Email: hlusko@berkeley.edu

Phone: (510) 643-8838

Web page: http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/hlusko/

Her research: Leslea studies the genetic basis of mammalian skeletal variation and evolution. She is particularly interested in primate teeth and takes a two-pronged approach to the issue that integrates quantitative genetics with paleontology.

Her goals: "My overall goal is to better understand how genes have influenced anatomical variation so that when we go back and look at the fossil record, we can interpret changes in bony morphology with a more accurate understanding of what that's reflecting at a genetic level."

How she works: "In my Berkeley lab, I work to unravel the genetic variance of mammalian teeth — but my fieldwork is primarily African, focused on the last 10 million years."

On her field site in Ethiopia: "This place is just littered with monkeys! Every other fossil you pick up is a monkey with a really nice dentition!"

What she loves about research: "I got into this because I love to find fossils... When it comes right down to it, every new fossil — that's where the data are going to come from. The way that we interpret those data may change — but that fossil I found will still be there, and will be interpreted in new ways and better ways."

Boisserie, J-R, F. Guy, A. Delagnes, L.J. Hlusko, F. Bibi, Y. Beyene, and C. Guillemot. 2008. New paleoanthropological research in the Plio-Pleistocene Omo Group, Lower Omo Valley, SNNPR (Southern Nations, Nationalities and People Regions), Ethiopia. C. R. Palevol 7:429-439.

Hlusko, LJ. 2008. Book Review. The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and Natural History of Proconsul by A. Walker and P. Shipman. Current Anthropology 49(2):337-338.

Rizk, O.T., S. Amugongo, M.C. Mahaney, and L.J. Hlusko. 2008. The quantitative genetic analysis of primate dental variation: History of the approach and prospects for the future. In: Technique and Application in Dental Anthropology (J.D. Irish and G.C. Nelson, eds). Cambridge University Press.

Ambrose, S.H., C.J. Bell, R.L. Bernor, J.R. Boisserie, C.M. Darwent, D. DeGusta, A. Deino, N. Garcia, Y. Haile-Selassie, J.J. Head, F.C. Howell, M.D. Kyule, F.K. Manthi, E.M. Mathu, C.M. Nyamai, M. Pickford, H. Saegusa, T.A. Stidham, M.A.J. Williams, and L.J. Hlusko. 2007. The Paleoecology and Paleogeographic Context of Lemudong'o Locality 1, a Late Miocene Terrestrial Fossil Site in Southern Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 38-52.

Ambrose, S.H., M.D. Kyule, and L.J. Hlusko. 2007. History of paleontological research in the Narok District of Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 1-37.

Hlusko L.J. and M.C. Mahaney. 2007. A multivariate comparison of dental variation in wild and captive populations of baboons (Papio hamadryas). Archives of Oral Biology 52:195-200.

Hlusko, L.J. 2007. A new late Miocene species of Paracolobus and other Cercopithecoid (Mammalia: Primates) fossils from Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 72-85.

Hlusko, L.J. 2007. Earliest evidence for Atherurus and Xenohystrix (Hystricidae, Rodentia) in Africa, from the late Miocene site of Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 86-91.

Hlusko, L.J. and M.C. Mahaney. 2007. Of mice and monkeys: Quantitative genetic analyses of size variation along the dental arcade. In: Dental Perspectives on Human Evolution: State of the Art Research in Dental Paleoanthropology (S. Bailey and J-J. Hublin, eds.). Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 237-245.

Hlusko, L.J. and Y. Haile-Selassie. 2007. Nyanzochoerus syrticus (Artiodactyla: Suidae) from the late Miocene of Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 152-157.

Hlusko, L.J., N. Do, and M.C. Mahaney. 2007. Genetic correlations between mandibular molar cusp areas in baboons. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132:445-454.

Hlusko, L.J., Y. Haile-Selassie, and D. DeGusta. 2007. Late Miocene Bovidae (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Lemudong'o, Narok District, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 163-172.

Pickford M. and L.J. Hlusko. 2007. Late Miocene procaviid hyracoids from Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 106-111.

Saegusa H. and L.J. Hlusko. 2007. New late Miocene elephantoid (Mammalia: Proboscidea) fossils from Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56: 140-147.

Hlusko, L.J. 2006. A new large Pliocene colobine species (Mammalia: Primates) from Asa Issie, Ethiopia. Geobios 39:57-69.

Hlusko, L.J., L.R. Lease, and M.C. Mahaney. 2006. The evolution of genetically correlated traits: tooth size and body size in baboons. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131:420-427.

White, T.D., G. WoldeGabriel, B. Asfaw, S. Ambrose, Y. Beyene, R.L. Bernor, J.R. Boisserie, B. Currie, H. Gilbert, Y. Haile-Selassie, W.K. Hart, L.J. Hlusko, F.C. Howell, R.T. Kono, A. Louchart, C.O. Lovejoy, P.R. Renne, H. Saegusa, E. Vrba, H. Wesselman, and G. Suwa. 2006. Asa Issie, Aramis, and the origin of Australopithecus. Nature 440:883-889.