People -- BAA

Jonathan M. Perry

Education:
M.Sc., University of Alberta, 2001
B.Sc., University of Alberta, 1998

Research Interests:
I am interested in the dental and cranial features that signal diet and oral behavior in primates. These can be used to reconstruct certain aspects of diet and oral behavior in extinct primates. Currently I am focussing on a unique group of lemur-like primates from the Eocene epoch of Europe: the adapines. These primates exhibit many features that suggest they were eating very hard and/or very tough foods. They were perhaps the earliest primates to rely on food sources that were such great challenges to the masticatory system.

My background is in early Tertiary primate paleontology and I did a Master's project on food processing in plesiadapiforms and euprimates. I built a machine that simulates chewing. This machine was constructed based on parameters from modern prosimian primates. I used dentitions of different primate species in this machine and I had them break down different kinds of food. For each species and for each food, I then assessed masticatory performance, that is, how small are the particles resulting from a given number of chews.

Current projects:
Currently, I am working on several projects:,

, Dissection of prosimian chewing muscles to determine scaling patterns, fiber architecture, basic anatomy, and predictability of attachment areas

, Dissection of masticatory anatomy of large felids: examination of relative muscle size and predictability of muscle attachment areas (with A. Hartstone-Rose)

, Quantification of premolar root area in Homunculus, a Miocene monkey from Patagonia, with comments on masticatory loads (with R. F. Kay)

, Measurement of dental dimensions in Eocene adapine primates for the purpose of inferring diet

, Predicting body mass from common osteological estimators in a population of howling monkeys skeletons with a history of living body weight measurements (with A. Hartstone-Rose, N. L. Barrickman, and K. Glander)

, Scaling of ingested food items in captive strepsirrhines at the Duke University Primate Center (with A. Hartstone-Rose)

, Assessment of the sources of dental microwear in strepsirrhines (with R. Kay, J. Choi, C. Wall, and P. Ungar)

, Quantification of phytolith content in howling monkey and sifaka feces in different seasons and different habitats (with R. Kay, R. Madden, K. Glander, M. Clark, and D. Brockman)

Recent Publications (More Publications) (search)

Perry JMG (Submitted, Fall, 2006). Scaling of the chewing muscles in prosimians.Primate Craniofacial Function and Biology.
Perry JMG (Granted May 28, 2001). Breakdown of Food by Early Fossil Primates: Assessed with the Aid of a Machine that Simulates Mastication.. (M.Sc. Thesis, University of Alberta. 217p.).
Perry JMG, Wall CE "A study of the scaling patterns of physiological cross-sectional area of the chewing muscles in prosimians." 2005: 165.
Kay RF, Schmitt D, Vinyard CJ, Perry JMG, Shigehara N, Takai M and Naoko E "The paleobiology of Amphipithecidae, South Asian late Eocene primates." 2004: 3-25.
Perry JMG, Wall CE "Theoretical expectations and empirical features of prosimiam chewing muscles." 2004: 101A.

Selected Field Work

Field Work, Feb 2003, 2004, 2006, Near Rio Gallegos, Argentina.
Recovery of Miocene mammals from the Santa Cruz Formation of southern Patagonia. Special focus on the early platyrrhine primate Homunculus.
Field Work, Oct - Nov 2004, Fayum Basin, Egypt.
Recovery of Eocene and Oligocene mammals from the Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt. Special focus on representatives of the earliest anthropoid primates.
Field Work, May 2003, The altiplano of Bolivia.
Oligocene and Miocene mammals from many locations in western Bolivia. Special focus on the earliest South American primate, Branisella.
Field Work, Jul - Aug 2003, Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar.
Study of male dispersal behavior and hormones in Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi .
Field Work, Jun - Sep 2002, East End, Saskatchewan.
Recovery and preparation of a skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex from the latest Cretaceous.
Field Work, May - Sep 1999, Central and southern Alberta.
Recovery of Paleocene mammals.
Field Work, May - Sep 1996, 1997, 1998, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta.
Recovery and preparation of vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of southern Alberta.

Office Phone:
+1 919 684 4250

Email Address:
jmp20@duke.edu

Mailing Address:
Biological Anthropology & Anatomy Duke University Box 90383 Science Drive Durham, NC 27708-0383 USA

Office Hours:: By appointment

Typical Courses Taught:

Baa 305, Gross human anatomy
Baa 133l, The human body
Baa 93d, Introduction to biological anthropology
Baa 289l, Comparative mammalian anatomy