Kevin D. Hunt

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Affiliate of CRAFT, Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology

B.A., Anthropology College Scholars, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1980
M.A., Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1982
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1989

Functional Morphology and Ecology of Hominids and Apes

Profile

Since we can never study our ancestors directly, we must rely on their traces to understand them. The earliest members of our lineage, the australopithecines, are quite ape-like, which means that we must turn to chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates for hints about how they behaved, and why human evolution took its peculiar course.

In my research I use what I learn from chimpanzee locomotion, posture and ecology to better understand what led humans to diverge from apes, in particular, what advantage bipedalism gave our chimpanzee-like ancestors some 5 million years ago.

I attempt to link specific anatomical features in chimpanzees and australopithecines with specific behaviors. I use these links to trace the path of human evolution, particularly through reconstruction of their foraging habits. In my research muscular and skeletal form are treated as engineering problems, and the "design" of the animal is treated as a solution to the need to perform a particular activity (e.g., running, arm-hanging). Ecological study is linked because the body (teeth, jaws, hands, limbs ­ even brain) is really a food-getting machine. Once a secure link between a particular behavior or dietary item and an anatomical feature is made, we can turn this link back on the fossils and reconstruct their behavior. In short, our ancestors' bodies can be understood as complicated machines oriented toward certain tasks.

Selected Publications

2002a K.D. Hunt. Primatology as a career. In: A Guide to Careers in Physical Anthropology, A. S. Ryan (ed.) Greenwood Publishing Group: Westport, pp. 85-107.

2002b K.D. Hunt and W. C. McGrew. Chimpanzees in dry habitats at Mount Assirik, Senegal and at the Semliki-Toro Wildlife Reserve, Uganda. In: Behavioural Diversity in Chimpanzees and Bonobos, C. Boesch, G. Hohmann and L.F. Marchant (eds.) Cambridge University Press, pp. 35-51.

2000 K.D. Hunt. Initiation of a new chimpanzee study site at Semliki-Toro Wildlife Reserve, Uganda. PanAfrica News. 7 (2): 14-16.1998. K.D. Hunt. Ecological morphology of Australopithecus afarensis: traveling terrestrially, eating arboreally. In: Primate Locomotion: Recent Advances, E. Strasser, J.G. Fleagle, H.M. McHenry and A. Rosenberger (eds.). Plenum: New York, pp. 397-418.

1998. K.D. Hunt, V.L. Dean, D.W. Fitting, and L. Adler. Ultrasonic determination of the elastic modulus of human cortical bone. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing 6: 51-56.

1996. K.D. Hunt. The postural feeding hypothesis: an ecological model for the evolution of bipedalism. South African Journal of Science 92: 77-90.

1996. K.D. Hunt, J.G.H. Cant, D.L. Gebo, M.D. Rose, S.E. Walker, & D. Youlatos. Standardized descriptions of primate locomotor and postural modes. Primates 37: 363-387.

1994. The evolution of human bipedality: ecology and functional morphology, Journal of Human Evolution, 26: 183-202.

1994. Body size effects on vertical climbing among chimpanzees, International Journal of Primatology, 15: 855-865.

1993. Social rank and body weight as determinants of positional behavior in Pan troglodytes, Primates, 33 (3): 347-357.

1992. Positional behavior of Pan troglodytes in the Mahale Mountains and Gombe Stream National Parks, Tanzania, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 87: 83-107.

1991. Mechanical implications of chimpanzee positional behavior, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 86 (4): 521-536.