A long-term interest, and current focus, involves the analysis of faunal change and its relationship to environmental change, in particular based on our extensive faunal record from the Neogene Siwalik Series of Pakistan. I also have long-term and continuing interest in the behavioral reconstruction and phylogenetic relationships of Miocene apes, including more theoretical aspects of phylogenetics.
One particular current project involves approaches to reconstructing the morphology of the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.
I have also long been interested in so-called “molecular clocks” and on the necessary complementary roles played by genomics and paleontology in their calibration.
More recently I have become interested in evolutionary developmental biology, and particularly in the development and evolution of the anthropoid axial skeleton.