Briana Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist whose zooarchaeological and taphonomic research centers on meat-eating in the evolution of Stone Age human diets, using bone surface modifications such as human butchery marks and predator tooth marks on modern and fossil bones. She has conducted fieldwork, experimental studies, and collections-based research in Indonesia, Kenya, Romania, South Africa, Tanzania, and the United States. She joined the Smithsonian in 2005 as a research fellow to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, and now leads the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts while continuing her scientific research.
Briana Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist whose research centers on the evolution of human diet (with a focus on meat-eating), but has included topics as diverse as human cannibalism and chimpanzee carnivory. She has done fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Indonesia and has been supported in her research by the Fulbright-Hays program, the Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, Rutgers University, the Society for American Archaeology, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Her favorite field moments include falling asleep in a tent in the Serengeti in Tanzania while listening to the distant whoops of hyenas, watching a pride of lions eat a zebra carcass on the Kenyan equator, and discovering fossil bones that were last touched, butchered and eaten by one of her 1.5-million-year-old ancestors. Since joining the Smithsonian in 2005 to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, in addition to continuing her active field, laboratory, and experimental research programs, she leads the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts which includes managing the Human Origins Program's public programs, website content, social media, and exhibition volunteer training. Briana has also more recently developed a research program in evolution education and science communication.
Pobiner, Briana. 2022. "Lunch break science: digestible human origins videos by the Leakey Foundation." American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 186–187. 177, (1), https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24416.
2022
Schneider, Carrington S., Pokines, James T., L'Abbé, Ericka N., and Pobiner, Briana. 2022. "Reptile Taphonomy." In Manual of Forensic Taphonomy. Pokines, James T., L'Abbé, Ericka N., and Symes, Steven A., editors. 667–693. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
2022
Richmond, B. G., Green, D. J., Lague, M. R., Chirchir, Habiba, Behrensmeyer, Anna K., Bobe, R., Bamford, M. K., Griffin, N. L., Gunz, P., Mbua, E., Merritt, S. R., Pobiner, Briana L., Kiura, P., Kibunjia, M., Harris, J. W. K., and Braun, D. R. 2020. "The upper limb of Paranthropus boisei from Ileret, Kenya." Journal of human evolution 141:Article 102727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.1027272020
Dunk, Ryan D. P., Barnes, M. E., Reiss, Michael J., Alters, Brian, Asghar, Anila, Carter, B. E., Cotner, Sehoya, Glaze, Amanda L., Hawley, Patricia H., Jensen, Jamie L., Mead, Louise S., Nadelson, Louis S., Nelson, Craig E., Pobiner, Briana, Scott, Eugenie C., Shtulman, Andrew, Sinatra, Gale M., Southerland, Sherry A., Walter, Emily M., Brownell, Sara E., and Wiles, Jason R. 2019. "Evolution education is a complex landscape." Nature Ecology & Evolution 3:327-329. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0802-92019
Pobiner, Briana L., Higson, Charles P., Kovarovic, Kris, Kaplan, Robert S., Rogers, Jacklyn, and Schindler, William. 2018. "Experimental butchery study investigating the influence of timing of access and butcher expertise on cut mark variables." International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28 (4):377-387. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.26612018
Pobiner, Briana, Beardsley, Paul M., Bertka, Constance M., and Watson, William A. 2018. "Using human case studies to teach evolution in high school A.P. biology classrooms." Evolution: Education and Outreach 11 (1):3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-018-0077-72018
Pobiner, Briana L. 2017. "The Quest to Understand Human Evolution: A Magical Mystery Tour." The American Biology Teacher 79 (2):77. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2017.79.2.772017
Pobiner, Briana L. 2016. "Accepting, understanding, teaching, and learning (human) evolution: Obstacles and opportunities." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 159 (Supplement S61):S232-S274. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.229102016
Pobiner, Briana L. 2016. "Meat-Eating Among the Earliest Humans Evidence of meat-eating.among our distant human ancestors is hard to find and even harder to interpret, but researchers are beginning to piece together a coherent picture." American Scientist 104 (2):110-117. https://doi.org/10.1511/2016.119.1102016
Pobiner, Briana L. 2015. "New actualistic data on the ecology and energetics of hominin scavenging opportunities." Journal of Human Evolution 80:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.06.0202015
Pobiner, Briana L. 2014. "Stone tools and fossil bones: debates in the archaeology of human origins." Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 49 (1):117-119. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2013.8731972014
Johnson, Norman A., Smith, James J., Pobiner, Briana L., and Schrein, Caitlin. 2012. "Why Are Chimps Still Chimps?." The American Biology Teacher 74 (2):74-80. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2012.74.2.32012
Tryon, Christian, Pobiner, Briana L., and Kauffman, Rhonda. 2010. "Archaeology and Human Evolution." Evolution: Education and Outreach 3 (3):377-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-010-0246-92010
Njau, Jackson, Mbua, Emma, Alemseged, Zeresenay, and Pobiner, Briana L. 2009. "Second conference of the East African association for paleoanthropology and paleontology: Fifty years after discovery of Zinjanthropus." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 18 (6):235-236. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.202412009
Pobiner, Briana L. 2008. "Apples and oranges again: comment on Conceptual premises in experimental design and their bearing on the use of analogy: an example from experiments on cut marks." World Archaeology 40 (4):466-479. https://doi.org/10.1080/004382408024511992008
Pobiner, Briana L., Rogers, M. J., Monahan, C. M., and Harris, J. W. K. 2008. "New evidence for hominin carcass processing strategies at 1.5 Ma, Koobi Fora, Kenya." Journal of Human Evolution 55 (1):103-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.02.0012008
Blumenschine, R. J., Andrews, P., Capaldo, S. D., Njau, J. K., Peters, C. R., and Pobiner, Briana L. 2007. "Vertebrate taphonomic perspectives on Oldowan hominid land use in the Plio-Pleistocene Olduvai basin, Tanzania." in Breathing Life into Fossils: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C. K. (Bob) Brain, edited by Pickering, T. R., Schick, K., and Toth, N., 161-179. Stone Age Institute Press.
2007
Pobiner, Briana. 2019. [Book review] "Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures." The American Biology Teacher. 454-455. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.6.454b2019
Pobiner, Briana L. 2014. [Book review] "Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins, edited by John Gurche." American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 317. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.225082014