Trenton W. Holliday’s Corner of the Web
I am currently Professor of
Anthropology at 
Tulane
University.
As a human
paleontologist and paleoanthropologist who
specializes primarily in late Pleistocene human evolution,
most of my research interests lie in the study of Eurasian
Neandertals and the earliest modern humans who succeed them,
in particular the so-called “Cro-Magnons” associated with
early Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian and Gravettian)
industries.
For
much of my career, I have focused on the postcranial
skeleton of Neandertals and early modern humans in order
to address questions not only of a phylogenetic nature (i.e.,
those surrounding modern human origins and the role of the
Neandertals therein), but also to address adaptive questions,
particularly with regard to cold adaptation, as well as issues
surrounding bone strength, or postcranial “robusticity”,
and its relationship to behavioral shifts in the late Pleistocene.
I have also been interested in hybridization
among extant
mammalian species and its implications for
the nature of the
interactions between Homo sapiens
and H.
neanderthalensis.
To
these ends, for the first decade of the twenty-first century,
I worked with
fossil material associated with the Gravettian
industry from both the Czech Republic and Portugal, and with 
some of my doctoral students and
colleagues from the Instituto
Português de Arqueologia, I
excavated at two rock shelters in
Portugal's Lapedo Valley. More recently, I have begun to
work in SW France with Dr. Bruno Maureille (Université de
Bordeaux) at the Neandertal site of Regourdou.
In recent years, I have also become very interested in earlier
time periods, particularly the origins of the genus Homo, and I
am a member of the international team analyzing the remains
of the newly-discovered species Homo
naledi, and the 2.0 Ma
Australopithecus sediba specimens.
This (admittedly amateurish and antiquated-looking) page remains a work
in
progress! Last
modified 21 June 2016