Bernard Wood
Title — University Professor of Human Origins
Director of the Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program
Editor of Blackwells' Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Human Evolution
Co-Editor of Oxford University Series on Human Evolution
Office — Hortense Amsterdam House 201-A
Phone — (202) 994-6077
E-mail — bernardawood@gmail.com
Areas of Expertise —
Biological Anthropology
Human evolution; systematics; functional morphology
Current Research
My primary research interests are directed towards understanding the evolution of higher primates and in particular the hominin lineage, or clade. Acquiring such an understanding requires the identification and characterization of taxa within the hominin fossil record. Recent research has been directed towards:
- evaluating and improving methods of phylogenetic analysis;
- improving our understanding of the relationships between dental structure and function;
- exploring the role of sexual dimorphism and allometry in determining the nature of morphological differences within and between species;
- tracing the evolution of tooth macrostructure and microstructure within the hominin clade; and
- identifying adaptive shifts within the hominin clade.
Current research projects are focused in bioinformatics. They include the preparation of a comprehensive database of fossil hominins including conventional and 3D data, a systematic analysis of higher primate soft and hard tissue morphology that includes data about both presence/absence of features and the extent of intraspecific variation, a study of the nature, and relative contributions, of geographical variation and sex-associated differences to intraspecific variation in the living hominoids. Other projects focus on the use of special imaging techniques that will allow dental macrostructure and microstructure to be used to test phylogenetic hypotheses, an analysis of the tempo and mode of evolutionary change in early hominins, and the systematic and functional analysis of the hominin postcranial skeleton.
Education
To see Dr. Wood's complete CV, click here.
D.Sc. 1996, University of London
Ph.D. 1975, University of London
M.B., B.S. 1969, University of London
B.Sc. 1966, University of London
Background
Dr. Wood is a paleoanthropologist and anatomist interested in the systematics of early hominins and the evolution of genus Homo.
Publications
Books
2012 Diogo, R., and B. Wood. Comparative Anatomy and Phylogeny of Primate Muscles and Human Evolution. Oxford, UK: Taylor and Francis.
2011 Wood, B., ed. Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. 2 vol. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
2006 Miller, B.D., B. Wood, A. Balkansky, J. Mercader, M. Panger. Anthropology: The Study of Humanity. [Four-field textbook] Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
2006 Klenerman, L., and B. Wood. The Human Foot: A Companion to Clinical Studies. London: Springer-Verlag.
2005 Wood, B. Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
1991 Wood, B. Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 4: Hominid Cranial Remains. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
2012 Diogo, R., B.G. Richmond, and B. Wood. "Evolution and homologies of modern human hand and forearm muscles: thumb movements and tool use," Journal of Human Evolution 63: 64-78.
2011 Wood, B., and T. Harrison. "The evolutionary context of the first hominins," Nature 470: 347-352.
2011 Diogo, R. and B. Wood. "Soft-tissue anatomy of the primates: phylogenetic analyses based on the muscles of the head, neck, pectoral region and upper limb, with notes on the evolution of these muscles," Journal of Anatomy 219: 273–359.
2010 Wood, B. "Reconstructing Human Evolution: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (Supplement 2): 8902-8909. (N.B., Also available as a book chapter in In the Light of Evolution IV: The Human Condition, 2010, Eds. J.C. Avise and F.J. Ayala. pp. 5-26. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.)
2009 Wood, B. "Where does the genus Homo begin, and how would we know?." In F.E. Grine, J.G. Fleagle, and R.E. Leakey, eds., The First Humans: Origins and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo, p. 17-28. New York: Springer.
2008 Skinner, M.M., B.A. Wood, C. Boesch, A.J. Olejniczak, A. Rosas, T.M. Smith, and J.-J. Hublin, "Dental trait expression at the enamel-dentine junction of lower molars in extant and fossil hominoids," Journal of Human Evolution 54: 173-186.
2007 Constantino, P., and B. Wood. "Paranthropus boisei: Fifty years of fossil evidence and analysis," Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 50: 106-132.
2000 Gibbs, S., M. Collard, and B. Wood. "Soft-tissue characters in higher primate phylogenetics," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 11130-11132.
1999 Wood, B., and M. Collard. "The human genus," Science 284: 65-71.
1994 Wood, B.A. "Taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of Homo erectus," Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 171: 159-165.
1992 Wood, B.A. "Origin and early evolution of genus Homo," Nature 355: 783-790.
1982 Dean, M.C. and Wood, B.A "Basicranial anatomy of Plio-Pleistocene hominids from East and South Africa," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 59: 157-174.
Classes Taught
Anth 0770 (old 770): Our Place in Nature
Anth 0801 (801): Human Evolution for Beginners
Anth 3402 (142): Human Evolutionary Anatomy
Anth 3412 (147): Hominin Evolution
Anat 6210 (210): Gross Anatomy
Homp 6201 (201): Hominid Paleobiology