Shara Bailey

Shara Bailey

Professor

Education

Ph.D., 2002, M.A., 1995, B.A., 1992, Arizona State University, Tempe

Areas of Research/Interest

Biological anthropology; paleoanthropology; dental morphology and morphometrics; Middle-Late Pleistocene hominins; Neandertals; modern human origins; Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution; Europe; Africa.

Selected Publications

Bailey SE, Tryon CA. 2023. The dentition of the Early Upper Paleolithic hominins from Ksâr ‘Akil, Lebanon. J Hum Evol.176: 103323. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103323 

Plummer T, Oliver JS, Finestone EM, Ditchfield PW, Bishop LC, Blumenthal SA, Lemorini C, Caricola I, Bailey SE, Herries AIR, Parkinson JA, Whitfield E, Hertel F, Kinyanjui RN, Vincent TH, Li Y, Louys J, Frost SR, Braun DR, Reeves JS, Early EDG, Onyango B, Lamela-Lopez R, Forrest FL, He H, Lane TP, Froun M, Nomade S, Wilson EP, Bartilol, SK, Rotich NK, Potts R. 2023. Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan and Paranthropus. Nature. 379:6632 (561-566). DOI: 10.1126/science.abo7452.

Cerrito P, Cerrito L, Hu B, Bailey SE, Kalisher R, Bromage T. 2021. Weaning, parturitions and illnesses are recorded in rhesus macaque dental cementum microstructure" Am J Primtol. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23235.

Bailey SE, Sorrentino R, Mancuso G, Hublin J-J, Benazzi S. 2020. Taxonomic differences in deciduous lower first molar crown outlines in Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. J Hum Evol. 147: 102864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102864.

Bailey SE, Hublin J-J, Antón SC. 2019. Rare dental trait provides morphological evidence for archaic introgression in Asian fossil record. Proc Nat Acad Sci. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907557116.

Bailey SE, Brophy J, Moggi-Cecchi J. 2019. The deciduous dentition of H. naledi: A comparative study. J Hum Evol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102655.

Bailey SE, Benazzi S, Buti L, Hublin J-J. 2016. Allometry, merism, and tooth shape of the lower deciduous M2 and permanent M1. Am J Phys Anthropol. 159:93-105. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22842

Benazzi S, Slon G, Talamo S, Negrino F, Peresani M, Bailey SE, Sawyer S, Panetta D, Vicino G, Starnini E, Mannino MA, Salvadori PA, Meyer M, Pääbo S, Hublin J-J. 2015. The makers of the Protoaurignacian and implications for Neandertal extinction. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa2773

Benazzi S, Bailey SE, Peresani M, Mannino MA, Romandini M, Richards MP, Hublin J-J. 2014. Middle Paleolithic and Uluzzian human remains from Fumane Cave, Italy. J Hum Evol 70: 61-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.001

Bailey SE, Benazzi S, Souday C, Astorino C, Paul K, Hublin J-J. 2014. Taxonomic differences in deciduous upper second molar crown outlines of Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo erectus. J Hum Evol. 72: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.02.008

Bailey SE, Benazzi S, Hublin J-J. 2014. Allometry, merism, and tooth shape of the upper deciduous M2 and permanent M1. Am J Phys Anthropol. 154(1): 104-114. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22477

 

Bailey SE, Weaver TD and Hublin J-J. 2009. Who made the Aurignacian and other early Upper Paleoliethic industries? J Hum Evol. 57: 11-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.003

 

 

Current News/Projects

Updated October 2022
It was Wednesday, February 26 2020. I was on sabbatical and conducting research in Florence when I received an email urging all NYU folks – students and faculty alike – to leave the country. Luckily for me, I already had planned to leave on a morning flight back two days later. Two weeks later I traveled to Liege to conduct a dental morphology workshop. The corona virus has not hit the Netherlands yet but we were taking precautions. Luckily no one contracted the virus during that week together.  We got lucky. The 2020-2021 pandemic was disruptive for all of us. Research suffered. Teaching suffered. Learning suffered.  And here we are, 2.5 years on, still trying to get back to what is now a ‘new normal’. 

Still I have many things to be grateful for. I am so proud of my four PhD students who have graduated over the past two years. It has been such a pleasure to work with these brilliant researchers! 

Clare Kimock, Male-Male Competition and Sexual Dimorphism in Rhesis Macaques https://www.proquest.com/docview/2605238973/E0A9AEE8BC984952PQ/1?accountid=12768. Clare is now a postdoctoral fellow at Nottingham Trent University, UK;

Elissa Ludeman, Variation and Stability in Primate Dentition: An Evaluation of Epigenetic Effects During Different Environments of Development on Dental Morphology, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2600694966/CD9180B65E5B4586PQ/4?accountid=12768, Elissa is now a Cultural Resources Specialist for the Arkansas Department of Transportation;

Paola Cerrito, Histological and Elemental markers of Physiological stress in Hard Tissues, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2696106885/88A4ED755F0D46CBPQ/1?accountid=12768, Paola is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Collegium Helveticum, Zurich.

…and as of September 2022, Emma Kozitzky, Maxillary Postcanine Occlusal Morphology of Hybridizing Hamadryas and Anubis Baboons.

Graduate Students

As for research, I have a number of manuscripts in various stages of completion: I am working with Tom Plummer (Queens College) and colleagues on two Paranthropus teeth from East Africa associated with a butchered hippo (in revision); I am working on Rick Potts (Human Origins Program, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History) and colleagues on a 900,000 year old hemi-mandible from Olorgesaille, East Africa (in preparation); I am working with Christian Tryon on rediscovered archival material of a fourth individual from the early Upper Paleolithic levels of K’sar ‘Akil, Lebanon (in review); and I am working with Jesus Emilio Gonzalez Urquijo (Universidad de Cantabria) and colleagues on three Neanderthal teeth from the Axlor site in Northern Iberia (in review). I am hopeful that at least one of these will be published by year’s end! 

In addition to continuing my dental morphological research, I am directing the Center for the Study of Human Origins and continue in my role as Associate Chair of the Department of Anthropology. For now, that’s enough!