Bernard Wood
After qualifying as an MD in 1970, Bernard Wood practiced as a physician and surgeon before moving to full time research and teaching. He received his Ph.D. in 1975 and then worked as a faculty member in The University of London, becoming University Reader in Anatomy in 1978, and S.A. Courtauld Professor of Anatomy in 1982. In 1985 he moved to The University of Liverpool as the Derby Professor of Anatomy and the Head of the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, and in 1996 he was appointed Dean of the Medical School of The University of Liverpool. In 1997 he moved to the USA when he was appointed Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins and Professor of Human Evolutionary Anatomy at the George Washington University (GWU), and Adjunct Senior Scientist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. In 2006 he was appointed University Professor of Human Origins at GWU. In 2007 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is presently Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at GWU. His research focuses on hominin systematics, and in particular on ways to improve the reliability of hypotheses about the relationships among fossil hominins. He is also interested in improving the accessibility of information about the hominin fossil record.
Sample publications
Wood, B and Boyle, E.K. 2016. Hominin Taxic Diversity: Fact or Fantasy? Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 159: S37-S78. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22902
Diogo, R. and Wood, B. 2016. Origin, development and evolution of primate muscles in the context of anatomical variations and anomalies in modern humans. In: Evolutionary Developmental Anthropology: A Post-Genomic Approach to Understanding Primate and Human Evolution. Eds. Boughner, J. and Rolian, C. pp. 167-204, Chichester, UK, Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN-13: 978-1118524688 ISBN-10: 1118524683
Baker, J. L., Dunn, K., Mingrone, J., Wood, B., Karpinski, B.A., Sherwood, C.C., Wildman, D. E., Maynard, T. M., and Bielawski, J.P. 2016. Functional divergence of NR2C1 (TR2) as a modulator of pluripotentiality during hominid evolution. Genetics, 203(2), 905-922. DOI: 10.1534/genetics.115.183889
Schroer, K. and Wood, B. 2015. The role of character displacement in the molarization of hominin mandibular premolars. Evolution, 69-6, 1630–1642. DOI: 10.1111/evo.12672
Wood, B. and Grabowski, M. 2015. Macroevolution in and around the hominin clade.In: Macroevolution. Explanation, Interpretation and Evidence. Eds. E. Serrelli and N. Gontier. pp. 345-376, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15045-1
Crevecoeur, I., Skinner, M.M., Bailey, S.E., Gunz, P., Bortoluzzi, S., Brooks, A.S., Burlet, C., Cornelissen, E., De Clerck, N., Maureille, B., Semal, P., Vanbrabant, Y. and Wood, B. 2014. First early hominin from Central Africa (Ishango, Democratic Republic of Congo). PLoSOne. 9(1), e84652. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0084652
Patterson, D.B., Faith, J.T., Bobe, R., and Wood, B. 2014. Regional diversity patterns in African bovids, hyaenids, and felids during the past 3 million years: the role of taphonomic bias and implications for the evolution of Paranthropus. Quaternary Science Reviews, 96: 9-22. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.11.011
Diogo, R. and Wood, B. 2012. Comparative anatomy and phylogeny of primate muscles and human evolution. pp. 1-906. CRC Press - Taylor and Francis, Oxford, UK. ISBN: 978-1-57808-767-9
Wood, B., 2011. Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. pp. 1-979. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. ISBN: 978-1-4051-5510-6
Wood, B., 2009. Where does the genus Homo begin, and how would we know? In: Grine, F.E., Fleagle, J.G., Leakey, R.E. (Eds.), The First Humans: Origins of the Genus Homo. Springer, New York, pp 17-28.
Gordon, A.D., Nevell, L., Wood, B., 2008. The Homo floresiensis cranium (LB1): size, scaling, and early Homo affinities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 105, 4650-4655.
Lucas, P., Constantino, P., Wood, B., Lawn, B., 2008. Dental enamel as a dietary indicator in mammals. Bioessays 30, 374-385.
Robson, S.L., Wood, B., 2008. Hominin life history: reconstruction and evolution. Journal of Anatomy 212, 394-425.
Wood, B., Lonergan, N., 2008. The hominin fossil record: taxa, grades and clades. Journal of Anatomy 212, 354-376.