Kendra Chritz

photo of Kendra Chritz holding a large mammal jaw

Dr. Kendra Chritz is a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithonian's National Museum of Natural History. She is a (paleo)ecologist and geochemist who studies human-environment interactions and environmental change from the past to the present. Some of her research interests include the dawn of food production in sub-Saharan Africa; long-term effects of habitat change, urbanization and human conflict on ecosystems; records of pollution sources and demographic changes in American cities; and historical ecological reconstruction of mammals.

Selected Publications

(12) Blumenthal SA, Levin NE, Brown FH, Brugal JP, Chritz KL, Harris JM, Jehle GE, Cerling TE. 2017. Aridity and hominin environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1700597114.

(11) Manthi FK, Cerling TE, Chritz KL, Blumenthal SA. Isotopes of the Kanapoi fauna as proxies for paleo-diets and environments. in press, Journal of Human Evolution.

(10) Chritz KL, Blumenthal SA, Klingel H, Cerling TE. 2016. Vegetation and Hippopotamus diet change following megaherbivore population collapse. Nature - Scientific Reports 6:32807, doi:10.1038/srep32807.

(9) Blumenthal SA, Rothman JM, Chritz KL, Cerling TE. 2016. Stable isotopic variation in tropical forest plants for applications in primatology. American Journal of Primatology 78(10):1041-1054.

(8) Tryon CA, Faith JT, Peppe DJ, Beverly E, Blegen N, Blumenthal SA, Chritz KL, Driese S, Sharp W. Pleistocene prehistry of the Lake Victoria Basin. Quaternary International 404:100-114.

(7) Cerling TA, Andanje SA, Blumenthal SA, Brown FH, Chritz KL, Harris JM, Hart J, Kirera, Kaleme P, Leakey LN, Leakey MG, Levin NE, Manthi FK, Passey BH, Uno KT. 2015. Dietary changes of large herbivores in the Turkana Basin, Kenya from 4 to 1 million years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(37): 11467-11472.

(6) Chritz KL, Marshall F, Zagal M, Kirera F, Cerling TE. 2015. Environments and trypanosomiasis risks for early herders in the later Holocene of the Victoria Basin, Kenya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(12):3674-3679.

(5) Faith JT, Tryon CA, Peppe DJ, Beverly E, Blegen N, Blumenthal S, Chritz KL, Driese SG, Patterson D. 2015. Middle Stone Age archaeology and paleoenvironmental records from Karungu, Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 83:28-45.

(4) Blumenthal SA, Cerling TE, Chritz KL, Bromage TG, Reinhard K, Valley JW. 2014. Stable isotope time-series in mammalian teeth: in situ δ18O from the innermost enamel layer. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 124(1):223-236.

(3) Cerling TE, Chritz KL, Jablonski NG, Leakey MG, Manthi FK. 2013. Diet of Theropithecus from 4 to 1 Ma in Kenya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (26): 10507-10512.

(2) Blumenthal SA, Chritz KL, Rothman JM, Cerling TE. 2012. Detecting intra-annual dietary variability in wild mountain gorillas by stable isotope analysis of feces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (52): 21175-21176.

(1) Chritz KL, Dyke GJ, Zazzo A, Lister A, Monaghan NT, Sigwart JD. 2009. Palaeobiology of an Extinct Ice Age Mammal: Stable Isotope and Cementum Analysis of Giant Deer Teeth. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimtology, Palaeoecology, 282:133-144.