Evolutionary anthropology is the study of humankind's place in nature. The central questions of this unique discipline revolve around how humans arose from our primate ancestors, how our distinctive attributes – such as enhanced cognitive abilities, striding bipedal locomotion, and our extraordinary connections with culture and technology – came to be, and why, from an evolutionary perspective, we behave the way we do.
We are interested in the evolution of primates, the group to which humans belong, and its environmental and ecological context. To acquire new... Visit the lab website »
Anne Pusey, the James B. Duke Professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke, is interested in understanding the evolution of sociality, social... Visit the lab website »
We are a group of functional anatomists who work on a variety of questions related to understanding the mechanisms through which diet and feeding... Visit the lab website »
Professor Richard Kay focuses on the evolution of primates and mammalian faunal evolution, especially in South America; the evolutionary origins of... Visit the lab website »
Research in the Nunn lab investigates "why we get sick" from both evolutionary and ecological perspectives. More specifically, we study the ecology... Visit the lab website »
The Duke Canine Cognition Center (DCCC) is dedicated to the study of dog psychology. Our goal is to understand the flexibility and limitations of dog... Visit the lab website »
In the Drea Lab we explore various aspects of mammalian sociality, reproduction, and health in exceptional primates and carnivores. We focus on... Visit the lab website »
We compare the psychology of hominoids (human and non-human apes). Specifically, we seek to identify which features our problem-solving abilities... Visit the lab website »
Human paleontologist Steve Churchill studies morphological and behavioral adaptation in archaic and modern humans of the Middle and Late Pleistocene... Visit the lab website »
The Duke Department of Evolutionary Anthropology's Animal Locomotion Laboratory was established in the late 1990s by Daniel Schmitt and Pierre... Visit the lab website »
Research in the Tung lab focuses on the interplay between genes and behavior. How does social behavior influence genetic variation and gene... Visit the lab website »
The Jane Goodall Institute Research Center, managed by Duke Professor Anne Pusey, is an archive... Visit the lab website »
The Jane Goodall Institute Research Center, managed by Duke Professor Anne Pusey, is an archive of dawn-to-dusk observations containing the complete life histories of more than 200 chimpanzees at the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. That data was collected by British primatologist Jane Goodall over more than 50 years and is made up of original handwritten and typed field notes. A major activity of the archive curation is the computerization of systematically collected daily data and incorporating it with related material into a relational database for scientific analysis. Duke Professor Anne Pusey, who has worked with Goodall at Gombe for more than 20 years, is the data curator.
The Duke Lemur Center contains the world's largest collection of captive prosimians. The collection currently numbers about 300 individuals, including such rare genera as Propithecus and Daubentonia. Most species breed at the colony and several species are kept in large natural habitat enclosures. Located near the Duke campus, the primate colony is available for behavioral and, in some cases, physiological, anatomical, genetic, karyotypic or biochemical studies.
The Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke Lemur Center includes collections of primate fossils. Such collections include fossils from the Fayum of Egypt, as well as primate fossils from Madagascar, North America and South America (Bolivia, Argentina and other localities). Many other mammals and vertebrate fossils are also part of these collections. Current field projects in primate and hominid paleontology are ongoing in Bolivia and Argentina, North America, South Africa, Botswana, Madagascar, and Egypt.
We offer Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees. You can pursue a concentration in either Anatomy and Paleoanthropology or Behavior, Ecology and Cognition, or mix and match courses from different areas of interests within the discipline of evolutionary anthropology. You can also pursue a Comprehensive Science Teaching License, offered in collaboration with Duke's Education Program. Non-majors can pursue a minor in evolutionary anthropology.
The Department of Evolutionary Anthropology offers Ph.D. students diverse training opportunities for the study of primate behavior, ecology, genetics, morphology, phylogenetics, and evolution.
Our doctoral program provides students with foundational course work and guides them through the development of a dissertation project. The program is designed to be completed in five years, and our students are fully funded (tuition, fees, health insurance, and stipend) by the Graduate School for that interval.
In Evolutionary Anthropology we focus on the pre-history, ecology and biology (including functional anatomy) of the human species. To accomplish this, our students take classes in Forensics, Human Evolution, Primate Anatomy, Sociobiology and Human Cognitive Evolution. After the basics, they explore more in-depth topics like Primate Evolutionary Genetics, The Human Body (using cadavers over in the Duke Medical School), Primate Sexuality, Human Osteology, Primate Disease Ecology and can even follow lemurs around the Duke Forest in Primate Field Biology. Students cap off their Duke experience with advanced level courses like Human Functional Anatomy, Primate Cognition, Orthopedic Biomechanics & Kinesiology and Ethics in Evolutionary Anthropology. Students will often choose to focus on one of our two concentrations within the major: 1) Behavior, Ecology & Cognition and 2) Anatomy and Paleoanthropology.
