Kevin Hatala, Ph.D.

Photo of Kevin Hatala
Associate Professor of Biology
412-365-1572
Buhl - 234D

Joined Chatham: 2016

ACADEMIC AREAS OF INTEREST

Human evolutionary biology, human anatomy, biomechanics, locomotion 

EDUCATION
  • Ph.D., Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University (Washington, DC)
  • B.S., Biological Anthropology & Anatomy (Minor: Chemistry), Duke University (Durham, NC)
AWARDS 
  • NSF Biological Anthropology Senior Research Grant (PI) - Collaborative Research: X-rays, 3D animation and human locomotion (2018-21).
  • The Leakey Foundation, General Research Grant (PI) - Paleoecological investigation of 1.5 Ma footprint sites near Nariokotome, Kenya (2018-19).
  • NSF SBE Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship (PI) - Computer science meets anthropology: a novel approach to reconstructing locomotion from fossil hominin footprints (2014-16).
  • NSF DDIG (co-PI) - Fossil footprints and the dynamics of footprint formation: Implications for the evolution of human gait (2012-14).
  • Wenner-Gren Foundation, Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (PI) - A novel experimentally-based investigation of Plio-Pleistocene fossil hominin footprints (2012-14).
  • The Leakey Foundation, General Research Grant (co-PI) - Fossil hominin footprints and the dynamics of footprint formation (2012-14).
  • Evolving Earth Foundation, Research Grant (PI) - A snapshot of the anatomy, locomotion, and social behavior of early modern humans as evidenced by fossil footprints at Engare Sero, Tanzania (2012).
ORGANIZATIONS
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • Hatala KG, Perry DA, Gatesy SM (2018). A biplanar X-ray approach for studying the 3D dynamics of human track formation. Journal of Human Evolution 121, 104-118.
  • Grabowski MW, Hatala KG, Jungers WL (2018). Body mass estimates of the earliest possible hominins and implications for the last common ancestor. Journal of Human Evolution 122, 84-92.
  • Williams-Hatala EM, Hatala KG, Gordon M, Key A, Kasper M, Kivell TL (2018). The manual pressures of stone tool behaviors and their implications for the evolution of the human hand. Journal of Human Evolution 119, 14-26.
  • Du A, Zipkin AM, Hatala KG, Renner E, Baker JL, Bianchi S, Bernal KH, Wood BA (2018). Pattern and process in hominin brain size evolution are scale-dependent. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285, 20172738.
  • Roach NT, Du A, Hatala KG, Ostrofsky K, Reeves J, Braun DR, Harris JWK, Behrensmeyer AK, Richmond BG (2018). Pleistocene animal communities at a 1.5 million-year-old lake margin grassland and their relationship to Homo erectus paleoecology. Journal of Human Evolution 122, 70-83.
  • Zimmer B, Liutkus-Pierce C, Marshall S, Hatala KG, Metallo A, Rossi V (2018). Using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry to assess erosion at the Engare Sero Footprint Site, Tanzania. Quaternary Science Reviews 198, 226-241.
  • Falkingham PL, Bates KT, Avanzini M, Bennett M, Bordy E, Breithaupt BH, Castanera D, Citton P, Díaz-Martínez I, Farlow JO, Fiorillo AR, Gatesy SM, Getty P, Hatala KG, Hornung JJ, Hyatt JA, Klein H, Lallensack JN, Martin AJ, Marty D, Matthews NA, Meyer ChA, Milàn J, Minter NJ, Razzolini NL, Romilio A, Salisbury SW, Sciscio L, Tanaka I, Wiseman ALA, Xing L, Belvedere M (2018). A standard protocol for documenting modern and fossil ichnological data. Palaeontology 61, 469-480.
  • Hatala KG, Roach NT, Ostrofsky KR, Wunderlich RE, Dingwall HL, Villmoare BA, Green DJ, Braun DR, Harris JWK, Behrensmeyer AK, Richmond BG (2017). Hominin track assemblages from Okote Member deposits near Ileret, Kenya and their implications for understanding fossil hominin paleobiology at 1.5 Ma. Journal of Human Evolution 112, 93-104.
  • Key AJM, Dunmore CJ, Hatala KG, Williams-Hatala EM (2017). Flake morphology as a record of manual pressure during stone tool production. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 12, 43-53.
  • Hatala KG, Demes B, Richmond BG (2016). Laetoli footprints reveal bipedal gait biomechanics different from those of modern humans and chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283, 20160235.
  • Hatala KG, Roach NT, Ostrofsky K, Wunderlich RE, Dingwall HL, Villmoare BA, Green DJ, Harris JWK, Braun DR, Richmond BG (2016). Footprints preserve direct evidence of group behavior and locomotion in Homo erectus. Scientific Reports 6, 28766.
  • Hatala KG, Wunderlich RE, Dingwall HL, Richmond BG (2016). Interpreting locomotor biomechanics from the morphology of human footprints. Journal of Human Evolution 90, 38-48.
  • Roach NT, Hatala KG, Ostrofsky K, Villmoare BA, Reeves JS, Du A, Braun DR, Harris JWK, Behrensmeyer AK, Richmond BG (2016). Pleistocene footprints show intensive use of lake margin habitats by Homo erectus groups. Scientific Reports 6, 26374.
  • Williams-Hatala EM, Hatala KG, Hiles S, Rabey KN (2016). Morphology of muscle attachment sites in the modern human hand does not reflect muscle architecture. Scientific Reports 6, 28353.
  • Jungers WL, Grabowski MW, Hatala KG, Richmond BG (2016). The evolution of body size and shape in the human career. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 371, 20150247.
  • Liutkus CM, Zimmer BW, Carmichael SK, McIntosh W, Deino A, Hewitt SM, McGinnis KJ, Brett J, Mana S, Deocampo D, Richmond BG, Hatala KG, Harcourt-Smith WEH, Pobiner BL, Metallo A, Rossi V (2016). Radioisotopic age, formation, and preservation of late Pleistocene Homo sapiens footprints at Engare Sero, Tanzania. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 463, 68-82.
  • Grabowski MW, Hatala KG, Jungers WL, Richmond BG (2015). Body mass estimates of hominin fossils and the evolution of human body size. Journal of Human Evolution 85, 75-93.
  • Hatala KG, Dingwall HL, Wunderlich RE, Richmond BG (2013). The relationship between plantar pressure and footprint shape. Journal of Human Evolution 65, 21-28.
  • Hatala KG, Dingwall HL, Wunderlich RE, Richmond BG (2013). Variation in foot strike patterns during running among habitually barefoot populations. PLoS One 8(1), e52548.
  • Dingwall HL, Hatala KG, Wunderlich RE, Richmond BG (2013). Hominin stature, body mass, and walking speed estimates based on 1.5 million-year-old fossil footprints at Ileret, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 64, 556-568.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
  • Presentations from past 3 years (2017-19):
  • Hatala KG, Megherhi S, Perry DA, Gatesy SM (2019). Deforming feet, deforming substrates: 3D dynamics of the human foot during footprint formation revealed through biplanar X-ray methods. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168 (S68), 99.
  • Hatala KG, Roach NT, Behrensmeyer AK, Manthi FK (2019). Combining ichnological and skeletal fossil data from East and West Turkana to increase understanding of Turkana Basin mammal communities at ~1.5 Ma. Biennial Meeting of the East African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology, Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Megherhi S, Hatala KG, Perry DA, Gatesy SM (2019). Effects of substrate compliance on deformation of the human foot revealed by biplanar X-ray. Committee on Diversity Undergraduate Research Symposium. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Cleveland, OH.
  • Rabey KN, Hatala KG, Williams-Hatala EM (2019). Can muscle activity be predicted from surface and internal entheseal morphology? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168 (S68), 197.
  • Williams-Hatala EM, Hatala KG, Collyer M, Megherhi S, Fiske KL, Ciroli O, Rabey KN (2019). A photogrammetric method for quantifying entheseal shape and rugosity. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168 (S68), 270.
  • Gatesy SM, Perry DA, Megherhi S, Hatala KG (2019). Foot Morphology In, Print Morphology Out: A Biplanar X-ray Approach for Studying the 3-D Dynamics of Human Track Formation. International Congress on Vertebrate Morphology. Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Hatala KG, Perry DA, Gatesy SM (2018). A biplanar X-ray approach for studying the 3-D dynamics of human track formation, and its implications for interpreting anatomy and motion from fossil hominin tracks. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 165 (S66) 114.
  • Grabowski M, Hatala KG, Hansen TF, Jungers WL (2018). Body size estimates of Miocene fossil apes and predicting mass across phylogenetic time. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 165 (S66) 104.
  • Grabowski M, Hatala KG, Hansen TF, Jungers WL (2018). Body size estimates of Miocene fossil apes and predicting mass across deep time. Annual Meeting of the European Society for the study Human Evolution, Faro, Portugal.
  • Holowka NB, Hatala KG, Demes B, Thompson NE, Wunderlich RE (2018). Chimpanzee plantar pressure distributions and the origins of bipedal plantigrady. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 165 (S66) 124.
  • Gatesy SM, Perry DA, Hatala KG (2018). A biplanar X-ray approach for studying the 3-D dynamics of human track formation and for interpreting fossil hominin tracks. Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Albuquerque, NM.
  • McNutt E, Kilham B, Casana J, Hatala KG, Hill AC, Johnson C, Kilham P, Reader J, Thompson N, DeSilva J (2018). Reassessing the ursid hypothesis for the Laetoli “A” bipedal trackway. Paleoanthropology 2018, A20.
  • Hatala KG, Williams-Hatala EM, Scibilia T, Hiles S, Rabey KN (2017). Problems in predicting anatomy and inferring behavior from the gross morphology of the flexor pollicis longus insertion site. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162 (S64), 212.
  • Brown P, Hatala KG, Dingwall HL, Richmond BG, Wunderlich RE (2017). Foot structure and function in habitually unshod children. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Undergraduate Research Symposium, New Orleans, LA.
  • Williams-Hatala EM, Hatala KG, Gordon M, Kasper M, Kivell TL (2017). The biomechanics of stone tool behaviors and implications for the evolution of the human hand. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162 (S64), 411.
  • Du A, Zipkin AM, Hatala KG, Renner E, Baker JL, Bianchi S, Bernal KH, Wood BA (2017). A taxonomic scale-explicit analysis of brain size evolution in the hominin clade. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162 (S64), 166.
  • Rabey KN, Moskal R, Hatala KG, Williams-Hatala EM (2017). Up-Goer Five: The relationship between the soft pink things and the hard white things. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162 (S64), 324.