Emily Middleton

Education

• PhD, Biological Anthropology, New York University, 2015
• MA, Biological Anthropology, New York University, 2008
• BA, Anthropology, English, Ohio State University, 2005

Teaching Interests

• Human Skeleton
• Paleoanthropology
• Primate Evolution
• Forensic Anthropology

Research Interests

Professor Middleton's research focuses on the evolution of body form in humans and our close relatives. In particular, she is interested in the ways in which adaptation to different environments has influenced the shape of the torso skeleton. By integrating morphology with locomotor, environmental, and genetic data, her research explores the mechanisms by which natural selection influences the evolution of body form and shapes human skeletal diversity. With funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, and the American Association of Anatomists, she has studied patterns of covariation and integration among the ribcage, spine, and pelvis in humans and other anthropoid primates to test how these skeletal regions are affected by such disparate selective pressures as locomotion, obstetrics, respiration, and climate. Studying these relationships allows us to reconstruct how anatomical complexes evolve and to better understand the changes that occurred on the evolutionary path leading to humans.