Group leader
Hominin Origins Research Group

Contact information:

• Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Address: Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. ICTA-ICP Building, c/ Columnes s/n, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.

Profiles and Identifiers:

• ORCID: 0000-0001-8444-0553
• Google Scholar: Ashley S. Hammond
• ICREA Page: ICREA Community Profile

Abbreviated curriculum vitae

I am a paleoanthropologist focused on the discovery, description, and analysis of ape and human fossils, with special interests in biological form and function of the postcranial skeleton. I completed my PhD in 2013 in Integrative Anatomy at the University of Missouri. I subsequently held postdoctoral and teaching appointments at Stony Brook University, The George Washington University, and Howard University. In 2018, I became the Biological Anthropology curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, becoming a tenured professor and the Chair of the Division of Anthropology in 2022. In October 2025, I joined the ICP as an ICREA Research Professor.

I am interested in the skeletal adaptations that differentiated the earliest human ancestors from apes, specifically related to origins of bipedality. In particular, I have focused on understanding the massive evolutionary transformations observed in the hominin pelvis. My recent work has emphasized the importance of the diverse array of fossil primates for contextualizing locomotor evolution and is challenging previous ideas about the trajectory of morphological changes that led to the earliest hominins. I lead field research at two main localities in Kenya in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. My work uses multiple-proxies to characterize hominin morphology, paleoenvironments, and paleoecology.

I lead the Hominin Origins Research Group, which investigates the evolution of the human lineage and closely related primate species. A centerpiece of our research is characterizing postcranial morphology in ape and hominin fossils from Africa, with particular foci on the evolution of biological form and function, locomotor adaptations, life history, and behavior. My group studies these aspects in both fossil and living primates using a variety of approaches, including CT imaging, geometric and nonlandmark-based morphometrics, dissection and in vivo studies, and other quantitative comparative methods. Our paleontological fieldwork spans multiple localities and time periods critical to hominin evolution, aiming to place hominin origins and behavior in a broader ecological, environmental, and evolutionary context. Ultimately, our research aims to clarify the major biological transitions and morphological innovations that shaped human evolution. 

The 10 most relevant publications:

• Cazenave M, Pietrobelli A, Luková A, Bachmann S, Caruana MV, Clarke RJ, Dunmore CJ, Hammond AS, Heaton JL, Heile AJ, Hoffman J, Kuman K, Pahr DH, Smith CM, Stratford D, Synek A, Tsegai Z, Kivell TL, Pickering TR, Skinner MM. 2026. Swartkrans Paranthropus and Sterkfontein Australopithecus from southern Africa had different locomotor repertoires. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123 (20) e2532193123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2532193123
• Grine FE, Yang D, Hammond AS, Jungers WL, Lague MR, Mongle CS, Pearson OM, Leakey MG, Leakey LN. 2026. New partial skeleton of Homo habilis from the upper Burgi Member, Koobi Fora Formation, Ileret, Kenya. Anatomical Record 309: 485-545. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70100
• Lawrence A, Hammond AS, Ward CV. 2025. Acetabular orientation, pelvic shape, and the evolution of hominin bipedality. Journal of Human Evolution: 103633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103633
• Pugh KD, Catalano SA, Pérez de los Ríos M, Fortuny J, Shearer BM, Vecino Gazabón A, Hammond AS, Moyà-Solà S, Alba DM, Almécija S. 2023. The reconstructed cranium of Pierolapithecus and the evolution of the great ape face. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120: e2218778120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218778120
• Grine F, Mongle C, Fleagle JG, Hammond AS. 2022. The taxonomic attribution of African hominin postcrania from the Miocene through the Pleistocene: Associations and assumptions. Journal of Human Evolution 173: 103255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103255
• Almécija S, Hammond AS, Thompson NE, Pugh KD, Moyà-Solà S, Alba DM. 2021. Fossil apes in human evolution. Science 372: eabb4363. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb4363
• Hammond AS, Mavuso SS, Biernat M, Braun DR, Jinnah Z, Kuo S, Melaku S, Wemanya SN, Ndiema E, Patterson DB, Uno KT, Palcu DV. 2021. New hominin remains and revised context from the earliest Homo erectus locality in East Turkana, Kenya. Nature Communications 12:1939. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22208-x
• Hammond AS, Rook L, Anaya A, Cioppi E, Costeur L, Moyà-Solà S, Almécija S. 2020. Insights into the lower torso in late Miocene Oreopithecus bambolii. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117: 278-284. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.191189611
• Hammond AS, Foecke KK, Kelley J. 2019. Hominoid anterior teeth from the late Oligocene site of Losodok, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 128: 59-75. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23644
• Hammond AS, Almécija S, Libsekal Y, Rook L, Macchiarelli R. 2018. A partial Homo pelvis from the Early Pleistocene of Eritrea. Journal of Human Evolution 123: 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.06.010