MARK COLLARD
Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and Professor of Archaeology and Biological Anthropology,
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
CONTACT DETAILS
Human Evolutionary Studies Program and Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
Email: mcollard[at]sfu.ca (replace [at] with @)
Tel: 778-782-3135
Fax: 778-782-5666
BIO
I trained in both archaeology and biological anthropology. I read for a BA in Archaeology and Pehistory at the University of Sheffield. I then pursued a PhD in hominin palaeontology at the University of Liverpool. Subsequently, I spent three years as a Wellcome Trust Bioarchaeology Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. At Sheffield my main mentors were Marek Zvelebil and Andrew Chamberlain. At Liverpool I was supervised by Bernard Wood. My postdoc research was supervised by Leslie Aiello.
I have worked in a variety of capacities in the UK, the USA, and Canada. At the end of my postdoc, I was employed as a lecturer (the equivalent of an assistant professor) in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. In January 2003, I moved to the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University-Pullman to take up an assistant professorship. Eighteen months later, I joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor. In July 2007, I moved to the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University to become an associate professor and Canada Research Chair. I was promoted to Full Professor in September 2011
In addition to my regular positions, I am the director of the SFU Human Evolutionary Studies Program [website], an associate member of the SFU Department of Biological Sciences [website], and an adjunct member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri [website].
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests span biological anthropology and archaeological science. They include the following:
- Species identification in the hominin fossil record.
- The phylogenetic relationships of the hominins and other primates.
- The origin and evolution of genus Homo.
- Modern human origins.
- The impact of thermoregulation on human evolution.
- Culture in non-human animals.
- The processes responsible for the evolution of cultural diversity.
- The determinants of variation in toolkit structure among non-industrial populations.
- The use of radiocarbon dates to investigate demographic change in the past.
- The transition to farming in Europe.
- The colonization and early history of the Americas.
RESEARCH GROUP
I am currently supervising seven PhD students: Chris Carleton, Alan Cross, Mana Dembo, Marina Elliott, Luseadra McKerracher, April Ruttle, and Don White. Chris is examining the role played by climate change in the depopulation of the East Mound at the well-known site of Catalahoyuk, Turkey, at the end of the 9th millennium cal BP. Alan is investigating the impact of body segment size variation and movement on heat balance estimates. Mana is exploring some of the factors that affect attempts to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of the fossil hominins. Marina is developing a way of testing the methods that are used by palaeoanthropologists and forensic anthropologists to estimate body mass from skeletal remains. Luseadra is examining the role played by cooperative breeding and subsistence economy in the evolution of early weaning in humans. Don is examining the debate about the relevance of current fitness in the evolutionary social sciences. April is in the process of selecting her dissertation topics.
I am also supervising three MA students: Jenifer Gustavsen, Kathleen Schepers, and Lia Tarle. Jenifer is developing and trialing a method for measuring skill in Upper Palaeolithic cave art; Kathleen is looking for evidence of laughter in orangutans; and Lia is testing the hypothesis that clothing contributed to the replacement of the Neanderthals by early anatomically modern humans.
Lastly, I am supervising two postdoctoral research fellows, Briggs Buchanan and Jon Scholnick. I am co-supervising Briggs with Mike O'Brien of the University of Missouri [website]. Briggs is primarily interested in the colonization and early history of the Americas [website]. Jon is on a prestigious two-year NSF International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and is interested in inferring cultural transmission processes from material culture data [website].
COLLABORATORS
More or less all my research projects have been carried out in collaboration with other researchers. In addition to the members of my research group, the main people I am working with at the moment are:
- Brenda Bowser (Anthropology, California State University - Fullerton) [website]
- Kevan Edinborough (Archaeology, University College London)
- Fred Foster (Archaeology, University College London)
- Stephen Lycett (Anthropology, University of Kent) [website]
- Arne Mooers (Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University) [website]
- Mike O'Brien (Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia) [website]
- Jim O'Connell (Anthropology, University of Utah) [website]
- John Patton (Anthropology, California State University - Fullerton) [website]
- Stephen Shennan (Archaeology, University College London) [website]
- Ted Slingerland (Asian Studies, University of British Columbia) [website]
- Jamie Tehrani (Anthropology, Durham University) [website]
- Mark Thomas (Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London) [website]
- Sean Ulm (Anthropology, Archaeology, and Sociology, James Cook University) [website]
- Andrew Weaver (Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria) [website]
- Michael Westaway (Cultures and Histories, Queensland Museum) [website]
RESEARCH CENTRES AND NETWORKS
I am involved in a number of research groups and networks. The main ones in the Vancouver region are FAB*-Lab [website], and the UBC/SFU Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture [website].
PUBLICATIONS
(I have provided a PDF where copyright allows and a link to the relevent journal webpage where it does not. If you cannot access a given paper via the latter, please email me at the address shown above and I will send you a PDF.)
Books
Slingerland, E.G. and Collard, M. (eds) (2012) Creating Consilience: Reconciling Science and the Humanities. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 472.
Wood, B.A., Henry, A., Baker, J., Claxton, A., Mikels, E., Bishop, L., Goodrum, M., Stone, A., Tyron, C., Ackermann, R., Aiello, L., Antón, S., Bilsborough, A., Dean, C., Grine, F., Groves, C., Hallgrimsson, B., Hill, A., Hublin, J.-J., Kimbel, W., Leakey, M., Giorgio, M., Pilbeam, D., Roche, H., Rosas, A., Smith, F., Smith, R., Stringer, C., Thackeray, F., Weiss, M., Zegura, S., Bae, C., Bailey, S., Bernstein, R., Collard, M., et al. (eds) (2011) Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. New York: Blackwell, pp. 1264.
Lipo, C.P., O’Brien, M.J., Collard, M. and Shennan, S.J. (eds) (2006) Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Methods in Anthropology and Prehistory. AldineTransaction, Hawthorne, NY, pp. 371.
Papers
Collard, M. and Dembo, M. (submitted) Modern human origins. Pp. ???? in D. Begun (ed.) A Companion to Paleoanthropology. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell.
Dubman, E., Collard, M., and Mooers, A. (submitted) Evidence for an evolutionary trade-off between gestation and lactation durations in primates. Biology Letters.
Buchanan, B., O’Brien, M.J., Kilby, J.D., Huckle, B.B., and Collard, M. (in press) An assessment of the impact of hafting on Paleoindian point variability. PLoS ONE.
O’Brien, M.J., Buchanan, B., Collard, M., and Boulanger, M. (in press) Cultural cladistics and the early history of North America. Pp. ???? Pontarotti, P. (ed.) Evolutionary Biology: 15th Meeting 2011. New York: Springer.
Tehrani, J.J. and Collard, M. (in press) Do Transmission Isolating Mechanisms (TRIMS) influence cultural evolution? Evidence from patterns of textile diversity within and between Iranian tribal groups. Pp??-?? in Ellen, R., Lycett, S.J. and Johns, S. (eds) Cultural Transmission in Anthropology: A Critical Perspective. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Buchanan, B., Kilby, J.D., Huckle, B.B., O’Brien, M.J., and Collard, M. (2012) A morphometric assessment of the intended function of cached Clovis points. PLoS ONE 7, e30530. [PDF]
Slingerland, E.G. and Collard, M. (2012) Creating consilience: toward a second wave. Pp. 3-40 in E.G. Slingerland and M. Collard (eds.) Creating Consilience: Reconciling Science and the Humanities. Oxford University Press, New York.
Lycett, S.J., Collard, M., and McGrew, W.C. (2011) Correlations between genetic and behavioural dissimilarity in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) do not undermine the case for culture. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278, 2091-2093. [PDF]
Buchanan, B., Hamilton, M.J., Edinborough, K., O’Brien, M.J. and Collard, M. (in press) A comment on Steele’s (2010) “Radiocarbon dates as data: quantitative strategies for estimating colonization front speeds and event densities” Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 2116-2122. [PDF]
Matthews, L.J., Tehrani, J.J., Jordan, F.M., Collard, M. and Nunn, C.L. (2011) Testing for divergent transmission histories among cultural characters: a study using Bayesian phylogenetic methods and Iranian tribal textile data PLoS ONE 6, e14810. [PDF]
Collard, M., Buchanan, B., Morin, J. and Costopoulos, A. (2011) What drives the evolution of hunter-gatherer subsistence technology? A reanalysis of the risk hypothesis with data from the Pacific Northwest. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366, 1129-1138. [PDF]
Buchanan, B., Collard, M., Hamilton, M. and O’Brien, M.J. (2011) Points and prey: a quantitative test of the hypothesis that prey size influences early Paleoindian projectile point form. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 852-864. [PDF]
Cross, A.G. and Collard, M. (2011) Estimating surface area in fossil hominins. PLoS ONE 6, e16107. [PDF]
Tehrani, J.J., Collard, M. and Shennan, S.J. (2011) Tracking traditions through trees and jungles: a cophylogenetic approach to cultural inheritance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences 365, 3865-3874. [PDF]
Buchanan, B. and Collard, M. (2010) How useful is blade shape for classifying Paleoindian projectile points? An assessment using geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics. Pp. 255-273 in S.J. Lycett & P.R. Chauhan (eds) New Perspectives on Old Stones: Analytical Approaches to Paleolithic Technologies. Springer: New York. [PDF]
Buchanan, B. and Collard, M. (2010) A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of blade shape differences among Paleoindian projectile point types from western North America. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 350-359. [Link]
Collard, M., Buchanan, B., Hamilton, M. and O’Brien, M.J. (2010) Spatiotemporal dynamics and causes of the Clovis-Folsom transition. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 2513-2519 [Link]
Collard, M., Edinborough, K., Shennan, S.J. and Thomas, M.G. (2010) Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 866-870. [Link]
Lycett, S.J., Collard, M. and McGrew, W.C. (2010) Are behavioral differences among wild chimpanzee communities genetic or cultural? An assessment using tooluse data and phylogenetic methods. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142, 461-67. [Link]
Weninger, B., Edinborough, K., Bradtmöller, M., Collard, M., Crombé, P., Danzeglocke, U., Holst, D., Jöris, O., Niekus, M., Shennan S.J. and Schulting, R. (2009) A radiocarbon database for the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in northwest Europe. Documenta Prehistorica XXXVI, 7-59. [Link]
Lycett, S.J., Collard, M. and McGrew, W.C. (2009) Phylogenetic analysis of chimpanzee behavioral variation: towards an integrated approach to ape, fossil hominin, and modern human culture. Journal of Human Evolution 57, 337-349. [Link]
Elliott, M. and Collard, M. (2009) FORDISC and the determination of ancestry from cranial measurements. Biology Letters 5, 849-852. [PDF]
Collard, M. and Lycett, S.J. (2009) An assessment of the likely impact of phenotypic plasticity on hominin fossil species identification using extant hominoid craniometric data. South African Journal of Science 105, 312-316. [PDF]
Tehrani, J.J. and Collard, M. (2009) An integrated analysis of inter-individual and inter-group cultural transmission in Iranian tribal populations. Evolution and Human Behavior 30, 286-300. [Link]
Tehrani, J.J. and Collard, M. (2009) The evolution of material culture diversity among Iranian tribal populations. Pp. 99-111 in S.J. Shennan (ed.) Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Collard, M., Buchanan, B. and Edinborough, K. (2008) Reply to Anderson et al., Jones, Kennett and West, Culleton, and Kennett et al.: Further evidence against the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105, E112–E114. [PDF]
Collard, M. and Shennan, S.J. (2008) Patterns, processes, and parsimony: studying cultural evolution with analytical techniques from evolutionary biology. In M.T. Stark, B.J. Bowser and L. Horne (eds.) Cultural Transmission and Material Culture: Breaking Down Boundaries, pp. 17-33. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. [PDF]
Weninger, B., Schulting, R., Bradtmöller, M., Clare, L., Collard, M., Edinborough, K., Hilpert, J., Jöris, O., Niekus, M., Rohling, E.J. and Wagner, B. (2008) The catastrophic final flooding of Doggerland by the Storegga Slide tsunami. Documenta Prehistorica XXXV, 1-24. [PDF]
Buchanan, B., Collard, M. and Edinborough, K. (2008) Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105, 11651-11654. [PDF]
Buchanan, B. and Collard, M. (2008) Testing models of early Paleoindian colonization and adaptation using cladistics. In M.J. O’Brien (ed.) Cultural Transmission and Archaeology: Issues and Case Studies, pp. 59-76. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology.
Buchanan, B. and Collard, M. (2008) Phenetics, cladistics, and the search for the Alaskan ancestors of the Paleoindians: a reassessment of relationships among the Clovis, Nenana, and Denali archaeological complexes. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 1683-1694. [Link]
Collard, M. and Lycett, S.J. (2008) Does phenotypic plasticity confound attempts to identify hominin fossil species? An assessment using extant Old World monkey craniodental data. Folia Primatologica 79, 111–122. [Link]
Coward F, Shennan SJ, Colledge S, Conolly J and Collard M (2008) The spread of Neolithic plant economies from the Near East to Northwest Europe: a phylogenetic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 42-56. [Link]
Cross, A., Collard, M. and Nelson, A. (2008) Body segment differences in surface area, skin temperature, and 3D displacement and the estimation of heat balance during locomotion. PLoS ONE 3, 1-9. [PDF]
Croes DR, Williams S, Ross L, Collard M, Dennler C and Vargo B (2008) Projectile points from Puget Sound, Washington State, USA. In: Projectile Point Sequences in Western North America (eds.) RL Carlson and MPR Magne. Pp. 105-130. Burnaby, BC: Archaeology Press.
O’Brien, M.J., Lyman, R.L., Collard, M., Holden, C.J., Gray, R.D. and Shennan, S.J. (2008) Transmission, phylogenetics and the evolution of cultural diversity. In: Cultural Transmission and Archaeology: Issues and Case Studies (ed.) M.J. O’Brien. Pp. 39-58. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology.
Collard, M., Shennan, S.J., Buchanan, B. and Bentley, R.A. (2007) Evolutionary biological methods and cultural data. In: Handbook of Archaeological Theories (eds.) R.A. Bentley, H.D.G. Maschner and C. Chippindale. Pp. 203-223. Lanham: Altamira Press. [PDF]
Lycett, S., Collard, M. and McGrew, W.C. (2007) Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104, 17588-17592. [PDF]
Buchanan, B. and Collard, M. (2007) Investigating the peopling of North America through cladistic analyses of Early Paleoindian projectile points. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26, 366-393. [Link]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2007) Defining the genus Homo. In: Handbook of Paleoanthropology (eds.) W. Henke, H. Rothe and I. Tattersall. Pp. 1575-1610. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. [Link]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2007) Hominid homoiology: an assessment of the impact of phenotypic plasticity on phylogenetic analyses of humans and their fossil relatives. Journal of Human Evolution 52, 573–584. [Link]
Collard, M., Shennan, S.J. and Tehrani, J.J. (2006) Branching, blending and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations. Evolution and Human Behavior 27, 169–184. [Link]
Lipo CP, O’Brien MJ, Collard M and Shennan SJ (2006) Cultural phylogenies and explanation: why historical methods matter. In: Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Methods in Anthropology and Prehistory (eds) CP Lipo, MJ O’Brien, M Collard and SJ Shennan. Pp. 3-16. Hawthorne, NY: AldineTransaction.
Collard M, Shennan SJ and Tehrani JJ (2006) Branching versus blending in macroscale cultural evolution: a comparative study. In: Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Methods in Anthropology and Prehistory (eds) CP Lipo, MJ O’Brien, M Collard and SJ Shennan. Pp. 53-63. Hawthorne, NY: AldineTransaction.
Lipo, C.P., O’Brien, M.J., Collard, M. and Shennan, S.J. (2006) Afterword. In: Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Methods in Anthropology and Prehistory (eds) C.P. Lipo, M.J. O’Brien, M. Collard and S.J. Shennan. Pp. 299-302. Hawthorne, NY: AldineTransaction.
Lycett, S.J. and Collard, M. (2005) Do homoiologies impede phylogenetic analyses of the fossil hominids? An assessment based on extant papionin craniodental morphology. Journal of Human Evolution 49, 618-642. [Link]
Nadal-Roberts, M. and Collard, M. (2005) Impact of methodological choices on assessments of the reliability of fossil primate phylogenetic hypotheses. Folia Primatologica 76, 207-221. [Link]
Collard, M. and Tehrani, J.J. (2005) Cladistic analysis of Turkmen textiles sheds light on cultural evolution. In: The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: a Phylogenetic Approach (eds) R. Mace, C. Holden and S.J. Shennan. Pp. 107-131. London: University College London Press. [PDF]
Shennan, S.J. and Collard, M. (2005) Investigating processes of cultural evolution on the North Coast of New Guinea with multivariate and cladistic analyses. In: The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: a Phylogenetic Approach (eds) R. Mace, C. Holden and S.J. Shennan. Pp. 133-164. London: University College London Press. [PDF]
Collard, M., Kemery, M.D. and Banks, S.J. (2005) Causes of toolkit variation among hunter/gatherers. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 29, 1-19. [PDF]
Croes, D., Kelly, K.M. and Collard, M. (2005) Cultural historical context of Qwu?gwes (Puget Sound, USA): a preliminary investigation. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 5, 141-154. [PDF]
Brauer, G., Collard, M. and Stringer, C.B. (2004) On the reliability of recent tests of the Out of Africa hypothesis for modern human origins. The Anatomical Record Part B: The New Anatomist 279A, 701-707. [Link]
Tehrani, J.J. and Collard, M. (2002) Investigating cultural evolution through biological phylogenetic analyses of Turkmen textiles. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 21, 443–463. [Link]
Collard, M. and Franchino, N. (2002) Pairwise difference analysis in modern human origins research. Journal of Human Evolution 43, 323–352. [Link]
Collard, M. (2002) Grades and transitions in human evolution. Proceedings of the British Academy 106, 61-100. [Link]
O’Higgins, P. and Collard, M. (2002) Sexual dimorphism and facial growth in papionin monkeys. Journal of Zoology 257, 255-272. [Link]
Moggi-Cecchi, J. and Collard, M. (2002) A fossil stapes from Sterkfontein, South Africa, and the hearing capabilities of early hominids. Journal of Human Evolution 42, 259-265. [Link]
Gibbs, S., Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2002) Soft tissue anatomy of the extant hominoids: a review and phylogenetic analysis. Journal of Anatomy 200, 3-49. [Link]
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (2001) The meaning of Homo. Ludus Vitalis 9, 63-74.
Collard, M. and O’Higgins, P. (2001) Ontogeny and homoplasy in the papionin monkey face. Evolution and Development 3, 322-331. [Link]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2001) Homoplasy and the early hominid masticatory system: inferences from analyses of living hominoids and papionins. Journal of Human Evolution 41, 167-194. [Link]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2001) Reliability of craniodental evidence in fossil catarrhine phylogenetics. Pp. 118-150 in L. de Bonis, G. Koufous and P. Andrews (eds) Phylogeny of Neogene European Hominoid Primates (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (2001) Evolving interpretations of Homo. Pp. 141-146 in P.V.T. Tobias, M.A. Rath, J. Moggi-Cecchi and G.A. Doyle (eds.) Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millennia (Firenze University Press, Firenze).
Collard, M. and Shennan, S.J. (2000) Ethnogenesis versus phylogenesis in prehistoric culture change: a case-study using European Neolithic pottery and biological phylogenetic techniques. Pp. 89-97 in C. Renfrew and K. Boyle (eds.) Archaeogenetics: DNA and the Population Prehistory of Europe (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge). [PDF]
Gibbs, S., Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2000) Soft-tissue characters in higher primate phylogenetics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 97, 11130-11132. [PDF]
Aiello, L.C., Collard, M., Thackeray, J.F. and Wood, B.A. (2000) Assessing exact randomization methods for determining the taxonomic significance of variability in the hominin fossil record. South African Journal of Science 96, 179-183. [PDF]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (2000) How reliable are human phylogenetic hypotheses? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 97, 5003-5006. [PDF]
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (1999) The changing face of genus Homo. Evolutionary Anthropology 8, 195-207. [Link]
Collard, M. and Wood, B.A. (1999) Grades among the African early hominids. Pp. 316-327 in T.G. Bromage and F. Schrenk (eds) African Biogeography, Climate Change and Early Hominid Evolution (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (1999) The human genus. Science 284, 65-71. [Link]
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (1999) Is Homo defined by culture? Proceedings of the British Academy 99, 11-23. [Link]
Quinney, P.S. and Collard, M. (1997) Sexual dimorphism in the mandible of Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens: morphological patterns and behavioural implications. Pp. 420-425 in A. Sinclair, E. Slater and J.A. Gowlett (eds) Archaeological Sciences 1995 (Oxbow Books, Oxford). [PDF]
Wood, B.A. and Collard, M. (1997) Grades and the evolutionary history of early African hominids. Pp. 445-448 in A. Sinclair, E. Slater and J.A. Gowlett (eds) Archaeological Sciences 1995 (Oxbow Books, Oxford). [PDF]