Chris Kirk

Biography

Research Interests:

I am a physical anthropologist who studies primate adaptations and evolution. I completed my Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University in 2003. I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and an Assistant Research Professor at the Texas Memorial Museum.

I have a broad array of research interests in physical anthropology, including sensory ecology, functional morphology, and paleontology. I am currently conducting research on (1) the relationship between visual anatomy and visual ecology, (2) the functional morphology of the inner ear, and (3) Paleogene primate evolution.

One major part of my research focuses on the evolution of primate sensory systems. This research is important to physical anthropology because many of the major adaptive shifts that occurred during the course of primate evolution involved key changes in sensory anatomy and ecology. For example, primate origins involved a major reorganization of the visual system, including the evolution of larger eyes, convergent optic axes, and a broader field of binocular vision. All of these features are probably related to the need for acute and sensitive vision in the context of nocturnal visual predation. Similarly, the origin of haplorhine primates (tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans) was associated with the evolution of features supporting very high visual acuity (e.g., a retinal fovea, macula lutea, postorbital plate, small corneas relative to eye size, etc.) and a simultaneous reduction in the size and complexity of the nasal fossa. There are many other examples of major adaptive shifts in primate sensory system evolution, including the origin of routine trichromatic color vision in catarrhines, the evolution of eye morphologies associated with diurnal activity in lemurids and indriids, and the massive loss of functional olfactory receptor genes in the human lineage.

A second major part of my research focuses on the evolution of primates in North America during the Eocene Epoch (about 56 to 34 million years ago). Since 2004, I have been conducting paleontological research in the Big Bend region of Texas at the Dalquest Desert Research Site. This fieldwork has yielded a large sample of Uintan vertebrates that are currently under study, including a least 3 species of fossil primates that are unique to West Texas.