About

Professor David Pilbeam is headed the Paleoanthropology Laboratory at Harvard University, which is part of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. His work focuses on the evolution of hominoids, including hominins, as well as other mammals. The laboratory conducts a broad range of activities, including field and laboratory research on fossil and recent faunas from regions such as Pakistan, China, and Georgia. Professor Pilbeam's research involves interdisciplinary approaches to questions covering phylogenetics, systematics, behavioral reconstruction, broad patterns of faunal change and evolution, and paleoecology. He has contributed to the publication of a volume on Miocene age Siwalik faunas from the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan, and collaborates with research programs focused on fossil sequences from East Africa and Spain, as well as with other universities and institutions.

Research topics

• Geology
• History
• Paleontology
• Art history
• Environmental ethics
• Genetics
• Genealogy
• Anatomy
• Philosophy
• Geography
• Art
• Biology
• Earth science
• Aesthetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Archaeology

Selected publications

• Fifty Years in the Foothills: Ecosystem Evolution in the Neogene Siwalik Record of Pakistan

  Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences · 2025-05-30 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The continental fossil record has exceptional, long sequences of fossiliferous strata that are the basis for evaluating ecosystem dynamics and their formative influences. The Siwalik sequence of South Asia is one example. It occurs in the Potwar Plateau (Punjab Province, Pakistan) and spans 18–1 Ma. The sequence consists of alluvial sediments deposited in a foreland basin created by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Sediments representing large and small river channels and their associated floodplain deposits correspond to mountain-sourced large rivers and foothill-sourced smaller rivers. Vegetation attributes are recorded in stable carbon isotopes and biomarkers in paleosols. Molluscs, fishes, crocodilians, turtles, lizards, snakes, birds, and mammals are preserved throughout the sequence. Mammalian faunas had exceptionally high species richness (116 species) at their peak and included up to 18 species of co-occurring megaherbivores (>800 kg). Significant changes over time in species richness, taxonomic composition, and ecological structure of mammalian faunas coincided with major changes in climate and vegetation. ▪ Siwalik strata and fossils document a long continuous sequence of South Asian continental sediments and ecosystems south of the Himalaya Mountains. ▪ A multidisciplinary analysis of tectonics, fluvial systems, climate history, and vertebrate diversity documents ecosystem dynamics from 18 to 6 million years ago. ▪ A sparse portion of the Siwalik record coinciding with the Miocene Climatic Optimum raises the possibility that humid heat stress limited occupancy of the floodplain by most mammals for much of this time. ▪ The timing and magnitude of change in mammalian species richness and ecological structure are consistent with environmental forcing as a significant influence on these features.

  PublisherDOI

• The Siwaliks: Reading Rodent Evolution in the Miocene of South Asia

  Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology · 2025-12-04

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Richard Erskine Frere Leakey. 19 December 1944—2 January 2022

  Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society · 2025-04-03

  articleOpen access1st author

  Richard Leakey was a palaeontologist, a palaeoanthropologist, an administrator, an advocate for wildlife and an advocate for Kenya, but above all he was a proud African. More than most of us he was shaped by his family history and particularly by his parents, but he built on that inheritance and their example to make his own singular contributions to science and the common good. Richard Leakey was a polymath who made things happen. As well as making substantial contributions to science, and to the long-term welfare of the people and the wildlife of Kenya, he had the foresight to realize that without strengthening its institutions, even his prodigious personal efforts would not be enough. The results of his encouragement of science and conservation in Kenya, and more widely on the African continent, will be felt for years to come.

  PublisherDOI

• Siwalik Rodent Assemblages for NOW: Biostratigraphic Resolution in the Neogene of South Asia

  Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthroplogy series/Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthropology series · 2023-01-01 · 6 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Potwar Siwaliks: an impressive Neogene record of terrestrial rocks and fossils

  Geological Society London Special Publications · 2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Geology
  • Paleontology
  • Earth science

  Abstract Outcropping sedimentary deposits of the Potwar Plateau in northern Pakistan comprise the most complete record of Neogene Siwalik rocks and faunas to be found in the Indian subcontinent documenting an extraordinary record of terrestrial vertebrate fossils for the Miocene Epoch. The Potwar Plateau is a portion of the Siwalik Hills, the mountainous terrane of the outer Himalayas extending over 2000 km across the northern margin of the Indian subcontinent. Siwalik strata accumulated as a molassic sedimentary wedge shed southward with the erosion of the rising crust as it was uplifted via plate tectonics. The long Potwar record of numerous superposed assemblages of fossil vertebrates preserves a history spanning many millions of years, and constitutes a unique geoheritage resource for Asia and for the world. The record can be dated and interpreted with a high degree of precision rarely achieved in terrestrial settings. The Potwar Siwalik sediments document 18 million years of change in the subtropical ecosystem of South Asia, in which global to regional climate change directly impacted terrestrial palaeofloras and palaeofaunas, forcing coevolution of elements of the terrestrial food web, and with that the modernization of mammalian groups. The potential to trace coincidence of abiotic changes with evolution within lineages is unusual.

  PublisherDOI

• Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (1944–2022)

  Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews · 2022 · 1 citations

  • Archaeology
  • History
  • Environmental ethics

  International audience

  PublisherDOI

• Contingency rules

  Journal of Human Evolution · 2022-03-18

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Homeotic change in segment identity derives the human vertebral formula from a chimpanzee‐like one

  American Journal of Physical Anthropology · 2021 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Anatomy
  • Genealogy
  • Evolutionary biology

  OBJECTIVES: One of the most contentious issues in paleoanthropology is the nature of the last common ancestor of humans and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos (panins). The numerical composition of the vertebral column has featured prominently, with multiple models predicting distinct patterns of evolution and contexts from which bipedalism evolved. Here, we study total numbers of vertebrae from a large sample of hominoids to quantify variation in and patterns of regional and total numbers of vertebrae in hominoids. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compile and study a large sample (N = 893) of hominoid vertebral formulae (numbers of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, caudal segments in each specimen) and analyze full vertebral formulae, total numbers of vertebrae, and super-regional numbers of vertebrae: presacral (cervical, thoracic, lumbar) vertebrae and sacrococcygeal vertebrae. We quantify within- and between-taxon variation using heterogeneity and similarity measures derived from population genetics. RESULTS: We find that humans are most similar to African apes in total and super-regional numbers of vertebrae. Additionally, our analyses demonstrate that selection for bipedalism reduced variation in numbers of vertebrae relative to other hominoids. DISCUSSION: The only proposed ancestral vertebral configuration for the last common ancestor of hominins and panins that is consistent with our results is the modal formula demonstrated by chimpanzees and bonobos (7 cervical-13 thoracic-4 lumbar-6 sacral-3 coccygeal). Hox gene expression boundaries suggest that a rostral shift in Hox10/Hox11-mediated complexes could produce the human modal formula from the proposal ancestral and panin modal formula.

  PublisherDOI

• Tertiary Pongidae of East Africa: Evolutionary Relationships and Taxonomy

  2019-02-04 · 108 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Numbers of Vertebrae in Hominoid Evolution

  2019-01-01 · 17 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Climatic and Biotic Transformations of Neogene Mammalian Faunas of Pakistan

  NSF · $120k · 2010–2014

Frequent coauthors

• John C. Barry

  63 shared

• Michèle E. Morgan

  Harvard University

  52 shared

• Franck Guy

  47 shared

• Michel Brunet

  French School at Athens

  42 shared

• Lawrence J. Flynn

  Harvard University

  36 shared

• Patrick Vignaud

  Université de Poitiers

  34 shared

• Laura MacLatchy

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  28 shared

• Catherine Badgley

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  28 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1970

• M.A., Anthropology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1966

• B.A., Anthropology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1964