ANATOMY | BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY | PALEOANTHROPOLOGY

I am an Assistant Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis specializing in human and mammalian comparative anatomy and paleoanthropology. As a medical educator, I focus on innovative, outcomes-based approaches to engage learners. My paleoanthropology research explores the evolution of brain size and skull shape in primates using medical imaging, phylogenetic comparative statistics, and three-dimensional morphometric methods. This research aims to determine the timing and order of acquisition of traits in brain and body size evolution and to evaluate hypotheses concerning ecological pressures selecting for large brains or changes in brain proportions in humans and their closest relatives.

CT scan of skull and associated tomographs

virtual endocast and skull with associated 3D landmarks

vectors from surface warping of chimp and gorilla endocasts

mouse lemur cranium and associated virtual endocast

3D rendering of human endocast and associated midsagittal cranial tomorgraph

3D rendering of lemur endocast and associated midsagittal cranial tomorgraph

lemur skull and associated virtual endocast

All images (c) K.L. Allen