Daniel Lieberman

Daniel Lieberman is Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, and the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard University. He is also a member of Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He was educated at Harvard (AB ’86 Summa cum Laude, PhD ’93) and Cambridge (M.Phil. ’97). His research is on how and why the human body is the way it is, and the relevance of human evolution to contemporary health. Major research foci include the evolution of long distance walking and running abilities, the effects of shoes on locomotor biomechanics and injury, and the evolution of the highly unusual human head. To address these questions, he combines experimental biomechanics and physiology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy. He has ongoing fieldwork projects in Kenya and Mexico. At Harvard, he teaches a variety of courses on human evolution, anatomy, and physiology. In addition to many articles, he has published several books including The Evolution of the Human Head (Harvard University Press, 2011), and The Story of the Human Body (Pantheon, 2013). He is an avid runner.

Research

I study how and why the human body is the way it is, especially the evolution of human physical activity. I am also interested in how that evolutionary history is relevant to preventing and treating diseases. To address these questions, I integrate three major lines of research: (1) experimental biomechanics and physiology in the lab, (2) fieldwork (mostly in Kenya and Mexico) to measure how people use their bodies in different cultures, and (3) analyses of the hominin fossil record in a comparative context.

Publications

2016

• Zink KD and Lieberman DE. 2016. “Impact of meat and Lower Palaeolithic food processing techniques on chewing in humans.” Nature. Publisher's Version zink_lieberman_2016.pdf

2015

• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2015. “Is Exercise Really Medicine? An Evolutionary Perspective.” Current Sports Medicine Reports, 14, Pp. 313-319. Lieberman 2015c.pdf
• Carolyn M. Eng, Allison S. Arnold, Andrew A. Bienener, and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2015. “The human iliotibial band is specialized for elastic energy storage compared with the chimp fascia lata.” The Journal of Experimental Biology, 218, Pp. 2382-2393. Eng et al 2015d.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2015. “Human Locomotion and Heat Loss: An Evolutionary Perspective.” Comprehensive Physiology, 5, Pp. 99-117. Lieberman 2015a.pdf
• John G. Fleagle and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2015. “Major Transformations in the Evolution of Primate Locomotion.” In Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution, edited by Kenneth P. Dial, Neil Shubin, and Elizabeth L. Brainerd. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fleagle and Lieberman 2015f.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman, Eric R. Castillo, Erik Otarola-Castillo, Meshack K. Sang, Timothy K. Sigel, Robert Ojiambo, Paul Okutoyi, and Yannis Pitsiladis. 2015. “Variation in Foot Strike Patterns among Habitually Barefoot and Shod Runners in Kenya.” PLoS ONE, 10, 7, Pp. e0131354. Lieberman et al 2015g.pdf

2014

• Ian J. Wallace, Brigitte Demes, Carrie Mongle, Osbjorn M. Pearson, John D. Polk, and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2014. “Exercise-Induced Bone Formation Is Poorly Linked to Local Strain Magnitude in the Sheep Tibia.” PLoS ONE, 9, 6, Pp. e99108. Wallace et al 2014b.pdf
• Neil T. Roach and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2014. “Upper body contributions to power generation during rapid, overhand throwing in humans.” Journal of Experimental Biology, 217, Pp. 2139-2149. Roach and Lieberman 2014a.pdf

2013

• Alexander R. Gibson, Robert Ojiambo, Kenn Konstabel, Daniel E. Lieberman, John J. Reilly, John R. Speakman, and Yannis P. Pitsiladis. 2013. “Aerobic Capacity, Activity Levels and Daily Energy Expenditure in Male and Female Adolescents of the Kenyan Nandi Sub-Group.” Public Library of Science One, 8, 6, Pp. e66552. Gibson et al 2013e.pdf
• Carolyn M. Eng, Daniel E. Lieberman, Katherine D. Zink, and Michael A. Peters. 2013. “Bite Force and Occlusal Stress Production in Hominin Evolution.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 151, Pp. 544-557. Eng et al 2013c.pdf
• Neil T. Roach, Madhusdhan Venkadesan, Michael J. Rainbow, and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2013. “Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo.” Nature, 498, Pp. 483-487. Roach et al 2013b.pdf
• Robert Ojiambo, Alexander R. Gibson, Kenn Konstabel, Daniel E. Lieberman, John R. Speakman, John J. reily, and Yannis P. Pitsiladis. 2013. “Free-living physical activity and energy expenditure of rural children and adolescents in the Nandi region of Kenya.” Annals of Human Biology, 40, 4, Pp. 318-323. Ojiambo et al 2013d.pdf
• Yana G. Kamberov, Sijia Wang, Jingze Tan, Pascale Gerbault, Abigail Wark, Longzhi Tan, Yajun Yang, Shilin Li, Kun Tang, Hua Chen, Adam Powell, Yuval Itan, Dorian Fuller, Jason Lohmueller, Junhao Mao, Asa Schachar, Madeline Paymer, Elizabeth Hostetter, Elizabeth Byrne, Melissa Burnett, Andrew P. McMahon, Mark G. Thomas, Daniel E. Lieberman, Li Jin, Clifford J. Tabin, Bruce A. Morgan, and Pardis C. Sabeti. 2013. “Modeling Recent Human Evolution in Mice by Expression of a Selected EDAR Variant.” Cell, 152, Pp. 691-702. Kamberov et al 2013a.pdf
• Meir M. Barak, Daniel E. Lieberman, David Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Anna G. Warrener, and Jean-Jacques Hublin. 2013. “Trabecular Evidence for a Human-Like Gait in Australopithecus africanus.” PLoS ONE, 8, 11, Pp. e77687. Barak et al 2013g.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2013. The Story of the Human Body. Pantheon. Publisher's VersionAbstract

2012

• Neil Thomas Roach, Daniel E. Lieberman, Thomas J. Gill IV, William E. Palmer, and Thomas J. Gill III. 2012. “The effect of humeral torsion on rotational range of motion in the shoulder and throwing performance.” Journal of Anatomy, 220, Pp. 293-301. Roach et al 2012e.pdf
• Daniel P. Perl, Adam I. Daoud, and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2012. “Effects of Footwear and Strike Type on Running Economy.” Medicine & Science in Sports Exercise, Pp. 1335-1343. Perl et al 2012a.pdf
• Adam I. Daoud, Gary J. Geissler, Frank Wang, Jason Saretsky, Yahya A. Daoud, and Daniel E. Lieberman. 2012. “Foot Strike and Injury Rates in Endurance Runners: A Retrospective Study.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Pp. 1325-1334. Daoud et al 2012b.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2012. “Those feet in ancient times.” Nature, 483, Pp. 550-551. Lieberman 2012d.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2012. “What We Can Learn About Running from Barefoot Running: An Evolutionary Medical Perspective.” Exercise Sport Science Review, 40, 2, Pp. 63-72. Lieberman et al 2012c.pdf

2011

• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2011. “Epigenetic Integration, Complexity, and Evolvability of the Head: Rethinking the Functional Matrix Hypothesis.” In Epigenetics: Linking Genotype and Phenotype in Development and Evolution, edited by Benedikt Hallgrímsson and Brian K. Hall, 1st ed., Pp. 271-289. Berkley: University of California Press. Lieberman 2011a.pdf
• Daniel E. Lieberman. 2011. The Evolution of the Human Head. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Abstract