Programme Director

MSc Palaeoanthropology:  - Dr Kevin Kuykendall (k.l.kuykendall@sheffield.ac.uk)

Programme Induction Meeting

Date & Time: 20 September 2023, 11.00-12.00

Venue: Broad Lane Block, Lecture Theatre 8

This will be an informal group discussion to prepare you for the academic year and an opportunity to meet other students on your programme and ask questions. Individual meetings between yourself and your tutor can also be arranged by email at a mutually agreeable time.

Programme Regulations

Please use our programme regulations finder tool to view the structure of the programme of study, including the core units and approved modules you can take. It is important to review this information prior to selecting your modules.

> Enter AAPT113 in the search field and select 23-24 in the second drop down menu, then press 'search'. Please note that these regulations apply to both the full-time and part-time programmes.

Module Choice

Selecting the non-core modules you wish to study is part of the pre-registration process and you will be able to do this via the online module choice (OMC) system from 1 September 2023.  We have prepared some guidance.

Introductory Reading

General Reading & Background:

Wood, B.A., and Lonergan, N., 2008. The hominin fossil record: taxa, grades and clades. Journal of Anatomy 212:354-376. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00871.x]

Athreya, S. and Hopkins, A., 2021. Conceptual issues in hominin taxonomy: Homo heidelbergensis and an ethnobiological reframing of species. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175:4-26. [ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.24330]

Kuzmin, Y.V., Slavinsky, V.S., Tsybankov, A.A. et al. Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Early Modern Humans: A Review of the Pleistocene Hominin Fossils from the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia). J Archaeol Res (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-021-09164-2 [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10814-021-09164-2#citeas]

Granger, D.E., Stratford, D., Bruxelles, L., Gibbon, R.J., Clarke, R.J. and Kuman, K., 2022. Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(27), p.e2123516119. [https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2123516119?fbclid=IwAR1fQE-vC8kYnfad-ZBjefE1p7EexLIo8RHXWWWrmV-GVfKFwvNXip0QV50 ]

Available online/ Open Access from Sheffield University Library - Star Plus:

Tobias, PV, et al. (eds.), 2001. Humanity from African naissance to coming millenia: colloquia in human biology and palaeoanthropology. Firenze/ Witwatersrand University Press. A compilation of conference proceedings from a worldwide conference in South Africa, including wide-ranging topics across the fields of human biology and palaeoanthropology. 

Begun, D. (ed.), 2013. A companion to Paleoanthropology [electronic resource]. John Wiley & Sons, publ. A comprehensive edited volume covering background, fossil record, methods in palaeoanthropology. 

Paleoanthropology: official journal of the Paleoanthropology Society. Online journal - browse according to your interests. 

Reed, KE, et al. (eds.), 2013. The paleobiology of Australopithecus [electronic resource] : contributions from the Fourth Stony Brook Human Evolution Symposium and Workshop, Diversity in Australopithecus : Tracking the First Bipeds, September 25-28, 2007. An edited volume comprehensively exploring recent research on the morphology, phylogeny, environment and many other aspects of the genus Australopithecus. 

Grine, FE, et al. (eds.), 2009. The first humans [electronic resource] : origin and early evolution of the genus Homo. A similar edited volume covering the genus Homo. 

Henke, W., et al. (eds.). 2007. Handbook of paleoanthropology (In 3 volumes) [electronic resource]. Another comprehensive treatment of the field - extensive reading! 

Textbooks available from Amazon, etc: 

The following are good general textbooks to provide a solid background to the fossil record and evolutionary models in human evolution research: 

Scarre, C. (ed). The Human Past (latest edition). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Past-Prehistory-Development-Societies/dp/0500290636/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/261-4410856-5998114?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0500290636&pd_rd_r=0e489a25-20cf-432f-879e-1528c282144e&pd_rd_w=NpEJP&pd_rd_wg=wRILd&pf_rd_p=7b8e3b03-1439-4489-abd4-4a138cf4eca6&pf_rd_r=W3FWBA1FB36WNEZ61KMF&psc=1&refRID=W3FWBA1FB36WNEZ61KMF

New Scientist - Instant Expert series, 2018. Human Origins. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=new+scientist+human+origins&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

Stringer, C., and Andrews, P., 2011. The complete world of human evolution. Thames & Hudson.