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Adam D. Sylvester is a physical anthropologist with special interest in paleoanthropology. In the broadest terms he is interested in human and non-human primate locomotion as a way to inform and understand the locomotor adaptations of fossil primates and hominins. Specifically he is interested in the origin of bipedism, both in reconstructing the locomotor adaptations of early hominins, as well as trying to elucidate the suite of selective pressures that caused bipedalism to evolve.
Adam’s research takes two main approaches. The first, and majority of his work, is in functional morphology and biomechanics, the goal being to link skeletal morphology with locomotor function. This includes analyzing the three-dimensional shape of postcranial elements, reconstructing fragmentary fossils, and investigating issues of body size and allometry. His second avenue of research is to understand the variables that determine the metabolic cost of locomotion with the objective of predicting cost in fossil hominins.
Adam received his PhD from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2006. His dissertation was on developing a new hypothesis for the origin of hominin bipedalism. After completing his graduate education, he held postdoctoral positions in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Tennessee and in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Department of Human Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany
| phone: | 0049 (0) 341 3550 822 |
| fax: | 0049 (0) 341 3550 399 |
| email: | adam.d.sylvester gmail.com |
