Todd R. Disotell

Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D. 1992, M.A. 1987, Harvard, B.A. 1985, Cornell.

Email:

Personal Homepage: http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/disotell/

Research Interests:

physical Anthropology, primate evolution; molecular evolution; genetics and mitochondrial DNA; analytical techniques of phylogenetic systematics; the history of biological anthropology.

Affiliations:

Member - Center for the Study of Human Origins

Selected Works:

Bilgin R, Karatas A, Coraman E, Disotell T, Morales JC. Regionally and climatically restricted patterns of distribution of genetic diversity in a migratory bat species, Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). BMC Biology 8:209, 2008.

Hodgson JA, Disotell TR. No evidence of Neanderthal contribution to modern human diversity. Genome Biology 9:206, 2008.

Xing J, Wang H, Zhang Y, Ray DA, Tosi AJ, Disotell TR, Batzer MA. A Mobile Element Based Evolutionary History of Guenons (Tribe Cercopithecini). BMC Biology 5:5, 2007.

Disotell TR. 'Chumanzee' evolution: the urge to diverge and merge. Genome Biology 7:240, 2006.

Disotell TR. Phylogenetic Relationships (Biomolecules). in Henke W, Tattersall I (eds). Handbook of Paleoanthropology, Vol. 3: Phylogeny of Hominids. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2007.

Gonder MK, Disotell TR, Oates JF. New genetic evidence on the evolution of chimpanzee populations and implications for taxonomy. International Journal of Primatology 27:1103-1127, 2006.

Sterner KN, Raaum RL, Zhang Y-P, Stewart C-B, Disotell TR. Mitochondrial Data Support an Odd-Nosed Colobine Clade. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40:1-7, 2006.

Sutton WK, Knight A, Underhill PA, Neulander JS, Disotell TR, Mountain JL. Toward resolution of the debate regarding purported crypto-Jews in a Spanish-American population: evidence from the Y-chromosome. Annals of Human Biology 33:100-111, 2006.

Tosi AJ, Detwiler KM, Disotell TR. Y-chromosomal markers suitable for non-invasive studies of guenon hybridization. International Journal of Primatology 36:58-66, 2005.

Raaum RL, Sterner KN, Noviello CM, Disotell TR, Stewart C-B. Catarrhine Primate Divergence Dates Estimated from Complete Mitochondrial Genomes: Concordance with Fossil and Nuclear DNA Evidence. Journal of Human Evolution 48:237-257, 2005.

Current News / Projects Updated July 2009We filmed and carried out analyses for several more National Geographic Channel and History Channel documentaries in the last year. During the past fall, I taught at Bayview Women’s Prison as a volunteer with the Bard Prison Initiative. Over spring break, I traveled to Belize with 21 NYU sophomores to help construct an addition to a school, a playground, and a bus shelter for the children of Cayo District. In May I was awarded a CAS Golden Dozen teaching award. I am in the process completing of a three-year NSF funded project to investigate kin selection and behavior in blue monkeys with Marina Cords, a primatologist at Columbia University. We are in the second year of an NSF grant to study African papionin monkey phylogeny. We are continuing evolutionary and conservation genetic project on the monkeys of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. I will start an NYU Research Challenge Fund project searching for new markers in primate genomes. I, along with various coauthors, have published three articles and chapters over the last year, with several more about to submitted. My research group has been very active in training students from both New York-area universities (Columbia, Stony Brook, Rutgers, and Princeton) as well as foreign institutions. We are also fully involved in the training and supervision of graduate students in our department's M.A. program in skeletal biology. Over eighteen students are actively working the laboratory this summer, including graduate students from CUNY and SUNY-Stony Brook along with numerous NYU graduate students, two NYU undergraduates, and several high school students who participate in research through the Harlem Children’s Society. While my research centers around the evolution of Old World monkeys, I am also involved in studies on human population history, ape and monkey conservation and behavioral genetics, forensic applications, cryptozoology, and molecular evolutionary studies of diseases such as AIDS and malaria. As a member of the NYU Anthropology Department's Center for the Study of Human Origins, I continue to be an active participant in NYCEP (New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology), which links the anthropology and primatology faculty and researchers at NYU, CUNY, Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, and Wildlife Conservation International. My past and future teaching involves courses in emerging diseases, human variation, race, primate molecular evolution, molecular techniques, phylogenetic analysis, genetics and human variation, human evolution, and human origins. I am also working on the foundation and heating system of my 99-year-old house as a summer project.

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