Jeremy DeSilva
Endowed Dartmouth Professorship of Archaeology, Paleontology, and Ethnology
Faculty in Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society (EEES) graduate program
Honorary Research Fellow, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Jeremy "Jerry" DeSilva is a paleoanthropologist, specializing in the evolution of the first apes (hominoids) and early human ancestors (hominins). His particular anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. He has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda and digs for ancient human fossils at sites in South Africa and Tanzania. From 1998-2003, Jerry worked as an educator at the Boston Museum of Science and continues to be passionate about science education. He is the author of the 2021 book First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human and the forthcoming Us: The Amazing Story of Human Evolution. Jerry lives in Norwich, VT with his wife Erin and their twins Ben and Josie.
Contact
Department(s)
Anthropology
Education
- Ph.D. University of Michigan, 2008
- B.A. Cornell University, 1998
Selected Publications
Chapman, T.J., Walker, C., Churchill, S.E., Marchi, D., Vereecke, E.E., DeSilva, J.M., Zipfel, B., Hawks, J., Van Sint Jan, S., Berger, L.R., Throckmorton, Z. 2025. Long legs and small joints: the locomotor capabilities of Homo naledi. Journal of Anatomy. 246: 892-906.
Miller, C.K., McCann, R., Hatala, K., Musiba, C., DeSilva, J.M. 2024. Early hominin movement patterns at Laetoli, Tanzania. PaleoAnthropology. 2024: 139-147.
Miller, C.K., DeSilva, J.M. 2024. A review of the distal femur of Australopithecus. Evolutionary Anthropology. 33: e22012
Fannin, L.D., Joy, M.S., Dominy, N.J., McGraw, W.S., DeSilva, J.M. 2023. Downclimbing and the evolution of ape forelimb morphologies. Royal Society Open Science. 10, 230145.