Todd R. Disotell

Biological anthropology, primate evolution, molecular evolution, genomics, mitochondrial DNA, phylogenetic systematics, bioinformatics, conservation genetics, Darwinian medicine, human variation, cryptozoology, and the history of biological anthropology.

Disotell TR. DNA Sequencing. in Fuentes A. The International Encyclopedia of Primatology. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

Bergey CM, Philips-Conroy JE, Disotell TR, Jolly CJ. Dopamine pathway is highly diverged in primates species that differ markedly in social behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 133:6178-6181, 2016.

Disotell TR. Phylogenetic Relationships (Biomolecules). in Henke W, Tattersall I (eds) Handbook of Paleoanthropology, Second Edition, Vol. 3: Phylogeny of Hominines. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2015.

Burrell AS, Disotell TR, Bergey CM. The use of museum specimens in the age of genomics. Journal of Human Evolution 79:35-44, 2015.

Moralez Jimenez AL, Disotell TR, Di Fiore A. Revisiting the phylogenetic relationships, biogeography, and taxonomy of spider monkeys (Ateles sp.) in light of new molecular data. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 82 Pt B: 467-483, 2015.

Pozzi L, Disotell TR, Masters JC. A multilocus phyogeny reveals deep lineages within African galagids (Primates: Galagidae). BMC Evol. Biol. 14:72, 2014.

Pozzi L, Hodgson JA, Burrell AS, Sterner KN, Raaum RL, Disotell TR. Primate phylogenetic relationships and divergence dates inferred from complete mitochondrial genomes. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 75:168-183, 2014.

Montague MJ, Disotell TR, Di Fiore A. Population Genetics, Dispersal, and Kinship Among Wild Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri sciureus macrodon): Preferential Association Between Closely Related Females and Its Implications for Insect Prey Capture Success. International Journal of Primatology 35:169-187, 2014.

Bergy CM, Pozzi L, Disotell TR, Burrell AS. A new method for genome-wide marker development and genotyping holds great promise for molecular primatology. International Journal of Primatology 34:303-214, 2013.

Disotell TR. Genetic Perspectives on Ape and Human Evolution. In Begun DR (ed). A Companion to Paleoanthropology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2013.

Disotell TR. Human Biologic Variation. In Mason PL (ed). Encylopedia of Race and Racism, 2nd Edition. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

Disotell TR. 2012. Archaic human genomics. American Journal of Physical Anthropology (Yearbook). Suppl. 55:24-39, 2012.

Updated January 2018


My research group has been very active in training PhD students from both New York-area universities (Columbia, Stony Brook, Rutgers, Fordham, and Princeton) as well as foreign institutions. We are also fully involved in the training and supervision of undergraduates and graduate students in our department's M.A. program in Human Skeletal Biology. While much of my research centers around the evolution of Old World monkeys and apes, I am involved in studies involving New World monkeys, lemurids and lorisids, human population history, ape and monkey conservation and behavioral genetics, forensic applications, cryptozoology, and molecular evolutionary studies of diseases such as AIDS and malaria. We have recently embarked on several new projects using Next Generation Sequencing technologies in a variety of applications. We have developed techniques for recovering DNA from museum specimens and are actively involved in using environmental DNA to scan for biodiversity and to assist with conservation genetic studies. My appointment as an Affiliated Faculty member in the Department of Biology and its center for Genomics and Systems Biology helps facilitate this research. My past and future teaching involves courses in Emerging Diseases, Human Variation, Emerging Diseases, Health and Human Evolution, Molecular Techniques, Phylogenetic Analysis, Genetics and Human Variation, Human Evolution, and Human Origins.