G. Philip Rightmire  My interests include systematics,
musculoskeletal anatomy, skeletal biology of human populations,
paleoanthropology, and hominin evolution. My research focuses on
the genus Homo, and I have been able to study fossils from many
of the important prehistoric localities in Africa, western
Eurasia, Java, and China. I am particularly interested in the
origin and dispersal of Homo erectus at the beginning of the
Pleistocene, and the ways in which this species was able to
adapt to challenges posed by novel environments. Using
comparative anatomical and metric evidence, I am also attempting
to map the evolutionary relationships among human populations of
the Middle Pleistocene. I find this work in paleoanthropology to
be highly rewarding. Discoveries of fossils call for constant
adjustments to our thinking about the evolutionary process, and
the future promises to bring many exciting new developments.
One of my current research projects involves Dmanisi in Georgia.
Since 2001, I have worked frequ