Scholars@Duke
Charles M Musiba

Charles M Musiba

Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology
Evolutionary Anthropology
Office hours Fall 2025:
Mondays - Thursdays 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.  

Scholarly Works

Preserving the Past: Conservation Strategies for the Laetoli Animal Trackways

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2026 Link to item Cite

Using GPR Technology to Detect and Map Unexposed Hominin Footprints at Laetoli

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2026 Link to item Cite

Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African <i>Paranthropus</i>.

Journal article Science (New York, N.Y.) · May 2025 Paranthropus robustus is a morphologically well-documented Early Pleistocene hominin species from southern Africa with no genetic evidence reported so far. In this work, we describe the mass spectrometric sequencing of enamel peptides from four ~2 m ... Full text Open Access Cite

Re-assessment of papionin diversity at Laetoli using mandibles

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2025 Link to item Cite

Data Sharing in Paleoanthropology and the Technology Divide Dilemma

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2025 Link to item Cite

Lessons from Anthro-Cast: Ethical Futures in Casting, Curation, and Repair

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · April 2024 Link to item Cite

Change in biological nomenclature is overdue and possible.

Journal article Nature ecology & evolution · August 2023 Full text Open Access Cite

Laetoli: The Oldest Known Hominin Footprints in Volcanic Ash

Journal article Elements · April 1, 2023 Hominin footprints are rare in eastern Africa and known from the Laetoli (Tanzania), Ileret (Kenya), and Melka Kunture (Ethiopia) areas. The prints were made by Australopithecus afarensis, Homo erectusand Homo heidelbergensis. Their study is an important s ... Full text Cite

New Pliocene cercopithecoid primates from Laetoli, Tanzania (1998-2022)

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · April 2023 Link to item Cite

The Dawn of Humanity: What Can Paleoanthropologists and Geoscientists Learn from One Another?

Journal article Elements · January 1, 2023 Establishing a scientific narrative of human origins requires a better understanding of the geological processes that facilitated the fossilization and recovery of hominins and associated fauna that inform us about our human ancestors’ past environments. P ... Full text Cite

What can monkey fossils tell us about early human evolution? New insights from the analysis of molar cusp proportions in fossil cercopithecoids from Laetoli, Tanzania

Conference The FASEB Journal · May 2022 IntroductionLaetoli, Tanzania preserves the earliest fossils attributed to Australopithecus afarensis (3.7 mya). A diversity of non‐human primates including cercopithecoid ... Full text Cite

Calcaneal ecomorphology of Bovidae from the Upper Laetolil Beds, Tanzania

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · April 2022 Link to item Cite

Corrigendum: Aerial map demonstrates erosional patterns and changing topography at Isimila, Tanzania

Journal article South African Journal of Science · January 27, 2022 Original article: https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/5911 Due to an error in the reference plane, the elevation range shown for the digital elevation model (DEM) in Figure 5a is incorrect. The correct elevation range is 1629.41–1679.64 m. The DEM a ... Full text Cite

Footprint evidence of early hominin locomotor diversity at Laetoli, Tanzania.

Journal article Nature · December 2021 Bipedal trackways discovered in 1978 at Laetoli site G, Tanzania and dated to 3.66 million years ago are widely accepted as the oldest unequivocal evidence of obligate bipedalism in the human lineage1-3. Another trackway discovered two years ear ... Full text Open Access Cite

Body mass estimation from footprint size in hominins.

Journal article Journal of human evolution · July 2021 Although many studies relating stature to foot length have been carried out, the relationship between foot size and body mass remains poorly understood. Here we investigate this relationship in 193 adult and 50 juvenile habitually unshod/minimally shod ind ... Full text Cite

Body mass estimation from footprint size in early hominins

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2020 Link to item Cite

Rediscovery of original site A bipedal footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 2020 Link to item Cite

Aerial map demonstrates erosional patterns and changing topography at isimila, Tanzania

Journal article South African Journal of Science · January 1, 2019 Isimila is a Middle Pleistocene archaeological site located in southern Tanzania. The site is known for large surface assemblages of later Acheulean lithics such as hand axes, cleavers, scrapers and cores. While hominin remains have yet to be discovered at ... Full text Cite

Structural analysis of the femoral diaphyses of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, China

Journal article Quaternary International · April 1, 2017 The Tianyuan 1 skeleton is among the oldest fossil specimens of our species from East Asia. Important in the original assessment of the skeleton as belonging to a modern human was its femoral structure, particularly its well-developed pilasters. Also notew ... Full text Cite

The skull of Homo naledi.

Journal article Journal of human evolution · March 2017 The species Homo naledi was recently named from specimens recovered from the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. This large skeletal sample lacks associated faunal material and currently does not have a known chronological cont ... Full text Cite

The evolutionary relationships and age of Homo naledi: An assessment using dated Bayesian phylogenetic methods.

Journal article Journal of human evolution · August 2016 Homo naledi is a recently discovered species of fossil hominin from South Africa. A considerable amount is already known about H. naledi but some important questions remain unanswered. Here we report a study that addressed two of them: "Where does H. naled ... Full text Cite

Geological and taphonomic context of excavations within the Rising Star cave system

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 1, 2016 Link to item Cite

Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa.

Journal article eLife · September 2015 We describe the physical context of the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave, South Africa, which contains the fossils of Homo naledi. Approximately 1550 specimens of hominin remains have been recovered from at least 15 individuals, representing a ... Full text Open Access Cite

Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa.

Journal article eLife · September 2015 Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human po ... Full text Open Access Cite

An ecological neo-taphonomic study of carcass consumption by lions in Tarangire National Park (Tanzania) and its relevance for human evolutionary biology

Journal article Quaternary International · February 16, 2014 Actualistic observations on modern lions (Panthera leo) from Tarangire National Park (Tanzania) have expanded the reported range of carcass consumption behaviors by these felids. The present study confirms that lions efficiently deflesh small and medium-si ... Full text Cite

Geo-archaeological and geometrically corrected reconstruction of the 1.84 Ma FLK Zinj paleolandscape at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Journal article Quaternary International · February 16, 2014 A geomorphological, sedimentological, stratigraphic, and geometric study of 30 trenches excavated around FLK Zinj (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge) has enabled the partial reconstruction of the paleolandscape surrounding this site for a radius of ~1000 m. This is the ... Full text Cite

Taphonomy of ungulate ribs and the consumption of meat and bone by 1.2-million-year-old hominins at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Journal article Journal of Archaeological Science · January 1, 2013 The phenomenon of equifinality complicates behavioral interpretations of faunal assemblages from contexts in which Pleistocene hominins are suspected bone accumulators. Stone tool butchery marks on ungulate fossils are diagnostic of hominin activities, but ... Full text Cite

First partial skeleton of a 1.34-million-year-old Paranthropus boisei from Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.

Journal article PloS one · January 2013 Recent excavations in Level 4 at BK (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) have yielded nine hominin teeth, a distal humerus fragment, a proximal radius with much of its shaft, a femur shaft, and a tibia shaft fragment (cataloged collectively as OH 80). Those e ... Full text Open Access Cite

An experimental study of large mammal bone modification by crocodiles and its bearing on the interpretation of crocodile predation at FLK Zinj and FLK NN3

Journal article Journal of Archaeological Science · January 1, 2012 The taphonomic signature of crocodiles as agents of bone modification has been previously identified by specific tooth mark types (e.g., bisected pits) and by a conspicuous presence of these marks: more than 75% of bones modified by crocodiles bear at leas ... Full text Cite

Earliest porotic hyperostosis on a 1.5-million-year-old hominin, olduvai gorge, Tanzania.

Journal article PloS one · January 2012 Meat-eating was an important factor affecting early hominin brain expansion, social organization and geographic movement. Stone tool butchery marks on ungulate fossils in several African archaeological assemblages demonstrate a significant level of carnivo ... Full text Open Access Cite

Autochthony and orientation patterns in Olduvai Bed I: A re-examination of the status of post-depositional biasing of archaeological assemblages from FLK North (FLKN)

Journal article Journal of Archaeological Science · January 1, 2012 Recent excavations at FLK North (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) have produced new information on the orientation of archaeological materials at various levels of the site. This information includes the uniform distribution of material azimuths, which contrasts w ... Full text Cite

Negotiating Conservation and Sustainable Use of Tanzania's Paleoanthropological Heritage: The Laetoli Hominin Footprints Site in Ngorongoro, Northern Tanzania

Conference ACTAS DEL PRIMER CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE BUENAS PRACTICAS EN PATRIMONIO MUNDIAL: ARQUEOLOGIA · 2012 Link to item Cite

Ichnotaxonomy of the Laetoli trackways: The earliest hominin footprints

Journal article Journal of African Earth Sciences · April 1, 2011 At 3.6. Ma, the Laetoli Pliocene hominin trackways are the earliest direct evidence of hominin bipedalism. Three decades since their discovery, not only is the question of their attribution still discussed, but marked differences in interpretation concerni ... Full text Cite

How Accurate are Paleoecological Reconstructions of Early Paleontological and Archaeological Sites?

Journal article Evolutionary Biology · January 1, 2010 Paleoecology allows construction of paleoenvironmental models, faunal changes and evolutionary trends of paleontological taxa using modern analogs. However, when linking modern analogs to paleontological taxa in paleoecological reconstruction, differential ... Full text Cite

Pliocene animal trackways at Laetoli: Research and conservation potential

Conference Ichnos an International Journal of Plant and Animal · December 15, 2008 Laetoli, a paleoanthropological site in Northern Tanzania, is perhaps best known for its famous fossil hominid footprints that were discovered by Mary Leakey and her co-workers in 1978. The site not only preserves the hominid footprints but also trackways, ... Full text Cite

Book review: Human Origins and Environmental Backgrounds

Journal article American Journal of Physical Anthropology · November 2008 Full text Cite

Taphonomy and paleoecological context of the upper Laetolil beds (Localities 8 and 9), Laetoli in northern Tanzania

Book section · January 1, 2007 The Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli in northern Tanzania contain abundant fossil mammalian remains that may help elucidate Pliocene environments and enhance our understanding of the morphological and behavioral adaptations of the Laetoli hominins. The Laeto ... Full text Cite

Politics, cattle, and conservation: Ngorongoro crater at a crossroads

Book section · December 1, 2003 Mass tourism in Tanzania's national parks, game reserves, and conservation areas threatens the very ecosystems and communities these areas seek to protect. Until the mid-1980s, management of these areas stressed wildlife management and long-term mass touri ... Cite

Swift and sure-footed on the Savanna: A study of Hadzabe gaits and feet in Northern Tanzania.

Journal article American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · January 1997 Data on footprints and gait of 54 Hadzabe, 6-70 years of age expand understanding of pedal morphology of unshod people and assist the development of ideas about the evolution of hominid bipedality and upright posture. Contrary to published data on gaits an ... Full text Cite