Shannon McFarlin

Photo of Shannon McFarlin. Shannon stands outdoors on a forrested hillside, smiling and facing the camera. She has short cropped dark hair and is wearing dark colored shirt, pants, and zippered jacket.

Shannon McFarlin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at The George Washington University.

Her research aims to understand the factors that shape variation in growth, development and life history in humans and other primates, as well as what skeletal tissues can reveal about life history evolution in the past.  She approaches this through a program of interdisciplinary and collaborative research based both in the field and the laboratory, centered particularly around several wild great ape and baboon populations that have been the focus of long-term observational study.  This research integrates developmental, morphological, behavioral, ecological, and other datasets collected from wild primate populations with detailed investigations of their naturally accumulated skeletal remains, to generate a more comprehensive understanding of life history evolution in our primate relatives.

Example publications:

Lee S.M., Sutherland L.J., Fruth B., Murray C.M., Lonsdorf E.V., Arbenz-Smith K., Augusto R., Brogan S., Canington S.L., Lee K.C., McGrath K., McFarlin S.C., & Hohmann G. (2021) Brief Communication:  In vivo deciduous dental eruption in LuiKotale bonobos and Gombe chimpanzees.  American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Early View; https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24376

Ruff C., Junno J-A, Eckardt W., Giliardi K., Mudakikwa A., McFarlin S.C.  (2020) Skeletal aging in Virunga mountain gorillas.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375, 20190606; https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0606

McGrath K.J., El-Zaatari S., Guatelli-Steinberg D., Stanton M., Reid D.J., Stoinski T.S., Cranfield M.R., Mudakikwa A., McFarlin S.C. (2018) Quantifying linear enamel hypoplasia in Virunga mountain gorillas and other great apes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 166, 337-352; https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23436

Galbany J., Abavandimwe D., Vakiener M.V., Eckardt W., Mudakikwa A., Ndagijimana F., Stoinski T.S., McFarlin S.C.  (2017) Body size growth and life history in wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) from Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.  American Journal of Physical Anthropology 163, 570-590; https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23232

Tocheri M.W., Dommain R., McFarlin S.C., Burnett S.E., Case D.T., Orr C.M., Roach N.T., Villmoare B., Eriksen A.B., Kalthoff D., Senck S., Assefa Z., Groves C.P., Jungers W.L.  (2016) The evolutionary origin of the grauer gorilla. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. 159:S4-S18; https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22900

McFarlin S.C., Barks S.K., Tocheri M.W., Massey J.S., Eriksen A.B., Fawcett K.A., Stoinski T.S., Hof P.R., Bromage T.G., Mudakikwa A., Cranfield M.R., Sherwood C.C.  (2013) Early brain growth cessation in Virunga mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei).  American Journal of Primatology. 75:450-463; https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22100

Bromage T.G., Lacruz R.S., Hogg R., Goldman H.M., McFarlin S.C., Warshaw J., Dirks W., Perez Ochoa A., Smolyar I., Enlow D.H., Boyde A.  (2009) Lamellar bone is an incremental tissue reconciling enamel rhythms, body size, and organismal life history. Calcified Tissue International 84:388-404; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00223-009-9221-2

Resource Links

GWU - CASHP Life History and Skeletal Biology Lab