• Professor, Anthropology

Trinkaus

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• B.A. in Art History at University of Wisconsin
• M.A. in Anthropology at University of Pennsylvania
• Ph.D. in Anthropology at University of Pennsylvania

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Late Neandertals and modern human contact in southeastern Iberia New research paints picture of last Neandertals Dec. 10, 2008 -- Trinkaus New research published by Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, establishes a late persistence of Neadertals in southwestern Europe some 40,000 years ago. The research sheds light on what were probably the last Neandertals on earth.

Where's the beef? Ancient cave bears as omnivorous as modern bears, research suggests Jan. 8, 2008 -- Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time. Rather than being gentle giants, new research conducted in part by Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time: hyaenas, lions, wolves and our own human ancestors.

Neandertal kin Studies affirm relationship between early humans, Neandertals June 14, 2007 -- Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo Erik Trinkaus, WUSTL professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, holding a Neandertal skull, says the evidence is very convincing that Neandertals and early humans mixed. Download For nearly a century, anthropologists have been debating the relationship of Neandertals to modern humans. Central to the debate is whether Neandertals contributed directly or indirectly to the ancestry of the early modern humans that succeeded them. As this discussion has intensified in the past decades, it has become the central research focus of Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Trinkaus has examined the earliest modern humans in Europe, including specimens in Romania, Czech Republic and France. Those specimens, in Trinkaus' opinion, have shown obvious Neandertal ancestry.

Who's your ancestor? More human-Neandertal mixing evidence uncovered Nov. 9, 2006 -- Photo courtesy Muzeul Olteniei / Erik Trinkaus The early modern human cranium from the Pestera Muierii, Romania. Download A re-examination of ancient human bones from Romania reveals more evidence that humans and Neandertals interbred. Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues radiocarbon dated and analyzed the shapes of human bones from Romania's Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman). The fossils, which were discovered in 1952, add to the small number of early modern human remains from Europe known to be more than 28,000 years old. More...

Weird Science Modern Humans, not Neandertals, may be evolution's "odd man out" Sept. 22, 2006 -- Modern Humans may have been the divergent branch. Could it be that in the great evolutionary "family tree," it is we Modern Humans, not the brow-ridged, large-nosed Neandertals, who are the odd uncle out? New research published in the August, 2006 journal Current Anthropology by Neandertal and early modern human expert, Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that rather than the standard straight line from chimps to early humans to us with Neandertals off on a side graph, it's equally valid, perhaps more valid based on the fossil record, that the line should extend from the common ancestor to the Neandertals, and Modern Humans should be the branch off that. More...

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Late Neandertals and Modern Human Contact in Southeastern Iberia ScienceDaily.com and 2 others Dec. 10, 2008 -- New research, published Dec. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is now shedding some light on what were probably the last Neanderthals. The research is based on a study of human fossils found during the past decade in Spain by Michael Walker, professor at Universidad de Murcia, and colleagues, and published by Walker, WUSTL anthropology professor Erik Trinkaus, and colleagues.

Were Neanderthals stoned to death by modern humans? New Scientist (UK) Nov. 20, 2008 -- New research suggests human aerial bombardments might have pushed Neanderthals to extinction. However, WUSTL paleoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus doubts that projectile weapons played a major role in human culture before about 25,000 years ago and the extinction of Neanderthals.

Last of the Neanderthals National Geographic Sept. 25, 2008 -- Discussion on the fossilized remains of a group of Neanderthals who lived approximately 43,000 years ago. Many mutually contradictory interpretations have been made about these bones. WUSTL's Eric Trinkaus is one of the experts commenting and debating.

This research includes considerations of the "origins of modern humans" debate, the interpretation of the archeological record, and patterns of recent human anatomical variations. However, it has been principally through the analysis of human fossil remains that he has sought to shed light on these issues.

This research involves the analysis of the functional anatomy, life history patterns, and lesions of these prehistoric humans to assess differential levels and patterns of activities and stress. As such, this work has involved diverse areas of research, including biomechanics, bone biology, taphonomy, demography, pathology and recent human skeletal biology, in addition to traditional aspects of human paleontological analysis.

Until recently, most of these analyses have been concerned with the Neandertals, employing them as generally indicative of late archaic humans and as a mirror against which to see the emergence of modern human biology. As a result, we now know more about the paleobiology of the Neandertals than we do about earlier Pleistocene hominids or early modern humans. His research has therefore expanded to focus on the complex patterns of human evolutionary change through the Early and especially Middle Pleistocene, and on the paleobiology and behavior of early modern humans.

The latter includes analyses of early modern humans from Africa and East Asia but focuses on those from the Middle Paleolithic of the Near East (Qafzeh and Skhul) and the European early Upper Paleolithic. He is co-organizing and participating in an international team of specialists to describe and analyze the largest known sample of early modern human remains, those from Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov in southern Moravia, Czech Republic (appendicular remains and data).

A fossil catalogue with measurements of the remains has appeared (The People of the Pavlovian) and additional descriptions are in process. He is also the principal human paleontologist studying the early Upper Paleolithic (ca.25,000 B.P.) child's skeleton from the Abrido do Lagar Velho, Portugal, a specimen which indicates some degree of admixture between the Neandertals and early modern humans in Iberia (see the Instituto Português de Arquelogia Web site).

Trinkaus' contributions to his field were recognized in 1996 when he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Prolific in his writings, his research papers quickly become the raw material for textbooks. His publications include six books, three of them edited volumes, and more than 140 articles, chapters and reviews. He has organized and/or participated in nearly 40 national and international symposia, he serves on the advisory panel or editorial board of six journals, and is frequently quoted in the popular media.

Trinkaus is also an excellent and demanding teacher. His courses include classes on human paleontology, human functional anatomy, Paleolithic archeology and human biological variation.

Courses

Human paleontology, Human Functional Anatomy, Paleobiological analysis of skeletal remains, Paleoanthropology, Human Variation, The Neandertal Legacy

Selected Publications

Sladek, V., Trinkaus, E., Hillson, S.W. & Holliday, T.W.

2000 The People of the Pavlovian: Skeletal Catalogue and Osteometrics of the Gravettian Fossil Hominids from Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov. Dolni Vestonice Studies 5. Brno: Akademie ved Ceske republicky. pp. 244.

Trinkaus, E., Svoboda, J., West, D.L., Sladek, V., Hillson, S.W., Drozdova, E. & Fisakova, M.

2000 Human remains from the Moravian Gravettian: Morphology and taphonomy of isolated elements from the Dolni Vestonice II site. Journal of Archaeological Science. 27, 1115-1132. COMPLETE TEXT IN RTF FORMAT

Duarte, C., Maurício, J., Pettitt, P.B., Souto, P., Trinkaus, E., van der Plicht, H., & Zilhão, J.

1999 The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) 96: 7604-7609.

Trinkaus, E. & Ruff, C.B.

1999 Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry of Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic humans: The femur. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 409-424.

Trinkaus, E. & Churchill, S.E.

1999 Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry of Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic humans: The humerus. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 173- 184.

Trinkaus, E., Ruff, C.B., Churchill, S.E., & Vandermeersch, B.

1998 Locomotion and body proportions of the Saint-Césaire 1 Châtelperronian Neandertal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95: 5836-5840.

Trinkaus, E.

1995 Neanderthal mortality patterns. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 121-142.

Trinkaus, E., & Shipman, P.

1993 The Neandertals: Changing the Image of Mankind. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Pub.

Trinkaus, E.

1983 The Shanidar Neandertals. New York: Academic Press.