My research program focuses on the evolution of primate locomotor diversity and how novel locomotor behaviors contribute to foraging success. Locomotor transitions have defined major evolutionary events in nonhuman primate and human evolution (e.g. the evolution of bipedal walking and running in hominins) and have contributed to the success and diversity of the primate order. My research goals are to determine the selection pressures that led to these major shifts in nonhuman primate and human evolution. In addition to research into locomotor biomechanics and energetics, I am planning field studies of primate energetics and ecology.
My current research examines the role of energetics in the evolution of novel locomotor systems as well as the relationship between primate energy balance, life history strategies, habitat variation and morphological/behavioral specializations. Additionally, I am examining the neurobiology of motivation to better understand how selection generates new, but risky, behaviors.
The methodology I employ includes motion analysis (kinematics), kinetics (external and internal forces and moments), muscle dynamics (electromyography and sonomicrometry), functional morphology (allometry and anatomy), ecological studies, and field metabolics.
Selected Publications
Raichlen, D.A. (2008) The effects of gravity on human walking: a new test of the dynamic similarity hypothesis using a predictive model. Journal of Experimental Biology. 211: 2767-2772.
Raichlen, D.A., Pontzer, H. & Sockol, M.D. (2008) The Laetoli footprints and early hominin locomotor kinematics. Journal of Human Evolution. 54: 112-117.
Sockol, M.D., Raichlen, D.A., Pontzer, H. (2007) Chimpanzee locomotor energetics and the origin of human bipedalism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 134: 12265-12269.
Raichlen, D.A. (2006) Effects of limb mass distribution on mechanical power outputs during quadrupedalism. Journal of Experimental Biology. 209: 633-644.
Lieberman, D.E., Raichlen, D.A., Pontzer, H., Bramble, D. & Cutright-Smith, E. (2006) The human gluteus maximus and its role in running. Journal of Experimental Biolology. 209: 2143-2155.
Shapiro, L.J. & Raichlen, D.A. (2006) The influence of limb proportions on the ontogeny of quadrupedal walking in infant baboons (Papio cynocephalus). Journal of Zoology 269: 191-203.
Raichlen, D.A. (2005) Effects of limb mass distribution on the ontogeny of quadrupedalism in infant baboons (Papio cynocephalus) and implications for the evolution of primate quadrupedalism. Journal of Human Evolution. 46: 719-738.
