I am a biological anthropologist with a speciality in hominin evolutionary biomechanics. I am interested in how the hominin skeleton moved. I want to know how environmental change and ecology drove the origins of upright walking, the development of stone tool use, and also why and how diets changed through time.
I am currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge investigating hominin postcranial anatomy. My main research interests are understanding how fossil individuals moved by applying the the concepts of evolutionary biomechanics.
EDUCATION
PhD Biological Anthropology
Liverpool John Moores University, UK • 2016-2019
Thesis title: Improving the Recording and Interpretation of Fossil Tracks
• Six first-authored publications arose from the thesis.
• Completed an institutional course on teaching called the 3is – Information, Ideas and Insights.
• Award: Outstanding Award for Research, British Federation of Women Graduates 2017. Prize: £100.
MSc Human Anatomy and Evolution
Centre for Anatomical and Human Sciences, Hull York Medical School, UK • 2014-2015
Thesis title: Effect of gape on biting efficiency during ontogenetic development within a specialist feeder, the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys)
MA (Hons) Archaeology
University of Edinburgh, UK • 2010-2014
• Participated in five excavations across Europe (total: 24 weeks in the field).
• President (2013-2014) and treasurer (2012-2013) of the Archaeology Society.
• Scientific Editor of student journal Retrospect (2013-2014).
HARP GIS and Field Survey Qualification
Heritage and Archaeological Research Practise Ltd. • 2013
ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH POSITIONS
Leverhulme Trust/Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK • 2021-present.
Title: How to Build a Hominin: Predictive Simulations of Hominin Locomotion
• Hominin muscle modelling, including predictive simulations models of well-known hominins.
• A published output was in the top 6 most read papers across Royal Society Publishing in 2023.
• Member of the Grants and Awards Committee and scored grant applications for the department.
Bye-Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, UK • 2021-present.
• Ran weekly archaeology reading group.
• Involved in undergraduate student admissions.
Postdoctoral Researcher in Evolutionary Biomechanics, The Royal Veterinary College, UK • 2019-2021.
• DAWNDINOS project – Conducted inverse and forward simulations of locomotion.
Research Assistant, Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology • 2018.
• Analyses of trabecular bone distribution in primate foot bones.
Teaching Support Officer, Liverpool John Moores University, UK • 2016-2019.
• Assisted in practicals on topics related to biological anthropology and basic science.
Field Technician, Wessex Archaeology, UK • 2016-2016.
• Commercial employment.
Internship, Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd., Romania • 2014.
• Mass grave exhumation and data cataloguing.
Internship, Royal Commission for the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, UK • 2013-2014.
• Database entry, cataloguing and small finds processing.
Research Assistant, University of Edinburgh on project based in Turkey • 2013.
• Grabungsprojekt Çamlıbel Tarlası Archaeological Project. Database entry, cataloguing and finds processing.
PUBLICATIONS
If any articles listed below are behind a paywall inaccessible to you, please do email me for a copy. Articles marked by * are open access.
Wiseman*, ALA, Charles JP, Hutchinson JR. 2024. Static versus dynamic muscle modelling in extinct species: a biomechanical case study of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and lower extremity. PeerJ 12:e16821 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16821
Wiseman*, ALA, Charles JP, Hutchinson JR. 2024. DATASET: Static versus dynamic muscle modelling in extinct species: a biomechanical case study of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and lower extremity. Apollo: Sympletic Elements
Wiseman*, ALA, 2023. Three-dimensional volumetric muscle reconstruction of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and limb, with estimations of limb leverage R. Soc. open sci.10230356230356http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230356
Demuth**, OE., Herbst**, E., Polet**, DT., Wiseman* **, ALA., Hutchinson, JR. 2023. Modern three-dimensional digital methods for studying locomotor biomechanics in tetrapods. Journal of Experimental Biology; 226: jeb245132. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245132. *authorship list defined alphabetically.
Demuth O.E., Wiseman*, A.L.A., Hutchinson J.R. 2023. Quantitative biomechanical assessment of locomotor capabilities of the stem archosaur Euparkeria capensis. Royal Society Open Science. 10(1):221195. doi: 10.1098/rsos.221195. PMID: 36704253; PMCID: PMC9874271.
Wiseman*, A.L.A., 2022. 3D volumetric muscle reconstruction of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and limb, with estimations of limb leverage. BioRxiv preprint.
Cuff**, A.R., Wiseman* **, A.L.A., Bishop, P.J., Michel, K.B., Gaignet, R. & Hutchinson, J.R. 2022. Anatomically grounded estimation of hindlimb muscle sizes in Archosauria. Journal of Anatomy, 00, 1– 23. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13767.
**These authors contributed equally and share first authorship.
Wiseman*, A.L.A., Demuth, O.E., Pomeroy, E., De Groote, I. 2022. Reconstructing articular cartilage in the Australopithecus afarensis hip joint and the need for modelling six degrees of freedom. Integrative Organismal Biology, obac031. https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac031
Wiseman*, A.L.A., Vicari, D., Belvedere, M., De Groote, I. 2022. Neolithic track sites from Formby Point, England: New data and insights. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 44, 103546.
Cuff, A.R., Demuth, O.E., Michel, K., Otero, A., Pintoire, R., Polet, D., Wiseman*, A.L.A., Hutchinson, J.R. 2022. Walking—and Running and Jumping—with Dinosaurs and Their Cousins, Viewed Through the Lens of Evolutionary Biomechanics. Integrative and Comparative Biology. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac049
Demuth, O.E., Wiseman*, A.L.A., van Beesel, J. Mallison, H., Hutchinson, J. R. 2022. Three-dimensional polygonal muscle modelling and line of action estimation in living and extinct taxa. Sci Rep 12, 3358. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07074-x
Wiseman* **, A. L. A., Demuth**, O.E., Hutchinson, J.R. 2022. A Guide to Inverse Kinematic Marker-Guided Rotoscoping Using IK Solvers, Integrative Organismal Biology, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2022, obac002, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac002
**These authors contributed equally and share first authorship.
Wiseman*, A. L. A., De Groote, I. 2021. One size fits all? Stature estimation from footprints and the effect of substrate and speed on footprint creation. The Anatomical Record 1-9.
Bennett, M.R., Budka, M., Wiseman*, A. L. A., Belvedere, M. 2021. When is enough, enough? Questions of sampling in vertebrate ichnology. Palaeontology.
Wiseman*, A. L. A., Bishop, P. J., Demuth, O. E., Cuff, A. R., Michel, K. B., Hutchinson, J. R. 2021. Musculoskeletal modelling of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) hindlimb: Effects of limb posture on leverage during terrestrial locomotion. Journal of Anatomy, 1-21.
Bennett, M.R., … Wiseman, A. L. A., … Reynolds, S. C. 2020. Walking in mud: remarkable Pleistocene human trackway from White Sands National Park (New Mexico). Quaternary Science Reviews, 106610.
Wiseman, A. L. A., Stringer, C. B., Ashton, N. Bennett M. R., Hatala, K. G., Duffy, S., O’Brien, T., De Groote, I. E. 2020. The morphological affinity of the early Pleistocene footprints from Happisburgh, England with other footprints of Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene age. Journal of Human Evolution, 144, 102776.
Wiseman, A. L. A., Bezombes, F., Moore, A. J., De Groote, I. E. 2020. Non-invasive recording methods: the applicability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology for recording fossilised footprints. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 16, e00137.
Wiseman, A. L. A., De Groote, I. E. 2018. A three-dimensional geometric morphometric study of the effects of erosion on the morphologies of modern and prehistoric footprints. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 17, 93-102.
Falkingham, P. L., … Wiseman*, A.L.A., … Belvedere, M., 2018. A standard protocol for documenting modern and fossil ichnological data. Palaeontology 61(4):469-480
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2024 AABA Cobb Professional Development Grant. Total award: $7500
Beyond the bones: Enhanced phylogenetic bracketing of hominin soft tissues
2023 D M McDonald Grants and Awards Fund for fieldwork 2023. Total award: £750
The rock shelter site of Le Rozel: Investigating trace evidence of Neanderthal child handprints
2022 D M McDonald Grants and Awards Fund for fieldwork 2022. Total award: £386
The rock shelter site of Le Rozel: Neanderthal trace fossils and the possibility of footwear
2021 Leverhulme/Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Fellowship. Total award: £163,611
How to build a hominin: predictive simulations of hominin locomotion
BBSRC/LIDo Summer Research Experience Placement Project. Total award: £4000
Testing how joint shape relates to joint mobility in the limbs of Nile crocodiles
2020 BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (grant was returned due to Covid-19 delays). Total award: £7544
Early American colonisation: Life on the White Sands National Park playa in the Pleistocene 2018 LJMU International Mobility Fund, Liverpool John Moores University. Total award: £1000
Identifying locomotor signals in the foot of living apes for reconstructing behaviour in human ancestors
2017 Postgraduate Researcher Travel Grant, Liverpool John Moores University. Total award: £175
Conference Attendance, European Society for the Study of Human Evolution. Total award: £175
2016 PhD Studentship and Bursary, Liverpool John Moores University. Total award: £96,000
Improving the Recording and Interpretation of Fossil Tracks
2014 EU Leonardo Da Vinci Program. Total award: £1200
The mass grave site of Alba Iuila, Romania
Academic Award: Outstanding Award for Research, British Federation of Women Graduates in 2017. Prize: £100
Past and ongoing collaborations
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge (UK)
- Structure and Motion Laboratory, Royal Veterinary College (UK)
- Jan Palfijn Lab, KU Leuven (Belgium)
- University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
- Dartmouth University (USA)
- Computational Biomechanics Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK)
- Nairobi National Museum, Nairobi (Kenya)
- Natural History Museum, London (UK)
- Minsitère de la Culture, DRAC Normandie (France)
- Department of Archaeology, Section Prehistory of Western Europe, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Human Anatomy Resource Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool (UK)
- Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool (UK)
- Bournemouth University, Bournemouth (UK)
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, University of Florence (Italy)
- Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, Liverpool John Moores University (UK)
- The British Museum, London (UK)
- Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany)
- Palaeo3D, Rain am Lech (Germany)
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC (USA)
The Walking Hominins 