Randall Susman
Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1976
J.D., Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center,
Touro College, 1988

randall.susman@stonybrook.edu
telephone: 1-631-444-3125

Fossil Record of Hominid Evolution, Ecology and Behavior of African Apes, Experimental Studies of Ape and Human Locomotion, Comparative Morphology

Dr. Susman's research focuses on human origins and understanding behavioral pathways in human evolution. Studies include those on 1) comparative and functional morphology of apes and humans (including experimental studies), 2) ecology and behavior of African apes, and 3) studies of Plio-Pleistocene hominids from East and South Africa.

Studies of Plio-Pleistocene hominids reveal that while bipedalism was established early in the human career, retention of more ape-like, arboreal locomotor repertoires persisted for more than 1.5 million years after the advent of bipedalism. The anatomical hallmarks (and perhaps capacity) for refined manipulation of the hand was absent in early Australopithecus as judged by the osteology of the fingers and thumbs. However, by 2.0 m.y.a., both australopithecines and the earliest members of the genus Homo possessed very human-like fingers and thumbs. South African "robust" australopithecines possessed adaptations in the hand similar to those of early Homo. It thus appears that hominids of the "robust" lineage as well as early Homo all living at 2.0 m.y. were all characterized by the acquisition of the capacity for "culture."

Selected Publications:

Susman, R. L. (1994). Fossil Evidence for Early Hominid Tool Use. Science 265:1570-1573.

Susman, R. L. (1991). Who Made the Oldowan Tools? Fossil Evidence for Tool Behavior in Plio-Pleistocene Hominids. J. Anthrop. Res. 47:129-151.

Susman, R. L. (1988) Hand of Paranthropus robustus from Member I, Swartkrans: Fossil Evidence for Tool Behavior. Science 239:781-784.

Susman, R. L., Stern, J. T., Jungers, W. L. (1984). Aboreality and Bipedality in the hadar Hominids. Folia Primatol. 43:113-156.

Susman, R. L., ed. (1984). "The Pygmy Chimpanzee: Evolutionary Biology and Behavior." Plenum Publishing Co., New York.

Susman, R. L. and Stern, J. T. (1979) Telemetered EMG of flexor digitorum profundus and flexor digitorum superficialis in Pan troglodytes and implications for the interpretation of the O.H. 7 hand. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop. 50:564-574.

Susman, R. L. and Stern, J. T. (1982) Functional Morphology of Homo habilis. Science 217:931-934.

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