Terry Harrison is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at NYU. He is the Director of NYU’s Center for the Study of Human Origins. He received both his B.Sc. and Ph.D from University College London.Dr. Harrison is a biological anthropologist specializing in primate and human paleontology, evolutionary morphology, and paleoecology. His broader research interests include the evolutionary history of hominoids and cercopithecoids, and the comparative anatomy and functional morphology of primates.
His recent research has focused on the evolution and paleobiology of the Miocene and Pliocene hominoids from Africa and Eurasia, including the earliest hominins.Ongoing collaborative projects include: Miocene fossil hominoids from China, the vertebral column of Proconsul from the early Miocene of East Africa; the paleobiology of fossil hominoids from the Miocene of Africa; late Miocene cercopithecids from the Siwalik Hills of Indo-Pakistan; and the impact of global and regional climatic change, island biogeography, and human subsistence activities on the mammalian community of Borneo over the past 40,000 years.
He has extensive paleontological fieldwork experience in Europe, East Africa, and Asia, and he is currently directing a major field program at the mid-Pliocene site of Laetoli in Tanzania focusing on new fossil hominin finds, as well as analyses of the associated fauna and flora. He is also developing new programs of field research at late Miocene localities in China.