Erik Trinkaus
Encyclopedia
Erik Trinkaus, PhD, is a prominent paleoanthropologist and expert on Neanderthal
biology
and human evolution
. Trinkaus researches the evolution
of the species
Homo sapiens and recent human diversity, focusing on the paleoanthropology
and emergence of late archaic
and early modern human
s, and the subsequent evolution of 'anatomically
modern' humanity. Trinkaus is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
, a contributor to publications including Natural History
and Scientific American
, and is frequently quoted in the popular media
. Trinkaus is the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis
and Physics
from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, and his master's and PhD degrees in anthropology
from the University of Pennsylvania
, the latter in 1975.
Trinkaus' research emphasizes the biological
implications of behavioural shifts that could have been caused by interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern Pleistocene
humans. His research addresses the 'origins of modern humans' debate, the interpretation of the archaeological record, and patterns of recent human anatomical variation, principally through his analysis of human fossil
remains. His research involves biomechanical
analysis of crania and post-cranial remains, respiratory and thermal adaptations, interpretations of ecogeographical patterning, evaluations of neuroanatomical evolution, life history parameters, and differential levels and patterns of stress, and interrelationships between these anatomically-based patterns.
In 1999, Trinkaus and his colleagues documented that Neanderthals roamed central Europe
as recently as 28,000 years ago, the latest date yet established for Neandertal fossils worldwide.
As a finding of a possibly hybrid Neanderthal/modern fossil in Portugal
has emerged in recent years, Trinkaus has broadened his research to include the complex patterns of human evolution
ary change through the Early and especially Middle Pleistocene
, especially with regard to the diversity, paleobiology
and behaviour of early modern humans.
(ca.25,000 B.P.) child's skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho
in Portugal, a specimen which indicates some degree of admixture between the Neandertals and early modern humans in Iberia
. The second concerns the largest known sample of early modern human remains, of the Paleolithic Gravettian
culture, from the Dolni Vestonice
and in the vicinity of Pavlov in southern Moravia
, Czech Republic
, dated between 25,000 and 27,000 B.P. The third began in 2002 with the discovery in Romania
of early modern human remains in the Pestera cu Oase
, dated to 35,000 B.P., which represent the earliest modern humans yet discovered in Europe.
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
. Trinkaus researches the evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
of the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
Homo sapiens and recent human diversity, focusing on the paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-19th century:...
and emergence of late archaic
Archaic Homo sapiens
Archaic Homo sapiens is a loosely defined term used to describe a number of varieties of Homo, as opposed to anatomically modern humans , in the period beginning 500,000 years ago....
and early modern human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s, and the subsequent evolution of 'anatomically
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
modern' humanity. Trinkaus is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, a contributor to publications including Natural History
Natural History (magazine)
Natural History is an American natural history magazine. The stated mission of the magazine is to promote public understanding and appreciation of nature and science.- History :...
and Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, and is frequently quoted in the popular media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. Trinkaus is the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
Education
Trinkaus received his bachelor of arts degree in Art HistoryArt history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
and Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, and his master's and PhD degrees in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, the latter in 1975.
Scientific views
Trinkaus' research has been a major contributor to current debates about human origins. Trinkaus supports theories related to various forms of multiregional evolution, a hypothesis held by a minority of scholars in the field of human evolution. Based on analysis of early human fossils from Europe, Trinkaus suggests that Neanderthals have made significant contributions to the gene pool of modern Europeans.Trinkaus' research emphasizes the biological
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
implications of behavioural shifts that could have been caused by interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
humans. His research addresses the 'origins of modern humans' debate, the interpretation of the archaeological record, and patterns of recent human anatomical variation, principally through his analysis of human fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
remains. His research involves biomechanical
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...
analysis of crania and post-cranial remains, respiratory and thermal adaptations, interpretations of ecogeographical patterning, evaluations of neuroanatomical evolution, life history parameters, and differential levels and patterns of stress, and interrelationships between these anatomically-based patterns.
In 1999, Trinkaus and his colleagues documented that Neanderthals roamed central Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as recently as 28,000 years ago, the latest date yet established for Neandertal fossils worldwide.
As a finding of a possibly hybrid Neanderthal/modern fossil in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
has emerged in recent years, Trinkaus has broadened his research to include the complex patterns of human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
ary change through the Early and especially Middle Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
, especially with regard to the diversity, paleobiology
Paleobiology
Paleobiology is a growing and comparatively new discipline which combines the methods and findings of the natural science biology with the methods and findings of the earth science paleontology...
and behaviour of early modern humans.
Research projects
Trinkaus' recent research has primarily focused on three projects. The first involved the early Upper PaleolithicUpper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...
(ca.25,000 B.P.) child's skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho
Abrigo do Lagar Velho
Lagar Velho is rock-shelter in the Lapedo valley, a limestone canyon 13 km from the centre of Leiria, in the municipality of Leiria, in central Portugal...
in Portugal, a specimen which indicates some degree of admixture between the Neandertals and early modern humans in Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
. The second concerns the largest known sample of early modern human remains, of the Paleolithic Gravettian
Gravettian
thumb|right|Burins to the Gravettian culture.The Gravettian toolmaking culture was a specific archaeological industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic era prevalent before the last glacial epoch. It is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France where its...
culture, from the Dolni Vestonice
Dolní Vestonice
Dolní Věstonice is a small village in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It is known for a series of ice age archaeological sites in the area. These sites were used by mammoth hunters, and finds include a triple burial and the Venus of Dolní Věstonice.A small fortress was built here...
and in the vicinity of Pavlov in southern Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, dated between 25,000 and 27,000 B.P. The third began in 2002 with the discovery in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
of early modern human remains in the Pestera cu Oase
Pestera cu Oase
Peștera cu Oase is a system of 12 karstic galleries and chambers located N. 45° 01’; E. 21° 50’ in southwestern Romania, where the oldest early modern human remains in Europe have been discovered.-Paleoanthropological on-site findings:...
, dated to 35,000 B.P., which represent the earliest modern humans yet discovered in Europe.
External links
- Erik Trinkaus - 'Erik Trinkaus, PhD', Washington University in St. LouisWashington University in St. LouisWashington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
(faculty home page) - BBC.co.uk - 'Neanderthals "mated with modern humans"', BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
(April 21, 1999) - Eurekalert.org - 'Earliest European modern humans found' (September 22, 2003)
- Eurekalert.org - 'Neandertal femurFemurThe femur , or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in tetrapod vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs. In vertebrates with four legs such as dogs and horses, the femur is found only in...
suggests competition with hyenaHyenaHyenas or Hyaenas are the animals of the family Hyaenidae of suborder feliforms of the Carnivora. It is the fourth smallest biological family in the Carnivora , and one of the smallest in the mammalia...
s and a shift in landscape use' (May 2, 2005) - NIU.edu - 'Meaty discovery: Neandertal bone chemistry provides food for thought', Tom Parisi, Ann Nicholson, Northern Illinois UniversityNorthern Illinois UniversityNorthern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
- WUStL.edu - 'Erik Trinkaus: Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Physical Anthropology', Washington University in St. Louis