Erik Trinkaus - Scientific Views

Scientific Views

Trinkaus' research has been a major contributor to current debates about human origins. Trinkaus supports theories related to various forms of multiregional evolution, a hypothesis held by a minority of scholars in the field of human evolution. Based on analysis of early human fossils from Europe, Trinkaus suggests that Neanderthals have made significant contributions to the gene pool of modern Europeans.

Trinkaus' research emphasizes the biological implications of behavioural shifts that could have been caused by interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern Pleistocene humans. His research addresses the 'origins of modern humans' debate, the interpretation of the archaeological record, and patterns of recent human anatomical variation, principally through his analysis of human fossil remains. His research involves biomechanical analysis of crania and post-cranial remains, respiratory and thermal adaptations, interpretations of ecogeographical patterning, evaluations of neuroanatomical evolution, life history parameters, and differential levels and patterns of stress, and interrelationships between these anatomically-based patterns.

In 1999, Trinkaus and his colleagues documented that Neanderthals roamed central Europe as recently as 28,000 years ago, the latest date yet established for Neandertal fossils worldwide.

As a finding of a possibly hybrid Neanderthal/modern fossil in Portugal has emerged in recent years, Trinkaus has broadened his research to include the complex patterns of human evolutionary change through the Early and especially Middle Pleistocene, especially with regard to the diversity, paleobiology and behaviour of early modern humans.