Matt Sponheimer (Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1999)
Sponheimer’s research focuses on the ecology of early human ancestors in Africa. He is currently director of a multi-disciplinary project investigating the community paleoecology of Australopithecus africanus at Makapansgat Limeworks, South Africa, and co-director of a research group examining the neoecology of large mammals in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. He is also co-director of two projects using heavy isotopes to study early hominin land use at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and the Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa. |
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Selected Publications:
- Copeland, S.R., Sponheimer, M., le Roux, P.J., Grimes, V., Lee-Thorp, J.A., de Ruiter, D.J., Richards, M.P. (2008). Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel: a comparison of solution and laser ablation MCICPMS methods. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 22, 3187–3194.
- Sponheimer, M. & Lee-Thorp, J.A. (2006). Enamel Diagenesis at South African Australopith Sites: Implications for Paleoecological Reconstruction with Trace Elements. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70, 1644-1654.
- Sponheimer, M., Passey, B., de Ruiter, D., Guatelli-Sternberg, D. Cerling, T. & Lee-Thorp, J. (2006). Isotopic Evidence for Dietary Flexibility in the Early Hominin Paranthropus robustus. Science 314, 980-982.
- Sponheimer, M., Loudon, J.E.*, Codron, D., Howells, M.E.*, Pruetz, J.D. , Codron, J., de Ruiter, D. & Lee-Thorp, J.A. (2006). Do "Savanna" Chimpanzees Consume C4 resources? Journal of Human Evolution 51, 128-133.
- Sponheimer, M., Lee-Thorp, J., DeRuiter, D, Smith, J., van der Merwe, N., Reed, K., Ayliffe, L., Heidelberger, C. & Marcus, W. (2003). Diets of Southern African Bovidae: The Stable Isotope Evidence. Journal of Mammalogy 84, 471-479.
- Sponheimer, M., Robinson, T., Ayliffe, L., Roeder, B., Hammer, J., West, A., Passey, B., Cerling, T., Dearing, D. & Ehleringer, J. (2003). Nitrogen Isotopes in Mammalian Herbivores: Hair d15N Values from a Controlled-Feeding Study. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13, 80-87.
- Sarnecki, J. & Sponheimer, M. (2002). Why Neanderthals Hate Poetry: A Critical Notice of Steven Mithen's The Prehistory of the Mind. Philosophical Psychology 15, 173-184.
- Sponheimer, M. & Lee-Thorp, J.A. (1999). Isotopic Evidence for the Diet of an Early Hominid, Australopithecus africanus. Science 283, 368-370.
- Sponheimer, M. & Lee-Thorp, J.A. (1999). Oxygen Isotopes in Enamel Carbonate and their Ecological Significance. Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 723-728.
- Sponheimer, M. & Lee-Thorp, J.A. (1999). Alteration of Enamel Carbonate Environments during Fossilization. Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 143-150.