale to assess primate paleobiodiversity within southern African Plio-Pleistocene assemblages. Graduation ceremony Graduation ceremony in 2023from the University of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg South Africa. Koobi Fora Koobi Fora (Kenya) Fieldschool, managed through the George Washington University. Little Karoo This is a site in the Little Karoo, South Africa,that we have been working at since2023-present. I have collaborated with theSapienCE centre, Bergen, Norway, and theirresearchers. Here we are trying the reconstructthe palaeoenvironmemt for the Little Karoo byconducting geological and archaeological work. Little Karoo The sites we are working at in the Little Karoo largely falls within a wildlife reserve, called Sanbona. On this particular day they had to dart the lions to change their tracking collars and we had the honour of getting real close to the lions!