Dr Thomas A. Püschel

Wendy James Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology

Tutorial Fellow in Human Sciences, St Hugh's College

Bio

Thomas joined the university as Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography as well as Tutorial Fellow at St Hugh's in 2023. He completed his PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Manchester in 2018. Thomas holds a MSc from the University of York and an undergraduate degree in Biological Anthropology from the University of Chile. Previously, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford and later also a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Reading.

Research Interests

Thomas' research interests relate to identifying the key adaptations that define different stages of primate and human evolution. His work brings together biological anthropology, palaeontology, and evolutionary biology, using cutting-edge informatic techniques to analyse genetic, anatomical, ecological, and other kinds of data. Thomas is a member of the Palaeo-Primate project which entails a yearly fieldwork season in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

Contact

Email: thomas.puschel@anthro.ox.ac.uk

Website: Dr Thomas A. Püschel personal website

Supervision

Thomas is available for supervision

Thomas' main academic interest relates to the study of how and why human and primate bodies have become the way they currently are. To answer this kind of questions, he applies a combination of statistical modelling, 3D morphometrics, virtual biomechanical techniques, computational simulations, phylogenetic comparative methods, and fieldwork. His research has focused on the morphological innovation along the human lineage, primate phylogenetics and adaptive evolution, palaeontological fieldwork, and the development of new tools to analyse primate form and function in an evolutionary framework.