Professor of Anthropology
Member, Center for the Study of Human Origins
B.A. 1985, Cornell; M.A. 1987, Ph.D. 1992, Harvard.

Todd Disotell's research interests are centered upon the theme of primate and human evolution, at all levels from the populational to the super-ordinal. These interests encompass the following major areas: primate evolution, molecular evolution, mammalian evolution, molecular systematics, phylogenetic analysis, population genetics, phylogeography, conservation genetics, primate taxonomy, computer modeling, human evolution, human variation, evolution of disease, and the history of anthropology.

His major research project at the moment is investigating the molecular evolutionary history of the Old World monkeys. He is also interested in broadening peoples understanding of biological anthropology. He has co-taught undergraduate and graduate courses on such topics as Race, Science, and Politics, and, Genes with his sociocultural colleagues and written several commentaries and review articles for Current Biology and Genome Biology.

Publications
Disotell TR. Primates phylogenetics. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, in press.

Disotell TR. Modern human origins and evolution. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, in press.

Di Fiore A, Disotell TR, Gagneux P, Ayala FJ. in Huffman MA, Chapman CA (eds). Primate malarias: Evolution, adaptation, and species jumping. In: Primate Parasite Ecology: The Dynamics and Study of Host-Parasite Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press.

Ting N, Tosi, AJ, Li Y, Zhang Y-P, Disotell TR. Phylogenetic incongruence between nuclear and mitochondrial markers in the Asian colobines and the evolutiona of the langurs and leaf monkeys. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in press.

Disotell TR, Tosi AJ. The monkey's perspective. Genome Biology 8:226, 2007.

Disotell TR. Phylogenetic Relationships (Biomolecules). in Henke W, Tattersall I (eds). Handbook of Paleoanthropology, Vol. 3: Phylogeny of Hominids. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2007.

Listman JB, Malison RT, Sughondhabirom A, Yang BZ, Raaum RL, Thavichachart N, Sanichwankul K, Kranzler HR, Tangwonchai S, Mutirangura A, Disotell TR, Gelernter J. Demographic changes and marker properties affect detection of human population differentiation. BMC Genetics 8:21, 2007.

Xing J, Wang H, Zhang Y, Ray DA, Tosi AJ, Disotell TR, Batzer MA. A Mobile Element Based Evolutionary History of Guenons (Tribe Cercopithecini). BMC Biology 5:5, 2007.

Disotell TR. 'Chumanzee' evolution: the urge to diverge and merge. Genome Biology 7:240, 2006.

Gonder MK, Disotell TR, Oates JF. New genetic evidence on the evolution of chimpanzee populations and implications for taxonomy. International Journal of Primatology 27:1103-1127, 2006.

Gonder MK, Disotell TR. Contrasting Phylogeographic Histories of Chimpanzees in Nigeria and Cameroon: A Multi-Locus Genetic Analysis. in Lehman SM and Fleagle J (eds). Primate Biogeography: Progess and Perspectives. New York: Springer, 2006.

Sterner KN, Raaum RL, Zhang Y-P, Stewart C-B, Disotell TR. Mitochondrial Data Support an Odd-Nosed Colobine Clade. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40:1-7, 2006.

Sutton WK, Knight A, Underhill PA, Neulander JS, Disotell TR, Mountain JL. Toward resolution of the debate regarding purported crypto-Jews in a Spanish-American population: evidence from the Y-chromosome. Annals of Human Biology 33:100-111, 2006.

Related links:

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/disotell/