Laura Buck

I am an Evolutionary Anthropologist interested in what determines variation in skeletal shape. In my past research I have focused on skeletal plasticity, the adaptive and neutral influences on hominin crania, and climatic adaptation in human and non-human primates. Currently, my main research employs non-human primate models to investigate the morphological consequences of hybridisation between closely related taxa. These will be used to better understand the effects of human interbreeding with extinct hominins (e.g., Neanderthals). The methods I employ include computed tomography, 3D laser scanning, manipulation of digital data (e.g., segmentation and virtual measurement), geometric morphometric methods and traditional morphometrics.