The University of Sheffield
Department of Archaeology

Dr Kevin KuykendallKevin Kuykendall

Senior Lecturer in Palaeoanthropology
Department Safety Officer

PhD (Washington University, USA; 1992) Dental development in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and implications for dental development patterns in fossil hominids.

Email address: k.l.kuykendall@sheffield.ac.uk

Telephone: 0114 22 22937

Biography

Dr Kuykendall obtained his training in archaeology and palaeoanthropology, completing his BA degree at the University of Arizona in 1984. During this time, he participated in archaeological fieldwork of Hohokam and Anasazi sites in Arizona, lithic scatters and historic logging camps inNorthern California, and a Mayan temple complex in Belize (Central America).

His PhD research concerned the use of dental development and aging standards to assess the evolution of life history in early hominids such as Australopithecus africanus.

After completion of his PhD, Kuykendall accepted a lecturing position at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and for the next decade was involved in fieldwork at the Plio-Pleistocene sites at the Makapansgat Limeworks, Buffalo Cave, and Gondolin. He also has conducted research in the fields of skeletal biology, CT analysis of fossil hominid crania, and development of innovative teaching methods.

Kuykendall joined the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in 2004, where he is the course coordinator of the MSc Palaeoanthropology programme, and continues with research in palaeoanthropology.

Research interests

Current research projects / collaborations:

Regional Survey of Palaeoanthropological sites near Makapansgat, South Africa

This project is to implement a regional GIS-based landscape survey of historic mining sites in South Africa, and to inventory such localities for the recovery of palaeoanthropological resources such as geological dating, environmental isotopes, palynology, mineral trace elements, fossils and other sampling techniques that will provide information about local environmental evolution. This contextual information will provide data for the construction of a palaeoanthropological model of regional environmental evolution, and for the successful location of new fossil localities pertinent to furthering research on extinct hominid evolution.


Collaborators: J Brink, Bloemfontein Museum, South Africa; B Villmoare, George Washington University, USA.
Dental development and age estimation in chimpanzees and bonobos: applications to understanding early hominid life history.

This project involves the re-analysis of existing data sets of dental radiography in chimpanzees, and the acquisition and analysis of new radiographic data sets from museum collections in the UK and Europe. Dental development assessment provides a comparative schedule for determining the relative timing of developmental events in both extant and extinct primates and hominids, allowing further elucidation of the evolutionary differences in growth and life history schedules among different early hominid species.

Collaborators: J Boughner, University of Saskatchewan, Canada; MC Dean, University College, London.

Pneumatisation of the Paranasal Sinuses in Plio-Pleistocene Cercopithecoid Monkeys:

This project involves the 3D analysis of CT scan data sets to quantify and compare internal morphological structures in fossil primate crania. In particular, we are investigating the evolutionary presence and absence of the maxillary sinus in extinct species of colobine monkeys, whose descendant species (modern colobines) have lost this structure.

Collaborator: Todd C. Rae, Roehampton University.

Research supervision

Current students:

J Mogg Refining locomotory style in the fossil record through the use of muscle attachment sites, pelvic proportions and 3D morphometrics in extant and fossil species, University of Sheffield. Co-supervised with A Chamberlain.
K Oleman A life history approach to evolution of Homo erectus in Africa and Asia, University of Sheffield.
K Billington The implication of a grasping hallux for structure and function of the lower limb opf early hominids and evolution of bipedalism, University of Sheffield.
T O’Mahoney (advisor) Imagining and modeling neanderthal post-cranial growth, University of Sheffield (AC Chamberlain, supervisor).
C Brimacombe Skeletal growth and development in the genus Pan: A life history approach; University of Sheffield. Co-supervised with P. Nystrom.
ISH King Middle Pleistocene hominid geographical variation and cranial trait comparison; University of Sheffield. Co-supervised with A. Chamberlain.
C. Williams (PT) Evolution of life history in Plio-Pleistocene papionins in South Africa; University of Sheffield. Co-supervised with P. Nystrom.
Other areas of potential research supervision:

Teaching

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

MSc Palaeoanthropology (Course Director):

Methods in Landscape Archaeology

Selected publications

Book Chapters:

Kuykendall, K.L., and Strkalj, G. (2007). A history of South African palaeoanthropology. Ch. 2 In: Bonner, P., Esterhuysen, A., and Jenkins, T. (eds). A Search for Origins: Science, History, and South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’, Johannesburg: Wits University Press, pp. 28-49.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2007). Fossil hominids of the Cradle of Humankind. Ch. 3, In: Bonner, P., Esterhuysen, A., and Jenkins, T. (eds.) A Search for Origins: Science, History, and South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’, Johannesburg: Wits University Press, pp. 50-77.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2003). Reconstructing australopithecine growth and development: what do we think we know? In JL Thompson, G Krovitz, and A Nelson (Eds.) Patterns of Growth and Development in the Genus Homo, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 191-218.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2002). An assessment of radiographic and histological standards of dental development in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). IN McNamara, K.J. and Minugh-Purvis, N. (eds.) Human Evolution Through Developmental Change, Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 281-304.

Peer-reviewed Journal articles:

McKee, J.K., von Mayer, A., and Kuykendall, K.L., (2011). New species of Cercopithecoides from Haasgat, North West Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 60:83-93.

Kuykendall, KL and Seymour, L (in press). Square pegs in round holes? A pilot project on e-learning solutions and other strategies for improving undergraduate dissertations in Archaeology. Research in Archaeological Education Journal, Higher Education Academy, Subject Centre for History, Classics, and Archaeology. (submitted 05/2010).

Dayal, M.R., Kegley, A.D.T., Strkalj, G., Bidmos, M.A., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2009). The history and composition of the Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, American Journal of Physical Anthropology,140:324-335.

Dayal, M.R., Steyn, M. & Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Stature estimation from bones of South African whites, South African Journal of Science, vol. 104, no. 3 & 4, pp. 124-128.

Kuykendall, K.L., and Rae, T.C. (2008). Presence of the maxillary sinus in fossil Colobinae (Cercopithecoides williamsi) from South Africa. Special Issue: Paranasal Sinuses: The last frontier in craniofacial biology. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, vol 291 (11):1499-1505.

Adams, J.W., Herries, A.I.R., Kuykendall, K.L., and Conroy, G.C. (2007). Taphonomy of a South African cave: geological and hydrological influences on the GD 1 fossil assemblage at Gondolin, a Plio-Pleistocene paleocave system in the Northwest Province, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews 26:2526-2543.

Hopley, P.J., Weedon, G.P., Marshall, J.D., Latham, A.G., Kuykendall K.L. (2007). High- and low-latitude orbital forcing of hominin habitats in the Plio-Pleistocene of South Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 256:419-432.

Hopley, P.J., Marshall, J.D., Weedon, G.P., Latham, A.G., Herries, A.I.R. Herries, and Kuykendall, K.L. (2007). Orbital-forcing and the spread of C4 Grasses in the late Neogene: Stable isotope evidence from South African speleothems. J. Human Evolution 53:620-634.

Herries, A.I.R., Adams, J., Kuykendall, K.L., and Shaw, J. (2006). Speleology and magnetobiostratigraphic chronology of the GD2 locality of the Gondolin hominin-bearing palaeocave deposits, North West Province, South Africa. J. Human Evolution 51:617-631.

Herries, A.I.R., Reed, K.E., Kuykendall, K.L., and Latham, A.G. (2006). Speleology and magnetobiostratigraphic chronology of the Buffalo Cave fossil site, Makapansgat, South Africa. Quaternary Research 66:233-245.

Steinberg, N., Bidmos, M.A., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2005). Patellar measurements of South African Whites as sex assessors. Human Biology 56:69-74.

Crawford T., McKee, J., Kuykendall, K.L., Latham, A.G., and Conroy, G.C. (2004). Recent paleoanthropological excavations of In Situ deposits at Makapansgat, South Africa - A first report. Collegium Antropologicum 28 (SUPPL. 2), 43-57.

Latham, A.G., Herries, A.I.R., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2003). The formation and sedimentary infilling of the Limeworks Cave, Makapansgat, South Africa. Palaeontological Africana 39:69-82.

Latham, A.G., Herries, A.IR., Sinclair, A.G.M., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2002). Re-examination of the lower stratigraphy in the Classic Section, Limeworks site, Makapansgat, South Africa. Human Evolution, 17 (3-4): 207-214.

Herries, A.I.R., Latham, A.G., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2001). The use of ‘SRT’ in sampling the Makapansgat Limeworks hominid palaeocave, South Africa. Antiquity 75:251-252.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2001). On radiographic and histological methods for assessing dental development in chimpanzees: Comments on Beynon et al. (1998) and Reid et al. (1998). Journal of Human Evolution,40: 67-76.

Full publications list

Book Reviews and other commentary:

Kuykendall, K.L., (2009) Book Review: Neanderthals Revisited: New Approaches and Perspectives. Harvati, K. and T. Harrison (eds.), PaleoAnthropology, Volume 2009, Pages 93-95.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Book Review: Twelve Galton Lectures: A Centenary Selection with Commentary, by S Jones & M. Keynes (eds.); Journal of Biosocial Science, 40:939-940.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Book Review: Reproduction and Fitness in Baboons: Behavioral, Ecological, and Life History Perspectives, by L. Swedell & S.R. Leigh (eds.). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 136:370-371.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2006). Taking an Evolutionary View of Life. Assemblage: The Sheffield Graduate Journal of Archaeology 9.
(http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/issue9/kuykendall.html)

Kuykendall, K.L. (2001). Never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.(Book review of In the Footsteps of Eve by L.R. Berger & B. Hilton-Barber) South African Journal of Science 97: 177-178.

In preparation or press:

[with I Hyerdahl-King] Modern human origins in Africa: A review of the origins and early dispersals of Homo sapiens. Invited contribution to the Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers, V. Cummings, P. Jordan, and M. Zvelebil (eds).

[with C Williams] Linear root growth in permanent molar teeth of chimpanzees and fossil hominids.

[with J Boughner and MC Dean] Revisiting dental age assessments in wild and captive chimpanzees: new analyses of old data.

Conferences

Rae, T.C., Kuykendall, K.L., and Koppe, T., (2011). Different biomechanical regimes do not affect craniofacial pneumatization in fossil hominins (poster). 80th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Williams, C.J., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2009). A preliminary assessment of linear measurements for root growth in permanent molar teeth of the chimpanzee and fossil hominids (poster). The Palaeoanthropology Society, Chicago, USA.
Dayal, M.R., Kegley, A.D.T., Strkalj, G., Bidmos, and Kuykendall, K.L. (2009). The Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons: history, inventory and demographic assessment (poster). The American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Chicago, USA.

Kuykendall, KL and Seymour, L (2009). Inspiring solutions or square pegs in round holes? Critical reflections on the use of e-learning to support Undergraduate Dissertations in Archaeology. Teaching & Learning in Archaeology 2009, The Higher Education Academy, Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology. Birkbeck College, London.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Inquiry-based approaches in Palaeoanthropology: teaching modern humans old tricks (poster). Learning Through Enquiry Alliance (LTEA) Conference 2008: Inquiry in a Networked World, University of Sheffield, CILASS.
Chambers, E.N., McKee, J.K., and Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel carbonate from Plio-Pleistocene South African fossil sites (poster). Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Columbus, Ohio USA.

Crawford, T.C., Kuykendall, K.L., McKee, J.K., and Conroy, G. C. (2008). An analysis of the dental and mandibular morphology of the Makapansgat hominids (poster). Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Columbus, Ohio USA.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2008). Metrical and developmental comparison of a mandibular second molar from Gondolin: a case for hyper-robust Paranthropus in southern Africa? (abstract). Annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, Oxford University, UK.

Kuykendall, K.L., and Rae, T.C. (2007). Presence of the maxillary sinus in the fossil Colobine Cercopithecoides williamsi from South Africa: An assessment using Computed Tomography (abstract). Annual meetings of the Palaeoanthropology Society, Philadelphia, PA.

Kuykendall, K.L., (2006). Life history in Australopithecus and Paranthropus (abstract). African Genesis Symposium, University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kuykendall, K.L. (2004). Growth, development and life history in ‘gracile’ and ‘robust’ australopithecines (abstract). Annual Meetings of the Palaeoanthropology Society, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Crawford, T.C., McKee, J.K., Conroy, G.C., Kuykendall, K.L., and Latham, A.G. (2004). Fossil excavations of the Makapansgat Member 2 and adjacent breccias. 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Tampa, FLA, USA. Abstracted in the AJPA Suppl. 38:80

Other professional activities

Professional memberships: