Bernard Wood

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Bernard Wood, November 2008

Bernard Anthony Wood (born April 17, 1945 ) is a British anatomist , comparative morphologist and professor in the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University in Washington, DC He became internationally known for his paleoanthropological contributions to the study of the anatomy of the early ancestors of man in East Africa , especially as part of the Koobi Fora Research Project in Kenya initiated by Richard Leakey and Glynn Isaac . Wood wore u. a. instrumental in the previous oldest finds of Homo erectus reported fossils to today Hominini - kind Homo ergaster are provided.

Career

From 1963 to 1969, Bernard Wood attended Middlesex Hospital Medical School at the University of London . At this university he obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in anatomy in 1966 and a Master’s degree in pathology three years later . In 1971 he was admitted as a general practitioner , after which he worked until 1973 as a research assistant in the Department of Anatomy at Middlesex Hospital Medical School.

From 1973 Wood initially taught as a lecturer at the University of London, particularly in the field of anatomy. Here he also obtained his first doctoral degree (PhD) in 1974 and the second (DSc) in 1996. From 1975 to 1978 he held the rank of Senior Lecturer , then until 1982 that of Reader . In 1982 he received the S. A Courtauld Professorship in Anatomy at the University of London, which he gave up in 1985 in favor of the Derby Professorship in Anatomy at the University of Liverpool . From 1986 Wood was head of the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool, from 1996 Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

In 1997, Bernard Wood moved to the USA to take a professorship in human origins at George Washington University.

He is a member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland , the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and the Palaeontological Association.

research

The core of Bernard Wood's scientific interest is an understanding of human tribal history . In doing so, he not only analyzes the anatomical changes, but also tries to include the adaptive performance of behavior and the ecological environment. As part of ongoing research projects, he works a. with bioinformation systems . In doing so, he creates databases that contain data obtained conventionally - through anatomical studies - on the one hand, but also computer-generated data sets for the three-dimensional reconstruction of fossils. This should make it possible, among other things, to take into account the evolution of gender-specific characteristics and variations within individual hominid species due to ecological conditions.

One of his specialties is the analysis of the microstructure of the dentin of fossil teeth, which can be made visible with the help of imaging techniques without destroying the enamel above .

Fonts (selection)

  • The Evolution of Early Man. Peter Lowe, London 1976, ISBN 0-85654-023-4 .
  • Human evolution. Chapman and Hall et al., London et al. 1978, ISBN 0-470-26312-1 .
  • as editor with David J. Chivers, Bernard A. Wood, and Alan Bilsborough: Food Acquisition and Processing in Primates. Plenum, New York NY et al. 1984, ISBN 0-306-41701-4 .
  • as editor with Lawrence Martin and Peter Andrews: Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1986, ISBN 0-521-30700-7 .
  • Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 4: Hominid cranial remains. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-857502-5 .
  • with Mark Collard: The Human Genus. In: Science . Vol. 284, No. 5411, 1999, pp. 65-71, doi: 10.1126 / science.284.5411.65 .
  • Human evolution. A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-280360-3 .
  • as editor with Leslie Klenerman: The Human Foot. A companion to clinical studies. Springer London, Goldaming 2005, ISBN 1-85233-925-X .
  • as editor with Barbara D. Miller: Anthropology. Pearson / Allyn & Bacon, Boston MA 2006, ISBN 0-205-32024-4 .
  • as editor: Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. 2 volumes. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester et al. 2011, ISBN 978-1-4051-5510-6 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wood, Bernard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wood, Bernard Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1945