- Dean Falk
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Dean Falk (born June 25, 1944) is an American academic anthropologist who specializes in the evolution of the brain and cognition in higher primates. She is presently a Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University.
After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, "Hobbit"-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 they were identified as a new species labelled Homo floresiensis. Some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic — a human with an abnormally small skull. Falk undertook a study in 2005 which supported the claim that the find represented a new species.
Falk's original 2005 study was criticised by other experts.[1] In 2007, with an international team of experts, Falk created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase and concluded that the so-called Hobbit was actually a new species closely related to Homo erectus. Falk's team have repeatedly asserted that their findings confirm that the species cataloged as LB1, Homo floresiensis, is definitely not a human born with microcephalia — a somewhat rare pathological condition that still occurs today.
Works
Dean Falk's books include:
- Falk, D. External Neuroanatomy of Old World Monkeys (Cercopithecoidea). Contributions to Primatology 15:1-95, 1978
- Armstrong, E. and D. Falk, (eds.). Primate Brain Evolution: Methods and Concepts. New York: Plenum Publishing Company, 1982
- Falk, D. Evolution of the Brain and Cognition in Hominids. The sixty-second James Arthur Lecture. New York: The American Museum of Natural History, 1992
- Falk, D. Braindance: New Discoveries About Human Origins and Brain Evolution. New York: Henry Holt, 1992
- Owl Book edition, 1994 (paper)
- German edition, Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 1994
- German translation as Warum Schimpansen nicht steppen konnen (Why Chimpanzees Can’t Tap Dance), Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1996 (paper)
- Falk, D. Primate Diversity. New York: Norton, 2000
- Falk, D. and K. Gibson (eds) Evolutionary Anatomy of the Primate Cerebral Cortex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
- Keenan, J., with Gallup, G. and D. Falk. The Face in the Mirror: The Search for the Origins of Consciousness, Ecco (Harper Collins), 2003
- Falk, D. Braindance Revised and Expanded. University Press of Florida, 2004
- Falk, D., Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants and the Origin of Language, Basic Books, New York 2009 ISBN 978-0-465-00219-1
References
External links
Categories:- Florida State University faculty
- American anthropologists
- American paleoanthropologists
- Living people
- 1944 births
- American academic scientist stubs
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