Elliot Greiner is a biological anthropologist and paleoecologist who is interested in how humans, apes, and their adjoining mammalian communities have responded to environmental and climatic change over the past twenty million years. He combines stable isotope and ecomorphological analyses to determine how physical environment influences mammalian dietary and locomotor behavioral traits at different temporal and spatial scales in both modern and fossil contexts. In addition to museum-based work, his research program includes long-term paleontological fieldwork in the Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the Baringo Basin (Central Kenya), neoecological fieldwork excavating and analyzing mountain gorilla skeletons from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda), and Paleolithic archaeological excavation in western Michigan.
Publications:
Greiner, E., Ruff, C.B., King, C., Nkwasibwe, A., Muhire, T., Tibenda, E., Massey, J.S., Junno, J.A., Sherwood, R.M., Noheri, J.B., Nizeyimana, F., Evans, T.S., Muvunyi, R., Babaasa, D., Robbins, M.M., McFarlin, S.C., Kivell, T. Frequency of arboreality is correlated with longer hand skeletons in Gorilla: Analysis of a new skeletal sample of Bwindi mountain gorillas. Journal of Anatomy.
Greiner, E., El-Shaarawi, W., Orlikoff, E., Sherwood, R., O'Brien, K., Kingston, J. Dental mesowear from the Tugen Hills Succession (Baringo Basin, Kenya) demonstrates increase in mixed-feeding behavior of late Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene Bovidae. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, p.112058.
Dagher, J. and Greiner, E. Variation in white-tailed and mule deer dental metrics is associated with precipitation gradients in the Americas. Journal of Zoology.
Parins-Fukuchi, C., Greiner, E., MacLatchy, L.M., Fisher, D.C. Phylogeny, ancestors, and anagenesis in the hominin fossil record. Paleobiology, 45(2), pp.378–393.
Title: Teaching Assistant Professor
Department: Department of Anthropology
Email address: Email me
Phone: (828) 262-6398
Fax: (828) 262-2982