Help us congratulate Zana Sims!

Zana Sims was awarded a grant from The Leakey Foundation for her dissertation project, “Examining phylogenetic and dietary signals using cervical root cross sections in extant catarrhines.” Zana’s work employs a variety of methods to explore how tooth root morphology may be used to infer functional signals. Her dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of primate evolution and expand the usable sample of primate fossil material by focusing on the previously unexplored morphology of the dental root cervix. The funds from this grant will be used to obtain micro-CT scans at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in the fall. 

The Leakey Foundation (Est. 1968) has funded some of the most important and exciting research contributing significantly to our understanding of human origins. The foundation provides competitive funding to researchers at the level of doctoral candidate and beyond for innovative projects related to its mission to “Increase scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival.” Past and current grantees include preeminent scientists across the field of anthropology.