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Please note, as of 31st December 2023, Dr Carvalho has left her Professorship at the University of Oxford. Dr Carvalho is starting a new position as Director of Paleoanthropology and Primatology at Gorongosa National Park on 1st April 2024, and as an Integrated Researcher at ICArEHB, coordinating the Primate Models for Hominin Evolution research theme. For any enquiries regarding postgraduate mentorship, field research, or the Gorongosa field school, please contact Dr Carvalho at susana.carvalho@gorongosa.net

The Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa has a newsletter which celebrates progress and achievements of the interdisciplinary team studying fossils and living primates in Gorongosa National Park to shed light on human origins. Check out the latest edition of the newsletter below and subscribe if you want to receive future updates.

We were delighted to present our research and attend so many fascinating presentations and discussions at IPS-MPS ’23, the Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the Malaysian Primatological Society held in Kuching, Malaysia.

A group of students from Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique and University of Oxford travelled to Gorongosa National Park this summer to receive training in primatology, palaeoanthropology, archaeology. After an exciting series of lectures and practical classes, students got stuck in and experienced fieldwork, joining the paleontology team in the search for fossils at the Park's fossil sites located at the base of the East African Rift System.

The Baldwin Fellowship aims to expand access to advanced degrees for students of paleoanthropology and primatology from countries with limited educational opportunities in fields of research related to human origins, investing in outstanding scholars and helping them become leaders in their home countries. Many congratulations to DPhil student Jacinto Mathe for this prestigious acheivement! 

A wonderful get together to mark the holiday season and celebrate the many accomplishments of Lab members over the past year!

(Almost) all our lab got together in Arnhem for our fist conference post-lockdown. We had a great time listening to some fantastic talks, catching up with colleagues, and exploring Burgers' Zoo.

Our first DPhil, Dr. Katarina Almeida-Warren, has just been awarded the prestigious Leverhume Early Career Fellowship - Double Congratulations! She will be returning to our lab as a post-doctoral fellow in November 2022 to work on her exciting new project - Primate Archaeology beyond Technology! We are thrilled!

Our virtual seminar series may be over for the year, but you can stream all talks over on our Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab YouTube channel 

Our first post-doctoral fellows have conducted outstanding research and moved on to stellar positions - please contact our lab head, Professor Susana Carvalho, if you wish to discuss possible post-doctoral research projects with us

This year, Archaeology & Anthropology undergraduates at the University of Oxford had the opportunity to examine casts of fossil hominin skulls in one of the beautiful School of Anthropology gardens as part of their human origins course with Drs Susana Carvalho and René Bobe

A milestone comparative study led by Lab members Alejandra Pascual-Garrido and Katarina Almeida-Warren, out now in Current Anthropology

Even though we have not been able to recreate our usual Lab group photo since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are still keeping the tradition going and supporting one another virtually

A number of our Lab members study troops of baboons in Gorongosa - you can read about some of their research on our projects pages

One of our study species is the vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), pictured here feeding on the flowers of the flame creeper (Combretum microphyllum) in Gorongosa - photo by Lee Bennett

Learn all about the team's research in the Gorongosa Rift Valley through the project page below

Taken during a virtual celebration quiz in lockdown times - a bit different to our usual Lab get togethers, but still lots of fun

Since 2006, the research of our Lab Head, Dr Susana Carvalho, has focused on wild chimpanzee stone tool use in the forests of Bossou and Diecké