Habiba Chirchir

Photo of Habiba Chirchir smiling while holding in her hands two femur bones. She is comparing a portion of early human fossil femur to a complete modern human femur

Habiba Chirchir is a biological anthropologist. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between changes in skeletal anatomy and behavior by investigating trabecular and cortical bone. She conducts comparative analyses of anatomical features in fossil hominins, modern humans, other primates and non-primate mammals. She uses CT and X-ray imaging in her research. Habiba earned a BA from the University of Nairobi, an MA from New York University and PhD from George Washington University.

Habiba’s work mostly involves data collection in museum laboratories. She has also participated in paleoanthropological fieldwork in East Africa and the UK. Habiba continues to investigate differences in bone density patterns in limb joints of a diverse group of mammals; research she started as a Peter Buck postdoctoral fellow in our program.

Apart from research, Habiba teaches courses on Human Anatomy and Human Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Marshall University. She also is involved in student mentorship in her lab.

Selected peer reviewed publications

Chirchir H. (2020) Trabecular bone in domestic dogs and wolves: Implications for understanding human self-domestication. Anatomical Record 2020, 1–11.

Chirchir, H. (2019) Trabecular bone fraction variation in modern humans, fossil hominins and extant non-human primates. Anatomical Record, 298, 797-809.

Lague, M., Chirchir, H., Green, D., Mbua, E., Harris, J., Braun, D., Griffin, N., Richmond, B.G. (2019). Cross-sectional properties of the humeral diaphysis of Paranthropus boisei: Implications for upper limb function. Journal of Human Evolution, 126, 51-70.

Chirchir, H., Zeininger, A., Nakatsukasa, M., Ketcham, R.A., Richmond, B.G. (2017) Does trabecular bone structure within the metacarpal heads of primates vary with hand posture? Comptes Rendus Palevol. 16:533-544.

Chirchir, H., Ruff, C.B., Juho-Antti, J., Potts, R. (2017) Low trabecular bone density in recent sedentary modern humans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.162, 550-560.

Chirchir, H., Kivell, L.T., Ruff, C.B., Hublin J-J, Carlson K, Zipfel B, Richmond BG. (2015). Recent evolution of trabecular bone density in modern humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA. 112, 366–371.

Chirchir, H. (2015). A comparative study of trabecular bone mass distribution in cursorial and non-cursorial limb joints. The Anatomical Record. 298, 797-809.