Prof Robert Foley

I currently supervise students investigating in a range of topics related to:

• human evolution
• human ecology and behaviour
• language evolution

Current PhD students

• COPSEY, B. (DOW). The first cultures? Examining lithic diversity in Plio-Pleistocene Africa
• GRIFFITH, P. (DAR). Late Quaternary habitats of the Nakuru Basin, Kenya: phytolith evidence from Middle and Late Stone Age site of Prospect Farm
• GELLIS, J. (DAR) Roots of variation: the diversity of homini dental root morphology and its evolutionary implications
• PARIS, S. (CTH) The colour red: the role of ochre in the evolution of modern human behaviour
• CONROY, K. (CC) Reconstructing population ranges in hominin evolution: the application of species distribution models to palaeoanthropological data
• VAN HOLSTEIN, L.A. (JO) Correlated asymmetry in the patterns of evolutionary divergence: vertebrate models and hominin applications
• YAXLEY, K. (K) Mosaic evolution among mammals
• GOODMAN, J The role of accents in human linguistic evolutionary ecology

Current Masters students

• PAGILLA IGLESIAS, C. Adaptive use of bilingualism in a Mexican context

Past PhD students

University of Durham

• FLETCHER-JONES, N. Off-site archaeology and resource use in S W Australia. 1986
• ATKINSON, S.. Aging and osteoarthritis in a Roman population. 1985
• MOHAMMED AWAD IBRAHIM Form and function in ancient Egyptian teeth. 1988 (co-supervised with Alan Bilsborough)
• CRUWYS, Elizabeth (W) Tooth wear patterns in modern human populations. 1988
• BOWMAN, Jaqueline (W) Life history, growth and dental development in young primates: a study using captive rhesus macaques. 1991
• MIRAZON LAHR, Marta (CL) The origins of modern humans: a test of the multiregional hypothesis. 1992
• EELEY, Harriet  (CC) Ecological and evolutionary patterns of species area. 1993 (Researcher in environment and conservation,
• HUMPHREY, Louise (K) Sexual dimorphism in humans and other catarrhine primates. 1994
• SAXENA Amanita (ED) Histological techniques for estimating age at death from human bone : an Indian case study. 1995 (Researcher in nutrition, India)
• ROBSON BROWN, Katherine (DOW) A phylogenetic systematic analysis of hominid behaviour. 1995
• SCHUMANN, Betsy A (CC) Biological evolution and population change in the European Palaeolithic. 1995 (Associate Professor, University of Florida)
• FITZGERALD, Charles (JN) Tooth crown formation and the variation of enamel microstructural growth markers of modern humans. 1996
• HAYDENBLIT, Rebecca (DAR) Human Dental Variation in Prehispanic Mexico. 1996
• LENEY, Mark (M) Pleistocene ecology and biogeography : Carnivore adaptation and evolution 1996.
• MONNOT, Marilee  (CH) Mother-infant communication and infant growth 1997 (Post-doctoral research fellow, University of Oklahoma)
• GOLLOP, Piers (JN) Modelling the evolutionary ecology of African hominid populations. 1998
• KULATILAKE, Samanti (CC) Evolution and diversity in south Asian populations. 1999
• ELTON, Sarah (K) Theropithecus palaeobiology : a comparative context for hominid evolution. 2000
• ZAKRZEWSKI, Sonia (JN) : Microevolutionary changes in Egyptian populations 2001
• PINHASI, Ron (M) : Biological aspects of the transition from hunter-gatherer to sedentary lifestyle among prehistoric populations 2003
• COLLARD, Ian (K) : A biogeographic approach to African cultural diversity. 2003
• TYLER, Chris (EM) A bioinformatic approach to the integration of molecular genetic and palaeoanthropological evidence for human population divergence. 2004
• WALL, Cara (ED) Seasonality as a factor in Neanderthal adaptations: an approach using cementum analysis. 2005
• McCALL, Lauren (CLH) Modelling cultural evolution. 2005.
• LYCETT, Stephen.  (T) Stone trees: a phyogentic approach to Pleistocene technology. 2006
• WIELECHOWSKI. Richard (G). An experiental approach to Acheulean biface variation. 2008
• LING, V. (K) The hominin colonisation of Lower Pleistocene Europe. 2009
• VELDHUIS, Djuke. (G) Stress in an island paradise: cortisol levels in different linguistic groups in New Ireland. 2010
• UNDERDOWN, S. (HH) A comparative pathological analysis of Neanderthal palaeotrauma.  2012.
• VEGVARI, C  (LC) Agent-based simulation modelling of the evolution and diversification of human cultures in their environmental context, 2014
• GRUNSTRA, N. (K) What’s in a tooth? Signals of ecogeography and phylogeny in the dentitions of macaques (Cercopithecidae: Macaca), 2018
• CORREIA, M. (R). Assessment in tropical African populations the implications of detecting biological signals in current diets to the study of past diets. 2018

Past Masters students

• D. Liebermann (1987) Cladistic analysis of early Homo
• B. Schumann (1992) Cranial thickness and modern human origins
• L. Yowell (1992) Species and  sub-species among the robust australopithecines
• S. Lazarus  (1994) Quantifying evolutionary rates in a hominid lineage: the case of the European Middle-Upper Pleistocene
• M. Hammer 1994 Simulation of life history variation and evolution in early African hominids
• J. Hernon 1995 Causes of male mortality
• S. Kulatilake 1995 Cranial variation in southern Asia and the problem of modern human evolution
• K. Thienpont 1996 Individual interests and social costs: An evolutionary framework for the analysis of human reproductive behaviour.
• S. Johns 1997 Human migration and the middle upper palaeolithic transition in the Levant: an environmental and archaeological model
• V.Fitzpatrick-Nash 1997 Biogeography and habitat preference among African hominids
• I. Ribot 1998 Diversity of African populations: a craniometric approach
• K. Vaaler 1998 Estimating sexual dimorphism using metric facial data
• L. McCall  2001 Mosaic evolution and the brain
• C. Wall 2001 Iberian Neanderthal evolutionary patterns in relation to climatic change
• G. Ragsdale 2002 A test of the grandmother hypothesis using a historical demographic approach
• V. Murray 2003 Language acquisition studies: implications for the evolution of language
• R. Wielechowski 2004 Mode 1 industries in the light of recent ape culture studies: an empirical approach.
• A. Almeida 2007 Evolution of Homo heiddelbergensis and later hominins
• V. Ling 2005 European Pleistocene dispersals
• S. Myers  2005 Reproductive success: a comparison of artists and scientists
• B. Mersey 2005 Comparative Analysis and Pleistocene Hominin Behavioural Ecology
• Tomlin, P 2006 Great Ape Cognition: a Socioecological and Cultural Perspective on Two Sympatric Species 
• A. Dunbar 2007 Quantifying burial practices to infer cognition
• D. Lucker 2010 An experimental approach to free will and human agency
• A. Chen 2010 ESS and bank risk and stability
• C. M. Louden 2010 The effect of the virtual world on arousal: an experimental appraoch
• E. Duhanine 2011 Evolution of religion: effects of religious environment on prosocial behaviour
• J. Lennard 2011 Surface water distribution in Africa and its impact on human evolution: a GIS approach
• L. Cobo Sanchez 2015 The Howiesons Poort: a stratigraphic approach.
• H. Elliott 2017 Prey size and hominin hunting in Pleistocene Africa: an ecogeographic approach.
• E. Tomlinson 2017 The sinister advantage: an evolutionary perspective on left-handedness
• E. Fleming 2017 Differential preservation of social, survival, and neutral information in the oral transmission of stories.
• Yaxley, K. (K) (2018) Reconstructing the last common ancestor using sub-species level data.
• Kelsey, P.  (2018) An analysis of ‘outliers’ among primate genera: implications for the evolution of Homo.
• Rees, A. (PET) (2018) A comparative phylogenetic analysis of the correlated evolution of longevity and brain size among anthropoids.