Dr. Frank Williams
Frank L'Engle Williams received his B.A. from the University of Florida, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Before coming to Georgia State, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University where he investigated the effects of various craniofacial disorders on the mandible using Computed Tomographic scans and image analysis.
Courses Taught:
Anth 1102: Introduction to Anthropology
Anth 2010: Introduction to Biological Anthropology
Anth 4300/6300: Human Evolution
Anth 4330/6330: Primate Behavioral Ecology
Anth 4360/6360: Methods and Theories in Biological Anthropology
Anth 4370/6370: Forensic Anthropology
Research Interests: Biological Anthropology, Human Evolution, Primates, Ontogeny, Growth Models, South African Australopithecus, Neandertals
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Dr. Williams is interested in applying a developmental perspective to the human fossil record. He seeks to understand the role of juvenilization, or neoteny, in human evolution by comparing the growth signal obtained from infant, juvenile and adult Neandertal fossils to those acquired from modern human, chimpanzee and bonobo skulls. He recently spear-headed research into examining how Plio-Pleistocene southern African climate change may have driven developmental perturbations, and thus evolutionary change, in Australopithecus (A. africanus and A. robustus) and cercopithecid monkeys (Parapapio, Papio, Dinopithecus, Theropithecus, Gorgopithecus and Cercopithecoides). Dr. Williams has also explored the scaling relationship between primate anatomical structures, body size and specific locomotor repertoires, such as bipedalism. Fluent in Dutch (from his ethnographic fieldwork on environmental issues in the Netherlands), he recently translated an anatomical description of Perodicticus potto (a prosimian) from 19th century Dutch to English. His published articles and abstracts can be found in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Journal of Human Evolution, Current Anthropology, Folia Primatologica, Clinical Anatomy, Journal of Environment and Development and Practicing Anthropology. His published book chapters appear in Patterns of Growth and Development in the Genus Homo (eds. Thompson et al., 2003), Human Evolution through Developmental Change (eds. Minugh-Purvis and McNamara, 2002) and Neanderthals on the Edge (eds. Stringer et al., 2000).
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In June 2005, Dr. Williams, traveled to the Cape Point Nature Reserve at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa to obtain dietary observations on chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). The Cape flora is one of eight floral kingdoms in the world with over 8,000 endemic species. The hillsides are dominated by an incredibly diverse array of fijnbos which the baboons were only rarely observed eating. Focal animal sampling was used to create a dietary budget of plant types. The austral winter diet of these baboons include mostly leaves, particularly from low-lying ground plants, along with clover, roots, tubers and succulents. Small amounts of flowers and seeds are also eaten.
These observations of living baboons can be used to infer the dietary behavior extinct primates by comparing the dental microwear from extant and fossil forms. The Department of Anthropology at Georgia State University currently houses an important and unique collection of dental impressions (n = 375), including specimens referred to Parapapio, Papio, Theropithecus, Gorgopithecus, Dinopithecus, Cercopithecoides and Australopithecus as well as modern primate comparative material from Papio, Theropithecus, Colobus, Procolobus, Alouatta, Cebus, Pongo, Pan and Gorilla. Low-magnification stereomicroscopy, statistical tools and a digital library of occlusal surfaces are available for students and researchers to address the biochronology and paleoecology of Plio-Pleistocene southern Africa.
