Frederick Edward Grine is an American paleoanthropologist. He is a Professor of

anthropology 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 behavi ...

and anatomical sciences at the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. He received his bachelor's degree from

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries to ...

, and his Ph.D at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

, South Africa in 1984. His research focuses on the

hominin The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The t ...

fossil record, during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships through dental morphology. Among his most important work has been the analysis of

dental microwear Dental microwear analysis is a method to infer diet and behavior in extinct animals, especially in fossil specimens. Typically, the patterns of pits and scratches on the occlusal or buccal surface of the enamel are compared with patterns observed ...

in order to reconstruct early hominin dietary habits. Together with his former graduate student, David Strait, he has also published influential studies of early hominin phylogenetic relationships. Dr. Grine is a major proponent in the argument that species of

robust australopithecine ''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: '' P. robustus'' and ''P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it is sometimes considered to be synonymous with ''Austra ...

should be given their own

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

name, ''Paranthropus''. He also argues that the genus ''Australopithecus'' is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

which would require a new taxonomic designation for specimens included under ''Australopithecus afarensis'' to ''Praeanthropus africanus''. He is the editor of ''Evolutionary History of the Robust Australopithecines'' (Transaction Publishers, ) and co-editor of ''Primate Phylogeny'' (Academic Press, ) and "The First Humans: Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo (Springer, ). He is also author of the widely used anatomical textbook ''Regional Human Anatomy: a Laboratory Workbook for Use With Models And Prosections'' (McGraw-Hill College, ). In addition to this, Dr. Grine has published well over 150 peer-reviewed scientific research articles. He is also known for his work in leading the team that dated the

Hofmeyr Skull The Hofmeyr Skull is a specimen of a 36,000-year-old anatomically modern human skull that was found in 1952 near Hofmeyr, South Africa. Background The skull was found in the 1950s on the surface of an erosion gully, a dry channel bed of the Vl ...

, discovered in 1952 near the town of

Hofmeyr Hofmeyr is a small Karoo town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, 20 km west of the Bamboesberg mountain range. It lies 64 km north-east of Cradock at an altitude of 1,252 metres. According to the 2011 census, the population ...

, in the

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 ...

of South Africa, to 36,000 years before present. This skull probably represents the population ancestral to most modern living humans."Skull Is First Fossil Proof of Human Migration Theory, Study Says" Sean Markey for National Geographic News, January 12, 200
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References

External links

Official web page at SUNY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grine, Frederick E. American anthropologists Washington & Jefferson College alumni Living people Stony Brook University faculty Year of birth missing (living people)