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Patrick Randolph-Quinney

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Associate Professor of Forensic Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Dr Patrick Randolph-Quinney is a Biological and Forensic Anthropologist from Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

His broad interests concern the application of multi‐disciplinary forensic taphonomy into both current medico‐legal practice and the Evolutionary Anthropology of the deep past. He has a background in palaeoanthropology and archaeology, and spent much of his early academic life working on the biological and cultural evolution of the genus Homo during the Middle Pleistocene, a critical period that precedes the evolution of our own species and the advent of modern behaviours. In recent years he has been working in the field of forensic anthropology and human identification. He has extensive casework experience in both forensic anthropology and archaeology in the UK and sub‐Saharan Africa, including archaeology of fatal fires, and as a member of the Mission Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires investigating human rights abuses in the Republic of Chad. He was co‐coordinator of the African School for Forensic Science and Human Rights in conjunction with the Argentine Forensic Team (EAAF).

He has research interests in the evolution of skeletal disease, diagnostic imaging using micro-computed tomography, human and animal decomposition processes, osseous taphonomy, particularly differentiation of sub‐aerial and sub‐surface processes, trauma analysis, ichnotraces, and the application of digital methods in the analysis of spatial taphonomy and the decomposition process. His forensic research focuses on aspects of human identification. His main forensic specialisation is taphonomy (peri and post-mortem processes) with an emphasis on sub-surface burial processes, trauma analysis, and the recovery and analysis of burnt human remains.

He has also continued research into the human evolutionary process, working at the sites of Malapa and Rising Star in South Africa. His role in the Rising Star project has been to apply skillsets derived from forensic casework (having worked on homicides, fatal fires and mass graves from war crimes) to the deep past; using the skills from modern forensic taphonomy to understand the context, decompositional environment and mortuary behaviours of Homo naledi. His research also encompasses the effects of disease and trauma on the skeleton, and he has most recently coordinated multi-disciplinary research teams investigating the earliest evidence for neoplastic disease (both tumours and cancers) in the hominin fossil record.

He is an experienced field worker and conducts fieldwork in Middle Pleistocene palaeo-archaeological deposits in the Limpopo region of South Africa, and is Co-Director of the Makapansgat Archaeological Landscape Project.

He is currently supervising a number of PhD projects looking at differing aspects of the forensic and palaeosciences.

Experience

  • 2020–present
    Associate Professor, School of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University
  • 2017–2020
    Reader in Biological and Forensic Anthropology, School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
  • 2016–2017
    Senior Lecturer in Biological and Forensic Anthropology, School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
  • 2012–2016
    Lecturer in Anatomy, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
  • 2007–2012
    Lecturer in Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, University of Dundee

Education

  • 2004 
    University of Liverpool, PhD Palaeoanthropology
  • 1993 
    University of Bradford, BSc (Hons) Archaeological Sciences

Publications

  • 2021
    Calculation of likelihood ratios for inference of biological sex from human skeletal remains., Forensic Science International: Synergy 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100202
  • 2021
    Harnessing Thor’s Hammer: experimentally induced lightning trauma to human bone by high impulse current, Forensic Science International: Synergy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100206
  • 2020
    Datura quids at Pinwheel Cave, California, provide unambiguous confirmation of the ingestion of hallucinogens at a rock art site., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (49): 31026-31037.
  • 2019
    Geometric morphometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in the mandible from panoramic X-ray images, Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology 37: 35-44
  • 2018
    Possible bite-induced abscess and osteomyelitis in Lufengosaurus (Dinosauria: sauropodomorph) from the Lower Jurassic of the Yimen Basin, China, Scientific Reports, 8 (5045) http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23451-x
  • 2018
    A case of benign osteogenic tumour in Homo naledi: evidence for peripheral osteoma in the U.W. 101-1142 mandible, International Journal of Paleopathology 21: 47-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2017.05.003
  • 2018
    The use of three-dimensional scanning and surface capture methods in recording forensic taphonomic traces: issues of technology, visualisation, and validation. , In: W.J. M. Groen and P. M. Barone (eds). Multidisciplinary Approaches to Forensic Archaeology. Berlin: Springer International Publishing, pp. 115-130.
  • 2018
    New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa, eLife http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.001
  • 2017
    Beyond size: The potential of a geometric morphometric analysis of shape and form for the assessment of sex in hand stencils in rock art, Journal of Archaeological Science 78: 202-213. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.11.001
  • 2017
    Osteopathology and insect traces in the Australopithecus africanus skeleton StW 431, South African Journal of Science 113 (1/2). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2017/20160143
  • 2017
    Response to Thackeray (2016) – The possibility of lichen growth on bones of Homo naledi: Were they exposed to light?, South African Journal of Science 112 (9/10). http://dx.oi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/a0177.
  • 2016
    Multi-modal spatial mapping and visualisation of Dianeldi Chamber and Rising Star Cave, South African Journal of Science 112 (5/6). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20160032.
  • 2016
    A new star rising: Biology and mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi., South African Journal of Science 111 (9/10). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/a0122
  • 2016
    The mournful ape: conflating expression and meaning in the mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi. , South African Journal of Science 111 (11/12). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/a01311
  • 2016
    Comment on “Deliberate body disposal by hominins in the Dinaledi Chamber, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa?” [J. Hum. Evol. 96 (2016) 145-148]. , Journal of Human Evolution 96: 149-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.04.007
  • 2016
    Osteogenic spinal tumor in Australopithecus sediba: Earliest evidence for neoplasia in the human lineage, South African Journal of Science 112 (7/8). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20150470
  • 2016
    Earliest hominin cancer: 1.7 million year old osteosarcoma from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, South African Journal of Science. 112 (7/8). http://dx.doi.org/10.17160/sajs.2016/20150471
  • 2016
    Multi-modal spatial mapping and visualisation of Dianeldi Chamber and Rising Star Cave, South African Journal of Science 112 (5/6). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20160032
  • 2015
    Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, eLife 4 e09561. http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09561.001
  • 2015
    Evidence of fatal skeletal injuries on Malapa hominins 1 and 2., Scientific Reports 5 e15120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15120.
  • 2011
    Anthropology, In A. Jamieson and A. Moenssens (eds.) Wiley Encylopedia of Forensic Science. London: Wiley & Son Ltd. pp 152-178.
  • 2011
    Taphonomy., In S. Black and E. Ferguson (eds.) Forensic Anthropology 2000-2010. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp 279-318.
  • 2011
    Skeletal Trauma, In S. Black and E. Ferguson (eds.) Forensic Anthropology 2000-2010. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp 183-236.

Professional Memberships

  • Fellow - Royal Society of Biology
  • Fellow - Higher Education Academy