Dr. Philipp Gunz is a biological anthropologist with a primary research interest in paleoanthropology, who works as a Research Fellow at the Department of Human Evolution.

He studies developmental and evolutionary changes in the growth patterns and morphology of fossil hominins, extant humans and non-human primates. Philipp works both in the area of «virtual paleoanthropology» where he applies computer modelling techniques to reconstruct partial and damaged fossils for further analysis, and in the application of statistical methods to analyze shapes of fossil and living primates (geometric morphometrics).

His research focuses on the application of geometric morphometrics to quantify large scale evolutionary changes in the craniofacial and endocranial growth pattern of great apes and australopithecines, morphological integration in modern humans and Neanderthals, craniofacial variability in early Homo, and subtle shape differences among teeth. Together with Philipp Mitteroecker from the University of Vienna he has developed new techniques to measure and compare curve and surface information from biological forms (“semilandmarks”).

He obtained his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Vienna, Austria in 2005.  The dissertation research involved the virtual reconstruction of broken and incomplete fossil crania using computer tomographic data. He developed the theoretical framework and the necessary algorithms and software to correct taphonomic distortions and estimate missing parts, aiming to make the reconstruction process as transparent and reproducible as possible. 

An up-to-date list of manuscripts can also be found on Google Scholar

I am a biological anthropologist with a primary research interest in palaeoanthropology. I study the evolution of developmental patterns. My aim is to understand what makes us human by comparing our own species with our closest living and fossil relatives. As fossils are usually found broken into many pieces, and only partially complete, a central topic of my work is the virtual reconstruction of fossils using computed tomographic scans. I am a specialist for fossil reconstruction, and the statistical analysis of shape — a set of methods called «geometric morphometrics».

My publications explore different aspects of ontogenetic and phylogenetic shape changes — in particular the evolution and development of the brain and the imprint it leaves in the bony braincase. Alteration of endocranial shape in the hominin lineage is likely to reflect evolutionary changes in the organisation of structures of the human brain. However, brain tissue doesn’t fossilize, so the underlying biology has remained elusive. My research addresses this challenging question through an interdisciplinary approach that brings together analysis of fossil skulls, ancient genomes, brain imaging and gene expression.