Kari Allen

Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology and Neuroscience (School of Medicine)

PhD, Duke University

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contact info:

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Email: kari.allen@wustl.ed
Phone: 314-747-6572
Fax: 314-362-3446

office hours:

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mailing address:

Washington University
CB 1114
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Kari Allen's research focuses on the interpretation of adaptive function in the fossil record via comparative mammalian anatomy and behavior and the use of these data to reconstruct ecological and evolutionary pressures acting on extinct primate communities.

Allen's current research is concerned primarily with two areas:

1) the timing and ecological correlates of brain size evolution, brain proportions, and cranial anatomy in primates, and
2) the use of cranio-dental anatomy to reconstruct ecological adaptations (e.g. feeding ecology) in the fossil record

recent courses

The Human Body: Anatomy, Embryology, and Imaging (Medical School) (M05 501A)

The course is primarily lab-based, focusing on dissection of the human body. Lectures on functional and topographic anatomy emphasize the principles of organization of the various systems of the body. Lectures on developmental anatomy stress organogenesis as an adjunct to understanding the normal and abnormal anatomy. Small group discussions emphasize radiological anatomy and clinical correlations.Frequent use of CT, MRI, and X-ray images aid in the synthesis of knowledge gained through dissection.

Selected Publications

Allen, K.L., Cooke, S.B., Gonzales, L.B., Kay, R.F. 2015. Dietary inference from upper and lower molar morphology in platyrrhine primates. PLoS One.

Kay, R. F., Perry, J. M. G., Malinzak, M., Allen, K.L., Kirk, E. C., Plavcan, J. M., 2012. The Paleobiology of Santacrucian Primates. In: Vizcaino, S., Bargo, S., Kay, R.F., (Eds.), Early Miocene Paleobiology in Patagonia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Allen, K. L., and Kay, R. F., 2011. Dietary Quality and Encephalization in Platyrrhine Primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279(1729): 715-21.

Gongora, J., Cuddahee, R. E., do Nascimento, F. F., Palgrave, C. J., Lowden, S., Ho, S. Y. W., Simond, D., Damayanti, C. S., White, D. J., Tay, W. T., Randi, E., Klingel, H., Rodrigues-Zarate, C. J., Allen, K., Moran, C. & Larson, G., 2011. Rethinking the evolution of extant sub-Saharan African suids (Suidae, Artiodactyla). Zoologica Scripta, 40(4), 327-335.