Center for the Study of Human Origins - CSHO

CSHO Visiting Assistant Professor Tom Synder leads a study on a bioarchaeological path analysis of precipitation variability, fertility, and metabolic stress over 5 millennia in the ancient Andes.

Precipitation variability, fertility, and metabolic stress over 5 millennia in the ancient Andes: A bioarchaeological path analysis Drought in the ancient Andes affected childhood stress, but variation characterizes responses to adverse climate conditions.

Last Friday, CSHO and friends held “PamFest,” a symposium celebrating Professor Pam Crabtree’s long and productive career at NYU. It was organized by Pam’s colleagues and former students. Thanks for your service, Pam, and happy retirement!

CSHO (NYU undergrad and CSHO PhD student) alumna Dr. Alex DeCasien (National Institute of Aging) leads a new study published in Science on s*x effects on gene expression in the human cerebral cortex:

S*x effects on gene expression across the human cerebral cortex at cell type resolution S*x differences in neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disease susceptibility may arise from s*x chromosome and hormonal influences on cell type–specific gene expression. We present a single-cell transcriptomic analysis of adult human ...

Former CSHO PhD student Rachel Petersen (Vanderbilt) leads a study out in PLoS Biology showing that the female vaginal tract is responsive and harmful to genetically similar male s***m in olive baboons. In other words, it demonstrates the existence of genetically-based s***m discrimination in a primate.

Evidence for genetically-based s***m discrimination in the vaginal tract of a primate species Female s***m discrimination that can bias fertilisation outcomes has been observed in animals, but in vivo evidence is lacking in large mammals. This study shows that the female olive baboon vaginal tract can exert post-copulatory mate selection by altering s***m survival via vaginal immune response...

CSHO faculty member Lara Sánchez-Morales publishes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on architecture and artifacts preserved from a Maya Terminal Classic to Postclassic (800-1500 CE) tropical wetlands field complex and highlights modern land uses and its deleterious effects on wetlands as well as wooden archaeological material. Link to the paper in comments.

Newly Excavated Maya Wetland Settlement Shows the Civilization’s Adaptation to Changing Climate Rare architecture and artifacts date to the Postclassic period when Maya urban centers were undergoing significant societal and environmental challenges

CSHO PhD student Asithandile Ntsondwa is a Leakey Foundation Baldwin Fellow working with faculty member Dr. Justin Pargeter. Read about her work in this summary posted by the Leakey Foundation.

CSHO faculty member Shara Bailey contributes to a Nature paper led by Jean-Jacques Hublin that describes 773,000-year-old fossils from Morocco that likely represent an ancestor of the human lineage. Link to the paper in the comments.

Moroccan Cave Fossils Yield a Possible Missing Link in Human Evolution Jawbones and other remains, similar to specimens found in Europe, were dated to 773,000 years and help close a gap in Africa’s fossil record of human origins.

CSHO faculty member Scott Williams and current and former graduate students Xue Wang, Jordan Guerra, Isabella Araiza (U. Washington), and Jeff Spear (U Chicago) publish on the earliest evidence for hominin bipedalism in 7-million-year-old Sahelanthropus tchadensis.

Earliest evidence of hominin bipedalism in Sahelanthropus tchadensis Limb bones of the earliest known hominin, Sahelanthropus, are chimpanzee-like in shape but demonstrate adaptations for bipedalism.

Jessica Cerezo-Roman and Jessica Thompson lead a paper published in Science Advances providing evidence for the earliest intentional cremation of human remains in Africa, from the 9,500 year old site of Hora 1 in Malawi. CSHO's Justin Pargeter is a co-author in the manuscript.

Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in Africa The world’s oldest in situ adult funeral pyre (~9500 years old) shows complex mortuary behaviors among ancient African foragers.

CSHO faculty Radu Iovita and Scott Williams, together with Human Skeletal Biology program alumna Rachel Kalisher (UC San Diego) and Saine Hernandez Burgos (Hunter College) and colleagues, publish on human occupations of Alpysbaev Cave in southern Kazakhstan dating as far back as the Neolithic.

Human occupations at the Alpysbaev Cave (western Tian Shan): Bioarchaeological insights from the Iron Age burial cluster For millennia, southern Kazakhstan has been at the center of population movements and cultural exchange, hosting numerous tribal unions and confederations. The social structures of the societies that formed these early states have been the subject of extensive research, interpreted primarily from bu...

CSHO PhD alumnus Cody Prang (Wash U) is the third author on a new Nature paper led by IHO's Yohannes Haile-Selassie (ASU) describing new fossils of Australopithecus deyiremeda and linking the previously announced but unclassified Burtele foot to that species. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09714-4

Mystery owner of African hominin foot identified Fossils newly discovered in Ethiopia indicate that previously unidentified foot bones belong to the ancient human relative Australopithecus deyiremeda.