/sites/default/files/styles/banner_image/public/default_images/inside-page-banner_2_1.jpg?itok=Er8q0C-3
Associate 2002-03

Stanley H. Ambrose

Anthropology

BONES OF RETENTION: RECONSTRUCTING LIFE FROM THE ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF FOSSILS

Since 1975 Professor Ambrose has been conducting archaeological and paleoanthropological research in Kenya and Ethiopia. Along with traditional archaeological research, he uses stable isotope eochemistry to reconstruct (a) the environmental settings of early hominid and later archaeological sites and (b) prehistoric human and animal dietary adaptations.

Environmental and dietary adaptations play influential roles in the evolution of humans and other animals. Chemical signatures of diets and environments, as well as genes themselves, are often preserved in animal skeletons and with varying degrees of fidelity in fossil bones and teeth. During his Center appointment Professor Ambrose will be writing, with his colleague Andrew Sillen, a book titled Bones of Retention: Reconstructing Life from the Elemental and Isotopic Composition of Fossils. This comprehensive treatise will be useful for scholars interested in reconstructing life from fossils.