Kris “Fire” Kovarovic
Kris “Fire” Kovarovic is a mammalian palaeoecologist and palaeoanthropologist. Following a postdoc in our lab, she returned to the UK for a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at University College London (UCL) before taking up a permanent position at Durham University, UK, in the Department of Anthropology.
Dr. Kovarovic is interested in all things mammalian, but bovids have a special place in her heart. She uses their fossilised postcranial remains to reconstruct past environments at palaeontological sites in eastern Africa. She is also interested in understanding the relationship between mammal community “structure” and how this relates to climate, environment, and habitat at regional to global scales. She co-directs the BONES: Bones of Ol Pejeta, Neotaphonomic and Ecological Survey field project at Ol Pejeta Conservancy (OPC), Kenya. Dr. Kovarovic is happiest when she is doing fieldwork, working collaboratively with colleagues from all over the world, and eating chapatti at OPC.
In her spare time, Dr. Kovarovic participates in governance as co-chair of the elected members of Senate at Durham University, and she also co-chairs MAMS, the university’s Mothers and Mothers-to-be Support Network. She and other MAMS members recently conducted a study on the impact of Covid-19 on the careers of mothers working in higher education in the UK.
Selected references:
Kovarovic, K., Faith, J.T., Jenkins, K.E., Tryon, C.A. & Peppe, D.J. (2021). Ecomorphology and ecology of the grassland specialist, Rusingoryx atopocranion (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), from the late Pleistocene of western Kenya. Quaternary Research 101: 187-204.
Cardini, A., Elton, S., Kovarovic, K., Strand Vidarsdottir, U. & Polly, D.P. (2021). On the misidentification of species: sampling error in primates and other mammals using geometric morphometrics in more than 4,000 individuals. Evolutionary Biology 48(2): 190-220.
Nadell, J., Elton, S. & Kovarovic, K. (2020). Ontogenetic and morphological variation in primate long bones reflect signals of size and behavior. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 174(2): 327-351.
Kovarovic, K., Su, D.F. & Lintulaakso, K. (2018). Mammal community structure analysis. In Methods in Paleoecology: Reconstructing Cenozoic Terrestrial Environments and Ecological Communities. Croft, D.A., Simpson, S.W. & Su, D.F. Springer. 351-372.
Pobiner, B.L., Higson, C.P., Kovarovic, K., Kaplan, R.S., Rogers, J. & Schindler, W. (2018). Experimental butchery study investigating the influence of timing of access and butcher expertise on cut mark variables. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28(4): 377-387.
Lintulaakso, K. & Kovarovic, K. (2016). Diet and locomotion, but not body size, differentiate mammal communities in worldwide tropical ecosystems. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 454: 20-29.
Gruwier, B., de Vos, J. & Kovarovic, K. (2015). Exploration of the taxonomy of some Pleistocene Cervini (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Cervidae) from Java and Sumatra (Indonesia): a geometric- and linear morphometric approach. Quaternary Science Reviews 119: 35-53.
Kovarovic, K., Slepkov, R. & McNulty, K. (2013). Ecological continuity between Lower and Upper Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 64: 538-555.
Meloro, C. & Kovarovic, K. (2013). Spatial and ecometric analyses of the Plio-Pleistocene large mammal communities of the Italian peninsula. Journal of Biogeography 40(8): 1451-1462.
Kovarovic, K., Aiello, L.C., Cardini, A. & Lockwood, C.A. (2011). Discriminant function analyses in archaeology: are classification rates too good to be true? Journal of Archaeological Science 38(11): 3006-3018.
Kovarovic, K. & Andrews, P. (2011). Environmental change within the Laetoli fossiliferous sequence: vegetation catenas and bovid ecomorphology. In Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context. Harrison, T. Dordrecht: Springer Press. 1: 367-380.
Plummer, T., Bishop, L., Hertel, F. & Kovarovic, K. (2011). Paleoenvironments of Laetoli, Tanzania as determined by antelope habitat preferences. In Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli, Tanzania: Human Evolution in Context. Harrison, T. Dordrecht: Springer Press. 1: 355-366.
Kovarovic, K. & Andrews, P. (2007). A bovid postcranial ecomorphological survey of the Laetoli palaeoenvironment. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 663-680.
Kovarovic, K., Andrews, P. & Aiello, L. (2002). Ecological diversity analysis of the Upper Ndolanya Beds, Laetoli, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 43: 396-418.