Adaptations to Locomotion
We aim to identify postcranial adaptations to locomotion in primates and other mammals, to aid reconstructions of locomotor behavior in fossil species.
Experimental Biomechanics
To understand how pelvic form is related to function, we test theoretical models of pelvic mechanics using an experimental biomechanics approach.
Integration & Modularity
We seek to identify how patterns of morphological integration and modularity in the primate pelvis have facilitated evolutionary change.
PEOPLE
Kristi L. Lewton, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Kristi L. Lewton is a biological anthropologist and evolutionary anatomist, and is an Associate Professor at the Keck School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Division of Integrative Anatomical Sciences at the University of Southern California.
Kristi received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2002, her M.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University in 2004, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from ASU in 2010. From 2010-2013 she held a Postdoctoral Preceptorship at Harvard University in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. From 2014-2015 Kristi was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine where she developed the Physician Assistant Gross Anatomy Course and served as its course director. Kristi joined USC in 2015, where she holds a primary appointment in Keck School of Medicine, adjunct professor positions in Dornsife College and the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, and a Research Associate in Mammalogy position at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
In addition to lab-based research on postcranial morphology, Kristi has worked in archaeological excavation in Arizona, conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia and South Africa, and has collected data at museums around the world, including in the UK, France, Madagascar, and South Africa, as well as in Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Tempe, AZ, Cambridge, MA, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.
Julia Haffie
Undergraduate, Human Biology B.S. (2025), USC
Julia started working in the lab in August 2023. She is processing micro-CT scans of femora of mammalian hoppers and leapers.
CONTACT & LINKS
Dr. Kristi L. Lewton, PhD
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Division of Integrative Anatomical Sciences
1333 San Pablo St, Mail Stop 9112
Los Angeles, CA 90033
Office (323) 442-1629
email: kristilewton at gmail dot com