Jill Rhodes
Visiting Assistant Professor
jarhodes@uncg.edu
256-1189
Jill Rhodes (Ph.D. University Bradford (England))
Interests and/or Activities:
As a biological anthropologist, I am interested in the functional and behavioral morphology of the humerus. The primary focus of my work is the investigation of biomechanical adaptations and architectural modifications to the upper limb related to habitual use and activity patterns. My research uses computer tomography to obtain transverse 'slices' from the humerus to identify geometric properties that relate to use and function of the upper limbs, as well as the examination of morphological features related functional modifications in the upper limb. Recent work includes the examination of humeral torsion as an adaptation to strenuous activity, the relationship between humeral architecture and biomechanical efficiency, as well as the identification through cross-sectional analysis of different movement patterns likely related to weapon use in a sample of medieval combatants. This work has formed a methodological basis to investigate the evolution of projectile weaponry from skeletal remains - to identify when in evolutionary history long-range projectile weapons become an important component of hunting tool kits. I am also working on a project investigating bilateral asymmetry in the upper limb and sexual dimorphic changes in architecture and cross-sectional geometry in both human and non-human primate populations.
I am also a bioarchaeologist, having originally trained in Archaeology (excavating in the US, Israel, South Africa and England) before specializing in human osteology. I have been involved in the Duke in South Africa Paleoanthropological Field School, coordinating the field school program, teaching and supervising paleontological excavations at a number of hominin fossil bearing sites. I have conducted research at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and a number of locations in England including the Mary Rose Trust, English Heritage and the Museum of Natural History (London).
Select Publications:
Churchill SE and Rhodes JA. 2007. The Evolution of the human capacity for killing at a distance: The human fossil evidence for the evolution of projectile weaponry. In, Michael Richards and Jean-Jacques Hublin (eds.), The Evolution of Hominid Diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Palaeolithic subsistence. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag (in press).
Rhodes JA. 2007. Humeral torsion and retroversion in the literature - Reply. Am J Phys Anthropol 133:820-821.
Rhodes JA. 2006. Adaptations to humeral torsion in medieval Britain. Am J Phys Anthropol 130: 160-166.
Rhodes JA. & Knüsel CJ. 2005. Activity related change in Medieval humeri: Cross-sectional and architectural alterations. Am J Phys Anthropol 128:536-546. (reported on in Science 308:1406)