David Strait
Biographic Data
| ID | 634902 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Strait |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Strait |
| SIGNATURE | STRAIT D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University at Albany, State University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3572-1663 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 708 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
The Phylogenetic Relationships of Robust Australopiths
Nouvelles recherches et données sur les sites liguriens du Riparo Bombrini (Balzi Rossi, Imperia) et de l’Arma Veirana (Erli, Savona)
A phylogenetic perspective on the evolution of early hominin foot morphology
Correlates of Vocal Tract Evolution in Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominins
Despite decades of research on the emergence of human speech capacities, an integrative account consistent with hominin evolution remains lacking. We review paleoanthropological and archaeological findings in search of a timeline for the emergence of modern human articulatory morphological features. Our synthesis shows that several behavioral innovations coincide with morphological changes to the would-be speech articulators. We find that signifi…
Estimating ancestral ranges and biogeographical processes in early hominins
A lineage perspective on hominin taxonomy and evolution
An uncritical reliance on the phylogenetic species concept has led paleoanthropologists to become increasingly typological in their delimitation of new species in the hominin fossil record. As a practical matter, this approach identifies species as diagnosably distinct groups of fossils that share a unique suite of morphological characters but, ontologically, a species is a metapopulation lineage segment that extends from initial divergence to ev…
New hominin dental remains from the ∼2.04–1.95 Ma Drimolen Main Quarry, South Africa
Some support was found for the micro-evolution hypothesis
An updated analysis of hominin phylogeny with an emphasis on re-evaluating the phylogenetic relationships of Australopithecus sediba
Functional morphological integration related to feeding biomechanics in the hominine skull
The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-022-09573-7
Contemporaneity of Australopithecus , Paranthropus , and early Homo erectus in South Africa
Dating the Drimolen hominins Fossil hominins from South Africa are enriching the story of early human evolution and dispersal. Herries et al. describe the geological context and dating of the hominin-bearing infilled cave, or palaeocave, at a site called Drimolen in South Africa (see the Perspective by Antón). They focus on the age and context of a recently discovered Homo erectus sensu lato fossil and a Paranthropus robustus fossil, which they d…
Taking a big bite: Working together to better understand the evolution of feeding in primates
The study of adaptation requires the integration of an array of different types of data. A single individual can find such integration daunting, if not impossible. In an effort to clarify the role of diet in the evolution of the primate craniofacial and dental apparatus, we assembled a team of researchers that have various types and degrees of expertise. This interaction has provided a range of insights for all contributors, and this has helped t…
Expanded character sampling underscores phylogenetic stability of Ardipithecus ramidus as a basal hominin
Tooth wear: A response to “Scratching the surface: A critique of Lucas et al. (2013)'s conclusion that phytoliths do not abrade enamel” [J. Hum. Evol. 74 (2014) 130–133]
The Human Fossil Record of Bulgaria and the Formulation of Biogeographic Hypotheses
Analyzing Hominin Phylogeny: Cladistic Approach
Technical Note: Virtual reconstruction of KNM‐ER 1813 Homo habilis cranium
A very limiting factor for paleoanthropological studies is the poor state of preservation of the human fossil record, where fragmentation and deformation are considered normal. Although anatomical information can still be gathered from a distorted fossil, such specimens must typically be excluded from advanced morphological and morphometric analyses, thus reducing the fossil sample size and, ultimately, our knowledge of human evolution. In this c…
Functional implications of squamosal suture size in paranthropus boisei
It has been hypothesized that the extensively overlapping temporal and parietal bones of the squamosal sutures in Paranthropus boisei are adaptations for withstanding loads associated with feeding. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to investigate the biomechanical effects of suture size (i.e., the area of overlap between the temporal and parietal bones) on stress, strain energy, and strain ratio in the squamosal sutures of Pan troglodytes an…
Analyzing Hominin Phylogeny
Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: Implications for hominin diets
The wear of teeth is a major factor limiting mammalian lifespans in the wild. One method of describing worn surfaces, dental microwear texture analysis, has proved powerful for reconstructing the diets of extinct vertebrates, but has yielded unexpected results in early hominins. In particular, although australopiths exhibit derived craniodental features interpreted as adaptations for eating hard foods, most do not exhibit microwear signals indica…
The Biogeographic Implications of Early Hominin Phylogeny
Viewpoints: Diet and dietary adaptations in early hominins: The hard food perspective
Recent biomechanical analyses examining the feeding adaptations of early hominins have yielded results consistent with the hypothesis that hard foods exerted a selection pressure that influenced the evolution of australopith morphology. However, this hypothesis appears inconsistent with recent reconstructions of early hominin diet based on dental microwear and stable isotopes. Thus, it is likely that either the diets of some australopiths include…
Microwear, mechanics and the feeding adaptations of Australopithecus africanus
A finite element analysis of masticatory stress hypotheses
Understanding how the skull transmits and dissipates forces during feeding provides insights into the selective pressures that may have driven the evolution of primate skull morphology. Traditionally, researchers have interpreted masticatory biomechanics in terms of simple global loading regimes applied to simple shapes (i.e., bending in sagittal and frontal planes, dorsoventral shear, and torsion of beams and cylinders). This study uses finite e…
A new OH5 reconstruction with an assessment of its uncertainty
Patterns of resource use in early Homo and Paranthropus
A reappraisal of early hominid phylogeny
Inferring hominoid and early hominid phylogeny using craniodental characters: The Role of Fossil Taxa
Viewpoints: Diet and dietary adaptations in early hominins: The hard food perspective
Recent biomechanical analyses examining the feeding adaptations of early hominins have yielded results consistent with the hypothesis that hard foods exerted a selection pressure that influenced the evolution of australopith morphology. However, this hypothesis appears inconsistent with recent reconstructions of early hominin diet based on dental microwear and stable isotopes. Thus, it is likely that either the diets of some australopiths include…
Examining affinities of the Taung child by developmental simulation
Integration, phylogeny, and the hominid cranial base
Basicranial features were examined in catarrhine primates and early hominids in order to demonstrate how information about morphological integration can be incorporated into phylogenetic analysis. Hypotheses purporting to explain the functional and structural relationships of basicranial characters were tested using factor analysis. Characters found to be functionally or structurally related to each other were then further examined in order to de…
New hominid fossils from Member 1 "Hanging Remnant", Swartkrans Formation, South Africa
Expanded character sampling underscores phylogenetic stability of Ardipithecus ramidus as a basal hominin
Technical Note: Virtual reconstruction of KNM‐ER 1813 Homo habilis cranium
A very limiting factor for paleoanthropological studies is the poor state of preservation of the human fossil record, where fragmentation and deformation are considered normal. Although anatomical information can still be gathered from a distorted fossil, such specimens must typically be excluded from advanced morphological and morphometric analyses, thus reducing the fossil sample size and, ultimately, our knowledge of human evolution. In this c…
Allometry, sexual dimorphism, and phylogeny: A cladistic analysis of extant African papionins using craniodental data
Molar enamel thickness in the Chacma Baboon, Papio ursinus (kerr 1792)
Modern humans exhibit increasing relative enamel thickness from M1 to M3. Some biomechanical (basic lever) models predict that the more distal molars in humans encounter higher occlusal forces, and it has been postulated that this provides a functional explanation for the observed gradient in relative enamel thickness. However, constrained three‐dimensional models and experimental observations suggest that there is a reduction in bite force poten…
The scaling of basicranial flexion and length
Masticatory biomechanics and its relevance to early hominid phylogeny: An examination of palatal thickness using finite-element analysis
A comparison of cortical elastic properties in the craniofacial skeletons of three primate species and its relevance to the study of human evolution
An updated analysis of hominin phylogeny with an emphasis on re-evaluating the phylogenetic relationships of Australopithecus sediba
A new OH5 reconstruction with an assessment of its uncertainty
Trait list bias? A reply to Skelton and McHenry
A lineage perspective on hominin taxonomy and evolution
An uncritical reliance on the phylogenetic species concept has led paleoanthropologists to become increasingly typological in their delimitation of new species in the hominin fossil record. As a practical matter, this approach identifies species as diagnosably distinct groups of fossils that share a unique suite of morphological characters but, ontologically, a species is a metapopulation lineage segment that extends from initial divergence to ev…
Microwear, mechanics and the feeding adaptations of Australopithecus africanus
Fusion patterns of craniofacial sutures in rhesus monkey skulls of known age and sex from Cayo Santiago
Bones of the face and cranial vault meet at sutural boundaries. These sutures are of great importance for craniofacial growth. Although the effects that the sutures have on modulating craniofacial strains have been investigated, how sutural fusion influences primate craniofacial biomechanics and adaptation are less considered. Confounding this problem is the lack of any systematic data on patterns of craniofacial sutural fusion from animals of kn…
A finite element analysis of masticatory stress hypotheses
Understanding how the skull transmits and dissipates forces during feeding provides insights into the selective pressures that may have driven the evolution of primate skull morphology. Traditionally, researchers have interpreted masticatory biomechanics in terms of simple global loading regimes applied to simple shapes (i.e., bending in sagittal and frontal planes, dorsoventral shear, and torsion of beams and cylinders). This study uses finite e…
The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-022-09573-7
Knuckle-walking hominid ancestor: A reply to Corruccini & McHenry
Functional implications of squamosal suture size in paranthropus boisei
It has been hypothesized that the extensively overlapping temporal and parietal bones of the squamosal sutures in Paranthropus boisei are adaptations for withstanding loads associated with feeding. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to investigate the biomechanical effects of suture size (i.e., the area of overlap between the temporal and parietal bones) on stress, strain energy, and strain ratio in the squamosal sutures of Pan troglodytes an…
New hominin dental remains from the ∼2.04–1.95 Ma Drimolen Main Quarry, South Africa
Some support was found for the micro-evolution hypothesis
New hominid fossils from Member 1 "Hanging Remnant", Swartkrans Formation, South Africa
A reappraisal of early hominid phylogeny
Trait list bias? A reply to Skelton and McHenry
The scaling of basicranial flexion and length
Kinematic data on primate head and neck posture: Implications for the evolution of basicranial flexion and an evaluation of registration planes used in paleoanthropology
Kinematic data on primate head and neck posture were collected by filming 29 primate species during locomotion. These were used to test whether head and neck posture are significant influences on basicranial flexion and whether the Frankfurt plane can legitimately be employed in paleoanthropological studies. Three kinematic measurements were recorded as angles relative to the gravity vector, the inclination of the orbital plane, the inclination o…
Evidence that humans evolved from a knuckle-walking ancestor
Origin of human bipedalism: The knuckle-walking hypothesis revisited
Some of the most long-standing questions in paleoanthropology concern how and why human bipedalism evolved. Over the last century, many hypotheses have been offered on the mode of locomotion from which bipedalism originated. Candidate ancestral adaptations include monkey-like arboreal or terrestrial quadrupedalism, gibbon- or orangutan-like (or other forms of) climbing and suspension, and knuckle-walking. This paper reviews the history of these h…
Knuckle-walking hominid ancestor: A reply to Corruccini & McHenry
Integration, phylogeny, and the hominid cranial base
Basicranial features were examined in catarrhine primates and early hominids in order to demonstrate how information about morphological integration can be incorporated into phylogenetic analysis. Hypotheses purporting to explain the functional and structural relationships of basicranial characters were tested using factor analysis. Characters found to be functionally or structurally related to each other were then further examined in order to de…
Patterns of resource use in early Homo and Paranthropus
Inferring hominoid and early hominid phylogeny using craniodental characters: The Role of Fossil Taxa
Molar enamel thickness in the Chacma Baboon, Papio ursinus (kerr 1792)
Modern humans exhibit increasing relative enamel thickness from M1 to M3. Some biomechanical (basic lever) models predict that the more distal molars in humans encounter higher occlusal forces, and it has been postulated that this provides a functional explanation for the observed gradient in relative enamel thickness. However, constrained three‐dimensional models and experimental observations suggest that there is a reduction in bite force poten…
Getting a head in paleoanthropology
The Human Fossil Record. Volume 4. Craniodental Morphology of Early Hominids (Genera Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Orrorin) and Overview
Fusion patterns of craniofacial sutures in rhesus monkey skulls of known age and sex from Cayo Santiago
Bones of the face and cranial vault meet at sutural boundaries. These sutures are of great importance for craniofacial growth. Although the effects that the sutures have on modulating craniofacial strains have been investigated, how sutural fusion influences primate craniofacial biomechanics and adaptation are less considered. Confounding this problem is the lack of any systematic data on patterns of craniofacial sutural fusion from animals of kn…
A comparison of cortical elastic properties in the craniofacial skeletons of three primate species and its relevance to the study of human evolution
Examining affinities of the Taung child by developmental simulation
Analyzing Hominid Phylogeny
Masticatory biomechanics and its relevance to early hominid phylogeny: An examination of palatal thickness using finite-element analysis
The feeding biomechanics and dietary ecology of Australopithecus africanus
The African Plio-Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved a distinctive craniofacial morphology that traditionally has been viewed as a dietary adaptation for feeding on either small, hard objects or on large volumes of food. A historically influential interpretation of this morphology hypothesizes that loads applied to the premolars during feeding had a profound influence on the evolution of australopith craniofacial form. Here, we te…
Allometry, sexual dimorphism, and phylogeny: A cladistic analysis of extant African papionins using craniodental data
A finite element analysis of masticatory stress hypotheses
Understanding how the skull transmits and dissipates forces during feeding provides insights into the selective pressures that may have driven the evolution of primate skull morphology. Traditionally, researchers have interpreted masticatory biomechanics in terms of simple global loading regimes applied to simple shapes (i.e., bending in sagittal and frontal planes, dorsoventral shear, and torsion of beams and cylinders). This study uses finite e…
A new OH5 reconstruction with an assessment of its uncertainty
Microwear, mechanics and the feeding adaptations of Australopithecus africanus
Analyzing Hominin Phylogeny
Biology (41 works) · Evolution and Paleontology Studies (33 works) · Evolutionary biology (33 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (30 works) · Paleontology (22 works) · Paleontology (22 works) · Zoology (20 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (19 works) · Ecology (14 works) · Anatomy (13 works)