Osbjorn Pearson
Assistant Professor of Anthropology At UNM since Fall 1999

Anthropology Courses taught at UNM
ANTH 150 - Evolution and Human Emergence
ANTH 350 - Human Biology
ANTH 351 - Anthropology of the Skeleton
ANTH 357 - Human Origins
ANTH 450 - Topics: Origin of Modern Humans
ANTH 450 (now ANTH 458) - Reconstructing Life from the Skeleton
ANTH 457 - Paleoanthropology
ANTH 550 - Topics: Origin of Modern Humans
ANTH 550 (now ANTH 556) - Topics: Inferring Behavior from the Skeleton
ANTH 557 - Paleoanthropology
ANTH 577 - Seminar: European Prehistory: The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition (co-taught with Dr. Lawrence Straus)

Education
BA 1990 University of Texas at Austin
MA 1995 State University of New York at Stony Brook
PhD 1997 State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dissertation title: Postcranial Morphology and the Origin of Modern Humans

Fieldwork
1999 Studied human fossils at the National Museum of Ethiopia
2000 Studied skeletal collections at the American Museum of Natural History
2001 Studied Osteology Collections at Museums in Argentina and Chile
2002 Archaeological survey near Gorgora, northern Ethiopia

Selected Publications
Baker, J., and Pearson, O. M. (2006) Statistical methods in bioarchaeology: applications of ageadjustment
and logistic regression to comparisons of skeletal populations with differing agestructures. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:218226. p.2

Pearson, O. M. and Millones, M.(2005) Rasgos esqueléticos de adaptación al clima y a la actividad entre los habitantes aborígenes de Tierra del Fuego (Skeletal traces of adaptation to climate and activity among the aboriginal inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego). Magellania 33: 3750.

Lam, Y. M. and Pearson, O. M.(2005) Bone density studies and the interpretation of the faunal record. Evolutionary Anthropology 14: 99108.

Lam, Y. M. and O. M. Pearson.(2004) The fallibility of bone density values and their use in archaeological analyses. Journal of Taphonomy 2: 99115.

Pearson, O. M. and D. E. Lieberman.(2004) The aging of Wolff’s “Law:” Ontogeny and responses to mechanical loading in cortical bone. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47: 6399.

Pearson, O. M. (2004) Has the combination of genetic and fossil data solved the riddle of the origin of modern humans? Evolutionary Anthropology 13: 145159.

Pearson, O. M. and Stone, A. C. (2003) On a diffusion wave as the genetic mechanism for spread of modern humans. Current Anthropology 44: 559-561.

Lam, Y. M., Pearson, O. M., Marean, C. W., and Chen, X. (2003) Bone density studies in zoo archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1701-1708.

Lieberman, D. E., Pearson, O. M., Polk, J. D., Demes, B., and Crompton, A. W. (2003) Optimization of bone growth and remodeling in response to loading in tapered mammalian limbs. Experimental Biology 206: 3125-3138.

Lieberman, D. E., M. J. Devlin, and O. M. Pearson. (2001) Articular surface area responses to mechanical loading: Effects of exercise, age, and skeletal location. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 116: 266-277.

Online CV (Adobe Acrobat format) >>