Email:

alannah.pearson@anu.edu.au

Website:

https://archanth.cass.anu.edu.au/people/ms-alannah-pearson

Alannah Pearson studies cerebrocranial temporal evolution in extant and fossil primates, including humans.  

The temporal lobe of the brain is one of the most understudied cerebral cortex but is involved in tasks from auditory and visual processing, memory and language processing in humans. How the cranial base and temporal lobe may have changed over the approximately 40 MY of anthropoid primate evolution is unknown.

Her research involves determining whether the middle cranial fossa is a suitable predictor for temporal lobe volume using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and Computed Tomography (CT) of the skull in several extant primate species with application to the fossil record, particularly suited for very fragmentary fossil remains.

Alannah is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University with a Master of Philosophy in Archaeology and Paleoanthropology using geometric morphometrics to investigate allometry and phylogenetic of cranial bones in great and lesser ape skulls. David Polly is her external associate supervisor.  

Alannah holds the Polly Lab record for most distant office with 9,426 miles (15,171 km) between it and David's.