René Bobe

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Washington, 1997
renebobe@uga.edu

Research Interests:

Environmental and ecological context of human evolution in Africa

Evolution, ecology, and biogeography of African and South American mammals

Relationship between climatic and evolutionary change

Biodiversity dynamics in geologic time

Quantitative methods of faunal analysis

Ecological and evolutionary theory

 

I am a biological anthropologist interested in the relationship between climatic change and evolutionary processes. The main focus of my research is on the environmental and ecological context of human evolution in Africa. Therefore I specialize in the study of fossil mammals that provide a long-term record of environmental change. I have active field projects in Kenya (Turkana Basin) and Ethiopia (Afar region). In parallel to my research in Africa, I conduct fieldwork in the Chilean Andes to study the evolution of primates and other mammals in South America.

Recent publications:

• Bobe, R., Alemseged, Z., Behrensmeyer, A.K. (Editors) (2007). Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene: An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series, Volume 1. Springer, Dordrecht.
• Alemseged, Z., Spoor, F., Kimbel, W.H., Bobe, R., Geraads, D., Reed, D., Wynn, J.G. (2006). A juvenile early hominin skeleton from Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature 443, 296-301.
• Wynn, J., Alemseged, Z., Bobe, R., Geraads, D., Reed, D., Roman, D. (2006). Geological and palaeontological context of a Pliocene juvenile hominin at Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature 443, 332-336.
• Bobe, R. (2006). The evolution of arid ecosystems in eastern Africa. Journal of Arid Environments 66(3), 564-584.
• Alemseged, Z., Wynn, J., Kimbel, W., Reed, D., Geraads, D., Bobe, R. 2005. A new hominin from the Basal Member of the Hadar Formation, Dikika, Ethiopia, and its geological context. Journal of Human Evolution 49, 499-514.
• Bobe, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Carrasco, G. 2004. Paleoclima y evolución faunística en el Plio-Pleistoceno de África y América del Sur. Ameghiniana 41(4), 641-649.
• Bobe, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Chapman, R.E., Eck, G.G. 2004. Evolución humana en valle del Omo (Etiopía): relación con cambios faunísticos y variaciones ambientales en el Plioceno terminal. Fundamental 3, 1-59.
• DiMichele, W., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Olszewski, T., Labandeira, C., Pandolfi, J., Wing, S., Bobe, R. 2004. Long-term stasis in ecological assemblages: evidence from the fossil record. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 35, 285-322.
• Bobe, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K. 2004. The expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa in relation to mammalian evolution and the origin of the genus Homo. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 207, 399-420.
• Bobe, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Chapman, R.E. 2002. Faunal change, environmental variability and late Pliocene hominin evolution. Journal of Human Evolution 42(4), 475-497.
• Bobe, R., Eck, G.G. 2001. Responses of African bovids to Pliocene climatic change. Paleobiology 27 supplement to No. 2. Paleobiology Memoirs 2, 1-47. [Featured in Science 293, 2377]
• Bobe, R. 1997. Hominid Environments in the Pliocene: An Analysis of Fossil Mammals from the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington (Seattle). UMI Dissertation Services, 248 pp.
• Kimbel, W., Walter., R., Johanson, D., Reed, K., Aronson, J., Assefa, Z., Marean, C., Eck, G., Bobe, R., Hovers, E., Rak, Y., Vondra, C., Yemane, T., York, D., Chen, Y., Evensen, N., Smith, P. 1996. Late Pliocene Homo and Oldowan tools from the Hadar Formation (Kada Hadar Member), Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution 31, 549-561.