Welcome

My name is Laura E. Hunter, and I am currently a PhD candidate in the Organismal Biology and Anatomy Department at the University of Chicago.

My research focuses on evaluating the morphology and relationships between carpals to infer hand use (dexterity, locomotor behavior, handedness) in extinct and extant primates. By analyzing the carpals as a functional complex, we can better understand the evolution of key shifts in primate behavior, such as the origin of suspensory behavior in apes, the transition to habitual and obligate bipedalism in the human lineage, and the evolution of tool use in primates. 

Carpals have long defied comprehensive description using conventional approaches due to their small size and irregular shapes. Much of my dissertation work involves adopting unconventional geometric morphometric approaches to quantify shape or phylogenetic comparative methods to disentangle the roles of phylogeny and function.

If you are interested in learning more, take a look at the Research or Publications pages of this website.