Richard Kay (anthropologist)

Last updated

Richard Frederick Kay (born October 21, 1947 in New York, New York) is an American paleontologist and anthropologist.

Kay is professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment (secondary) at Duke University. He received his bachelor's degree (anthropology and zoology) from the University of Michigan (1969) and his M. Phil. (1971) and Ph. D. (1973) in geology from Yale University. He served as chair of the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy (Duke) from 1988 until 2003. His scientific interests include the study of functional anatomy and adaptations of Primates, and primate evolution. Since 1983, he has conducted collaborative paleontology research in South America. He has edited six scientific books about primate evolution and the fauna and geology of South America.

He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007 and was given Paleontological Recognition Award by the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Bolivia, in May 1999, and the Dr. Luis Federico Leloir Prize for International Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation. Argentina Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation. He was the Gordon Getty Laureate for 2020. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthropology</span> Scientific study of humans, human behavior, and societies

Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. A portmanteau term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological anthropology</span> Branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species

Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an evolutionary perspective. This subfield of anthropology systematically studies human beings from a biological perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Othniel Charles Marsh</span> American paleontologist

Othniel Charles Marsh was an American professor of paleontology at Yale College and president of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among his legacies are the discovery or description of dozens of new species and theories on the origins of birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Fairfield Osborn</span> American geologist and eugenicist (1857–1935)

Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years and a cofounder of the American Eugenics Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary anthropology</span> Interdisciplinary study

Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Various fields and disciplines of evolutionary anthropology include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meave Leakey</span> British palaeoanthropologist

Meave G. Leakey is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin. She has Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees.

<i>Plesiadapis</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal genera which existed about 58–55 million years ago in North America and Europe. Plesiadapis means "near-Adapis", which is a reference to the adapiform primate of the Eocene period, Adapis. Plesiadapis tricuspidens, the type specimen, is named after the three cusps present on its upper incisors.

<i>Cramauchenia</i> Extinct genus of litoptern South American ungulate

Cramauchenia is an extinct genus of litoptern South American ungulate. Cramauchenia was named by Florentino Ameghino. The name has no literal translation. Instead, it is an anagram of the name of a related genus Macrauchenia. This genus was initially discovered in the Sarmiento Formation in the Chubut Province, in Argentina, and later it was found in the Chichinales Formation in the Río Negro Province and the Cerro Bandera Formation in Neuquén, also in Argentina, in sediments assigned to the SALMA Colhuehuapian, as well as the Agua de la Piedra Formation in Mendoza, in sediments dated to the Deseadan. In 1981 Soria made C. insolita a junior synonym of C. normalis. A specimen of C. normalis was described in 2010 from Cabeza Blanca in the Sarmiento Formation, in sediments assigned to the Deseadan SALMA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherwood Washburn</span> American physical anthropologist (1911–2000)

Sherwood Larned Washburn, nicknamed "Sherry", was an American physical anthropologist, and "a legend in the field." He was pioneer in the field of primatology, opening it to the study of primates in their natural habitats. His research and influence in the comparative analysis of primate behaviors to theories of human origins established a new course of study within the field of human evolution. He changed the field of anthropology with the publication of his paper The New Physical Anthropology, in 1951, in which he argued, convincingly, that human variation was continuous, and could not be broken up into discontinuous races.

Stirtonia is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. Two species have been described, S. victoriae and the type species S. tatacoensis. Synonyms are Homunculus tatacoensis, described by Ruben Arthur Stirton in 1951 and Kondous laventicus by Setoguchi in 1985. The genus is classified in Alouattini as an ancestor to the modern howler monkeys.

Philip Dean Gingerich is an American paleontologist and educator. He is Professor Emeritus of Geology, Biology, and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He directed the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan (UMMP) from 1981-2010. His research focus is in vertebrate paleontology, especially the Paleocene-Eocene transition and early Cenozoic mammals. His primary research focus is in the origin of modern orders of mammals and he is a leading expert on the evolution of primates and whales. Gingerich was among the experts who analyzed the skeleton of Darwinius masillae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Owen</span> English biologist and paleontologist (1804–1892)

Sir Richard Owen was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.

The Laventan age is a period of geologic time within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene, used more specifically within the SALMA classification in South America. It follows the Colloncuran and precedes the Mayoan age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Hartwig</span>

Walter Carl Hartwig is an American anthropologist, paleontologist, anatomy professor and author in the San Francisco Bay Area. In July 2020 he became Director of Enrollment Management and Student Success at Touro University California's College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he has served professionally for 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Laitman</span>

Jeffrey Todd Laitman, Ph.D. is an American anatomist and physical anthropologist whose science has combined experimental, comparative, and paleontological studies to understand the development and evolution of the human upper respiratory and vocal tract regions. He is a Distinguished Professor of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where he holds other positions, including Professor and Director of the Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology, Professor of Otolaryngology and Professor of Medical Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tab Rasmussen</span> American biological anthropologist (1958–2014)

David Tab Rasmussen, also known as D. Tab Rasmussen, was an American biological anthropologist. Specializing in both paleontology and behavioral ecology with interests in Paleogene mammals, early primate evolution, prosimians, and birds, he synthesized multiple fields of study in order to better understand evolutionary processes. His field research spanned the western United States as well as internationally in Africa and the Neotropics. He published over 85 research articles.

Nuciruptor is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. The type species is N. rubricae.

John Talbot Robinson FRSSAf was a distinguished South African hominin paleontologist. His most famous discovery was the nearly complete fossil skull of the hominin species Australopithecus africanus, known as Mrs. Ples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Hare</span>

Brian Hare is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. He researches the evolution of cognition by studying both humans, our close relatives the primates, and species whose cognition converged with our own. He founded and co-directs the Duke Canine Cognition Center.

Patasola is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. The type species is Patasola magdalenae.

References

  1. "Richard Frederick Kay | Scholars@Duke".