Biren A. Patel
Summary
I am a biological anthropologist with scholarly interests in evolutionary and functional morphology and my research programs investigate a variety of questions about human and non-human primate evolution. In particular, I am interested in better understanding the evolution of primate locomotor behavior, and more specifically the evolution of human and non-human primate hand and foot function. Exploration of these issues has led me to undertake research projects in a number of areas including comparative biomechanics, musculoskeletal functional anatomy, evolutionary morphology and paleontology. My research is hypothesis driven and relies on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates experimental methods with traditional and state-of-the-art morphometrics, and may draw on data acquired from live animals (lab and wild), cadavers, extant and fossil skeletal material, and 3D clinical and pre-clinical imaging (i.e., CT and µCT). Taken together, my research has offered insights into the biomechanical relationships between particular behaviors such as locomotion and manipulation, with aspects of anatomy such as hand/foot skeletal shape and internal bone architecture. Because I am also interested in understanding when and how the morphological and locomotor diversity observed in human and non-human primates came about, many of my projects involve describing and interpreting fossil material as well as conducting paleontological fieldwork (most recently in Miocene of Kashmir, India).
Anatomy & Physiology Anthropology Evolutionary Studies Paleontology Zoology
