Susana Carvalho
Biographic Data
| ID | 3581099 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susana Carvalho |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susana |
| FAMILY NAME | Carvalho |
| SIGNATURE | CARVALHO S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4542-3720 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 166 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Parting ways: Pan-Homo divergence revisited
The timing of divergence between hominins and the bonobo-chimpanzee clade has been at the core of palaeoanthropological debate for over a century. The earliest molecular studies indicated divergence times ranging from 5 Ma to as recently as 1.3 Ma. This study critically reviews the trends of time estimates published between 1967 and 2023, and analyses how these are supported or rejected by the current molecular and fossil records. We compiled 202…
Flora of Gorongosa National Park: A review of a modern African environment and its implications for baboon diet
What do we know about how the most abundant species of primates in Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique) exploit a highly seasonal and heterogeneous environment? This review examines current knowledge and key gaps in our understanding of Gorongosa’s vegetation in relation to the diet and feeding ecology of grey-footed chacma baboons ( Papio ursinus griseipes ). By synthesising existing literature of Gorongosa’s historical context, seasonality, lan…
Primate carcass ecology in the Urema Rift, Mozambique
Primates constitute an integral part of many African ecosystems. In some areas, primate species can be locally very abundant, while in others they are rare or absent. Our central question is: does the abundance of primate bones (or carcasses) reflect the abundance of local living populations? Past bone surveys in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, and Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, revealed a positive correlation between carcass…
Natural history is more relevant than ever for primate ecology and conservation
A new southern limit for the distribution of African great apes: Sympatric western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and central chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) confirmed in Mayombe N…
The distribution of African great apes has remained unconfirmed regarding their southern limit, particularly on the western side of the continent. IUCN maps include the Mayombe forest of Angola as part of the estimated distribution of western lowland gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla ) and central chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes troglodytes ). However, until now no published evidence-based records had confirmed the continued presence of both speci…
Bipedality in chacma baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) in Gorongosa National Park: A multi-contextual, socially-relevant and demographically-structured behavior
Obligate bipedalism is a defining trait of the human lineage, yet the selective pressures underlying its emergence and fixation remain debated, particularly within the woodland-grassland mosaic environments associated with early hominins. Modern semi-terrestrial primates inhabiting comparable ecosystems provide a useful model for evaluating candidate functional contexts of early bipedal behavior in the human lineage. Here, we present the first sy…
Primate-ungulate sympatry: A review of ecological interactions and research perspectives
The co-occurrence of species within the same area raises fundamental questions about how they can persist while sharing space and resources. One of the central aims of community ecology is to understand the processes that allow species to coexist over time. In this contribution, we have reviewed and summarized empirical evidence from a set of published studies to determine the nature of primate and ungulate association in space and time, the ecol…
Cover illustration of Primates vol. 67 (2026)
Impacted Bones: Can Extant Primates Help Identify Tool Use in Early Hominins?
Despite recent advances pushing back the earliest record of tool use, how and when it first emerged in hominins, and the extent to which it featured amongst the numerous co‐existing species, remain critical questions in paleoanthropology. In addition to analyzing fossils and lithic toolkits, novel strides in understanding this might be made by studying the skeletons of the great apes, as well as more distantly related tool‐using primates and appl…
Sex-mediated Gene Flow in Grayfoot Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
Dispersal behavior influences gene flow and the spatial distribution of genetic diversity, which is crucial for a species' evolutionary trajectory and population persistence under environmental changes. We used gene flow as a proxy to investigate dispersal patterns in the grayfoot chacma baboon ( Papio ursinus griseipes ) in Gorongosa National Park (GNP), central Mozambique. The baboons inhabit a mosaic landscape with a seasonally variable enviro…
Stone selection by wild chimpanzees shares patterns with Oldowan hominins
The use of broad tool repertoires to increase dietary flexibility through extractive foraging behaviors is shared by humans and their closest living relatives (chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes). However, comparisons between tool use in ancient human ancestors (hominins) and chimpanzees are limited by differences in their toolkits. One feature shared by primate and hominin toolkits is rock selection based on physical properties of the stones and the t…
News and Perspectives: Words matter in primatology
Postings on social media on Twitter (now X), BioAnthropology News (Facebook), and other venues, as well as recent publications in prominent journals, show that primatologists, ecologists, and other researchers are questioning the terms “Old World” and “New World” due to their colonial implications and history. The terms are offensive if they result in erasing Indigenous voices and history, ignoring the fact that Indigenous peoples were in the Ame…
Applying collocation and Apriori analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication
Identifying novel medicinal resources in chimpanzee diets has historically presented challenges, requiring extensive behavioral data collection and health monitoring, accompanied by expensive pharmacological analyses. When putative therapeutic self‐medicative behaviors are observed, these events are often considered isolated occurrences, with little attention paid to other resources ingested in combination. For chimpanzees, medicinal resource com…
Identificação Da Fala Interna Por Meio Da Eletromiografia De Superfície E Da Encefalografia: Uma Revisão De Escopo
O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar uma revisão de escopo sobre a identificação da fala interna por meio da eletromiografia de superfície e da encefalografia. Foi realizada uma busca na literatura dos últimos cinco anos (2015 a 2020), utilizando-se descritores em inglês e português, organizados de acordo com a seguinte sintaxe: (“silent speech” OR “inner speech” OR “covert speech” OR “self-talk” OR “imaginary speech”) AND (electromyography OR el…
The Adaptive Role of Bark in the Diet of Budongo Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
The ingestion of bark has been observed across the animal kingdom and is well documented in free-ranging chimpanzees. Thus far, the best-supported hypothesis for the adaptive function of this behavior is the fallback food hypothesis, which asserts that chimpanzees consume bark and cambium when preferred foods are scarce. However, alternative explanations exist, including the essential nutrient and mineral hypothesis , the self-medication hypothes…
Reliable long-term individual variation in wild chimpanzee technological efficiency
Variation in the efficiency of extracting calorie-rich and nutrient-dense resources directly impacts energy expenditure and potentially has important repercussions for cultural transmission where social learning strategies are used. Assessing variation in efficiency is key to understanding the evolution of complex behavioural traits in primates. Here we examine evidence for individual-level differences beyond age- and sex-class in non-human prima…
Modern African ecosystems as landscape-scale analogues for reconstructing woody cover and early hominin environments
Cover illustration of Primates vol. 64 (2023)
Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin
Landscaping the Behavioural Ecology of Primate Stone Tool Use
Ecology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study of the ecological contexts of wild chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes verus ) tool use, we investigated the conditions required for nut-cracking to occur a…
The DistoX2: A methodological solution to archaeological mapping in poorly accessible environments
Spatial information is crucial to archaeological field research. From the plane-table to the total station, recent technological advances have enabled data collection to become fully digital and highly accurate. Nevertheless, the recent expansion of archaeological expeditions to novel environments often incompatible with modern mapping equipment, e.g. tropical forests or ephemeral shorelines, calls for further methodological innovations. Such pro…
The ecology of Australopithecus anamensis in the early Pliocene of Kanapoi, Kenya
Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley
Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique offers an unparalleled setting for the study of primate adaptations to complex and highly dynamic environments. Located at the southern end of the East African Rift System, Gorongosa hosts a mosaic of forests, woodlands, grasslands, swamps, rivers, and a major lake, Lake Urema, which fluctuates extensively with the seasonal cycles (Figures 1 and 2).1 Renowned biologist E. O. Wilson has described Goron…
Technological Origins: Primate Perspectives and Early Hominin Tool Use in Africa
The origin of technology is believed to have marked a major adaptive shift in human evolution. Understanding the evolutionary process(es) underlying the first human adaptation to tool use, and the subsequent process(es) that led Homo sapiens to become the only extant primate fully dependent on technology, is one of the most stimulating topics of research of present-day archaeology. New fields of research have been founded (e.g. primate archaeolog…
Hominin diversity and high environmental variability in the Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya
Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern: The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins
The habitual consumption of large-animal resources (e.g., similar sized or larger than the consumer) separates human and nonhuman primate behavior. Flaked stone tool use, another important hominin behavior, is often portrayed as being functionally related to this by the necessity of a sharp edge for cutting animal tissue. However, most research on both issues emphasizes sites that postdate ca. 2.0 million years ago. This paper critically examines…
Chaînes opératoires and resource-exploitation strategies in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) nut cracking
Hominin diversity and high environmental variability in the Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya
The ecology of Australopithecus anamensis in the early Pliocene of Kanapoi, Kenya
A missing piece of the Papio puzzle: Gorongosa baboon phenostructure and intrageneric relationships
Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin
Technological Origins: Primate Perspectives and Early Hominin Tool Use in Africa
The origin of technology is believed to have marked a major adaptive shift in human evolution. Understanding the evolutionary process(es) underlying the first human adaptation to tool use, and the subsequent process(es) that led Homo sapiens to become the only extant primate fully dependent on technology, is one of the most stimulating topics of research of present-day archaeology. New fields of research have been founded (e.g. primate archaeolog…
Modern African ecosystems as landscape-scale analogues for reconstructing woody cover and early hominin environments
Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley
Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique offers an unparalleled setting for the study of primate adaptations to complex and highly dynamic environments. Located at the southern end of the East African Rift System, Gorongosa hosts a mosaic of forests, woodlands, grasslands, swamps, rivers, and a major lake, Lake Urema, which fluctuates extensively with the seasonal cycles (Figures 1 and 2).1 Renowned biologist E. O. Wilson has described Goron…
Landscaping the Behavioural Ecology of Primate Stone Tool Use
Ecology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study of the ecological contexts of wild chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes verus ) tool use, we investigated the conditions required for nut-cracking to occur a…
Stone selection by wild chimpanzees shares patterns with Oldowan hominins
The use of broad tool repertoires to increase dietary flexibility through extractive foraging behaviors is shared by humans and their closest living relatives (chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes). However, comparisons between tool use in ancient human ancestors (hominins) and chimpanzees are limited by differences in their toolkits. One feature shared by primate and hominin toolkits is rock selection based on physical properties of the stones and the t…
The DistoX2: A methodological solution to archaeological mapping in poorly accessible environments
Spatial information is crucial to archaeological field research. From the plane-table to the total station, recent technological advances have enabled data collection to become fully digital and highly accurate. Nevertheless, the recent expansion of archaeological expeditions to novel environments often incompatible with modern mapping equipment, e.g. tropical forests or ephemeral shorelines, calls for further methodological innovations. Such pro…
Chaînes opératoires and resource-exploitation strategies in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) nut cracking
Primate archaeology
Nations and their Histories: Constructions and Representations
Nations and their Histories highlights the importance of the past and its uses in the formation of modern nations and national identities. The book looks at the construction of different national hist
The origins of percussive technology: A smashing time in Cambridge
Recensão a: Bearzi, M.; Stanford, C. B. 2008 - Beautiful minds: the parallel lives of great apes and dolphins
Stone Tools and Fossil Bones: Debates in the Archaeology of Human Origins
The stone tools and fossil bones from the earliest archaeological sites in Africa have been used over the past fifty years to create models that interpret how early hominins lived, foraged, behaved and communicated and how early and modern humans evolved. In this book, an international team of archaeologists and primatologists examines early Stone Age tools and bones and uses scientific methods to test alternative hypotheses that explain the arch…
Standing on the shoulders of giants: The contribution of Cláudia Sousa for the foundation of primate archaeology
Cláudia Sousa was a founding member of the newly emerging and interdisciplinary field of primate archaeology. This discipline employs an archaeological approach to the study of nonhuman primates through the observation of their material culture – i. e. objects produced during tool use and manipulation – and has significant implications in the study of human evolution
Rethinking the evolution of property and possession: A review and methodological proposition
Property is a key feature of modern human society; however, identifying the origin of this multifaceted behavior poses a formidable challenge. Here, we explore the methodologies for researching the origin of property. We discuss how an interdisciplinary approach can shed light on how our human ancestors shifted behaviorally from possessing an object to having exclusive property control over it. Possession occurs when social group members only res…
Technological Origins: Primate Perspectives and Early Hominin Tool Use in Africa
The origin of technology is believed to have marked a major adaptive shift in human evolution. Understanding the evolutionary process(es) underlying the first human adaptation to tool use, and the subsequent process(es) that led Homo sapiens to become the only extant primate fully dependent on technology, is one of the most stimulating topics of research of present-day archaeology. New fields of research have been founded (e.g. primate archaeolog…
Hominin diversity and high environmental variability in the Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya
A missing piece of the Papio puzzle: Gorongosa baboon phenostructure and intrageneric relationships
Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern: The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins
The habitual consumption of large-animal resources (e.g., similar sized or larger than the consumer) separates human and nonhuman primate behavior. Flaked stone tool use, another important hominin behavior, is often portrayed as being functionally related to this by the necessity of a sharp edge for cutting animal tissue. However, most research on both issues emphasizes sites that postdate ca. 2.0 million years ago. This paper critically examines…
The DistoX2: A methodological solution to archaeological mapping in poorly accessible environments
Spatial information is crucial to archaeological field research. From the plane-table to the total station, recent technological advances have enabled data collection to become fully digital and highly accurate. Nevertheless, the recent expansion of archaeological expeditions to novel environments often incompatible with modern mapping equipment, e.g. tropical forests or ephemeral shorelines, calls for further methodological innovations. Such pro…
The ecology of Australopithecus anamensis in the early Pliocene of Kanapoi, Kenya
Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley
Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique offers an unparalleled setting for the study of primate adaptations to complex and highly dynamic environments. Located at the southern end of the East African Rift System, Gorongosa hosts a mosaic of forests, woodlands, grasslands, swamps, rivers, and a major lake, Lake Urema, which fluctuates extensively with the seasonal cycles (Figures 1 and 2).1 Renowned biologist E. O. Wilson has described Goron…
Landscaping the Behavioural Ecology of Primate Stone Tool Use
Ecology is fundamental in the development, transmission, and perpetuity of primate technology. Previous studies on tool site selection have addressed the relevance of targeted resources and raw materials for tools, but few have considered the broader foraging landscape. In this landscape-scale study of the ecological contexts of wild chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes verus ) tool use, we investigated the conditions required for nut-cracking to occur a…
Cover illustration of Primates vol. 64 (2023)
Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin
News and Perspectives: Words matter in primatology
Postings on social media on Twitter (now X), BioAnthropology News (Facebook), and other venues, as well as recent publications in prominent journals, show that primatologists, ecologists, and other researchers are questioning the terms “Old World” and “New World” due to their colonial implications and history. The terms are offensive if they result in erasing Indigenous voices and history, ignoring the fact that Indigenous peoples were in the Ame…
Applying collocation and Apriori analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication
Identifying novel medicinal resources in chimpanzee diets has historically presented challenges, requiring extensive behavioral data collection and health monitoring, accompanied by expensive pharmacological analyses. When putative therapeutic self‐medicative behaviors are observed, these events are often considered isolated occurrences, with little attention paid to other resources ingested in combination. For chimpanzees, medicinal resource com…
Identificação Da Fala Interna Por Meio Da Eletromiografia De Superfície E Da Encefalografia: Uma Revisão De Escopo
O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar uma revisão de escopo sobre a identificação da fala interna por meio da eletromiografia de superfície e da encefalografia. Foi realizada uma busca na literatura dos últimos cinco anos (2015 a 2020), utilizando-se descritores em inglês e português, organizados de acordo com a seguinte sintaxe: (“silent speech” OR “inner speech” OR “covert speech” OR “self-talk” OR “imaginary speech”) AND (electromyography OR el…
The Adaptive Role of Bark in the Diet of Budongo Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
The ingestion of bark has been observed across the animal kingdom and is well documented in free-ranging chimpanzees. Thus far, the best-supported hypothesis for the adaptive function of this behavior is the fallback food hypothesis, which asserts that chimpanzees consume bark and cambium when preferred foods are scarce. However, alternative explanations exist, including the essential nutrient and mineral hypothesis , the self-medication hypothes…
Reliable long-term individual variation in wild chimpanzee technological efficiency
Variation in the efficiency of extracting calorie-rich and nutrient-dense resources directly impacts energy expenditure and potentially has important repercussions for cultural transmission where social learning strategies are used. Assessing variation in efficiency is key to understanding the evolution of complex behavioural traits in primates. Here we examine evidence for individual-level differences beyond age- and sex-class in non-human prima…
Modern African ecosystems as landscape-scale analogues for reconstructing woody cover and early hominin environments
Sex-mediated Gene Flow in Grayfoot Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
Dispersal behavior influences gene flow and the spatial distribution of genetic diversity, which is crucial for a species' evolutionary trajectory and population persistence under environmental changes. We used gene flow as a proxy to investigate dispersal patterns in the grayfoot chacma baboon ( Papio ursinus griseipes ) in Gorongosa National Park (GNP), central Mozambique. The baboons inhabit a mosaic landscape with a seasonally variable enviro…
Primate Behavior and Ecology (25 works) · Biology (19 works) · Geography (16 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Animal ecology (12 works) · Ecology (12 works) · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation (12 works) · Primate (11 works) · Ecology (9 works) · Archaeology (8 works)