Gerald G. Eck

Associate Professor of

Anthropology

 

 

 

My research interests and expertise lie in two closely related areas of primate paleontology: the exploration for and recovery of East African PlioñPleistocene mammalian faunas and the analysis of the fossil record of African human and monkey evolution. During my career, I have led paleontological surveys at three of East Africaís most important paleontological sites ó the Shungura Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, and the Hadar Formation of northeastern Ethiopia. I have published the primary descriptions and analysis of the monkey faunas from the Shungura and Hadar Formations and made contributions to the interpretations of those from Olduvai and other African sites as well.

My most recent fieldwork occurred in the Hadar Formation as a member of a team organized by the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University. As one of the projectís senior paleontologists, I led the general paleontological surface survey. The aims of this survey were to document in which sediments and geographical locations fossils occurred and to recover those of scientific importance. My crew and I worked in sediments generally geologically younger than those explored during the 1970s. My work in the Hadar Formation saw its completion in 2001. I am presently, with RenÈ Bobe, analyzing the mammalian faunal collections from both the Shungura and Hadar Formations. We aim to reconstruct the paleoenvironments of these very important hominid bearing sites so as to better understand the environmental contexts of early hominid evolution.

In the Department of Anthropology, I regularly teach the following courses, as well as, irregularly scheduled seminars: