Nicole Torres-Tamayo

University of Zürich

I am a paleoanthropologist interested in the evolution of pelvic morphology and its adaptation to different selective pressures in extant primates and hominins. My PhD research focused on thoraco-pelvic covariation in humans and great apes, developing novel methods to predict missing fossil skeletal elements of the torso. During my first post-doctoral position at the Department of Anthropology of University College London, I investigated whether birth in humans is uniquely difficult among extant primates using a comparative anatomy approach. Now at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine of the University of Zurich, I am working on the reconstruction of incomplete hominin pelves in the fossil record to better understand the evolutionary significance of the different pelvic features that we see in the human lineage. I am also a strong advocate for the principles of open science and data sharing.