Laura van Holstein Assistant Professor

In brief: searching for connections between past and present, human and nonhuman, and theory and practice. I like to think, write, and speak about what and why humans are the way they are today.

 

I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the macroevolution and evolutionary ecology of our own lineage, hominins. The evolution of the traits that set humans apart from other animals, such as cumulative culture and complex technology, have long been the focus of research. However, the macroevolutionary processes that shaped our evolution, and particularly how they compare to those of other animals, have received far less attention. How “unique” were the processes that produced humans, and what determined the timing, pacing, and effect of these processes? I address this question by placing our lineage in an unusually broad comparative sample—all mammals. My research is conceptually and methodologically broad, and includes mammalian macroevolution, comparative phylogenetic methods, primatology, palaeoanthropology, and ancient DNA. 

 

Always open for collaborations – also beyond academia.