Juliet Brophy

Associate Professor Louisiana State University

  • Baton Rouge LA

Dr. Brophy's research interests involve using morphometric analyses to examine taxonomic differences among Plio-Pleistocene fossil hominins.

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Louisiana State University

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Biography

Juliet K Brophy is a Biological Anthropologist with a specialization in Paleoanthropology. Her particular research interests involve using morphometric analyses to examine taxonomic differences among Plio-Pleistocene fossil hominins and evaluate phylogenetic hypotheses regarding their evolution. Specifically, she employs a two-dimensional morphometric tool, Elliptical Fourier Function Analysis (EFFA), to quantify and identify species-specific dental characteristics. She is one of the dental morphologists investigating the teeth of "Australopithecus sediba" from the site of Malapa, South Africa. In May 2014, she began analyzing teeth from a newly discovered fossil site called Rising Star. Her ongoing research helped establish the phylogenetic position of the new fossils, which have been attributed to a new species of early "Homo". She is also interested in documenting the paleoenvironments associated with the South African hominins and assessing how changes in these environments might have influenced hominin evolution. She is currently the Director of Bovid Studies at the Institute of Human Evolution, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the site of Malapa. She has been involved in excavations at several fossil localities in South Africa including Plover’s Lake, Coopers, and Gladysvale Cave and, at present, Juliet is senior research assistant in charge of field operations at the early Pliocene site of Matjhabeng in the Free State of South Africa. In addition to her excavation experience, Juliet is also interested in the taphonomic effects of hominin and carnivore activities on patterns of bone fragmentation.

Areas of Expertise

Craniodental Morphometric Analysis
Hominin Evolution
Zooarchaeology
Taphonomy

Media Appearances

First ancient fossil of Homo naledi child found in the Cradle of Humankind

CNN  online

2021-11-04

“This is the first partial skull of a child of Homo naledi yet recovered and this begins to give us insight into all stages of life of this remarkable species,” said Juliet Brophy, lead author of the study analyzing the skull, in a statement. Brophy is an associate professor at Louisiana State University and honorary research affiliate at the University of the Witwatersrand.

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A 300,000-year-old child is helping this LSU professor study the origins of humanity

The Advocate  online

2021-11-14

LSU biological anthropology professor Juliet Brophy published details about how this early human species behaved, matured and evolved in the scientific journal PaleoAnthropology earlier this month. Her team made a rare discovery: the skull and teeth of a Homo naledi child who died 250,000 years ago somewhere between age 4 and 6.

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Research Focus

Paleoanthropology & Hominin Evolution

Dr. Brophy’s research focuses on paleoanthropology of early human ancestors, using craniodental morphometrics of fossil teeth to trace Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution in Africa. She pairs 3-D imaging, quantitative morphology, and zooarchaeological context through LSU’s PLES Lab to position species like *Homo naledi* on the human family tree and reconstruct their environments.

Accomplishments

LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award

2021

LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award

2018

Education

Texas A&M University

Ph.D.

Biological Anthropology

Articles

An examination of Homo naledi early juveniles recovered from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa

Annals of Human Biology

2024

Background
Six Homo naledi early juveniles were recovered from U.W. 101 (Dinaledi Chamber), U.W. 102 (Lesedi Chamber), and U.W. 110 in the Rising Star cave system.
Aim
This paper develops the information for the H. naledi early juvenile life stage, as defined by a combination of deciduous and permanent dentition, and the eruption of the first permanent molar.

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Classification of Bovidae fossils from Gladysvale, South Africa using elastic shape analysis

Journal of Archaeological Science

2024

Teeth from the Family Bovidae that are associated with our early humans ancestors are important for reconstructing paleoenvironments. However, age, degree of attrition, and taphonomic factors often make fossil identification difficult. A recent technique for classifying these teeth uses the size-and-shape of the occlusal surface as a summary of the surface, deriving features from this, and then using these features in machine learning classification algorithms. Bovid teeth have previously been classified using this method with features derived from coefficients of elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA). This study assesses the utility of using other shape representations for feature generation, specifically elastics shape analysis.

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African bovid tribe classification using transfer learning and computer vision

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

2023

Objective analytical identification methods are still a minority in the praxis of paleobiological sciences. Subjective interpretation of fossils and their modifications remains a nonreplicable expert endeavor. Identification of African bovids is a crucial element in the reconstruction of paleo‐landscapes, ungulate paleoecology, and, eventually, hominin adaptation and ecosystemic reconstruction. Recent analytical efforts drawing on Fourier functional analysis and discrimination methods applied to occlusal surfaces of teeth have provided a highly accurate framework to correctly classify African bovid tribes and taxa. Artificial intelligence tools, like computer vision, have also shown their potential to be objectively more accurate in the identification of taphonomic agency than human experts.

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Event Appearances

A collective investigation of the non-adult specimens from the Rising Star Cave System, South Africa

2024 | European Society for the Study of Human Evolution  Zagreb, Croatia

An assessment of the craniodental and postcranial material from juvenile Homo naledi recovered in the Rising Star Cave System

2024 | American Association of Biological Anthropologists  Los Angeles, CA

Remote fossil prospecting in the Cradle of Humankind: Assessing variable importance for cave site prediction using Random Forest models

2024 | American Association of Biological Anthropologists Los Angeles, CA  Los Angeles, CA

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