Patrick Randolph-Quinney

(He/Him)

8

Articles

1

Comment

I am a Biological Anthropologist with specialisations in Osteoarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology. I have research interests in human and faunal identification, skeletal disease evolution, palaeo and forensic taphonomy, skeletal trauma analysis, and the application of digital methods in biomedical imaging and archaeology. My fieldwork focusses on the archaeology of Palaeolithic cave systems in Europe and South Africa, integrating archaeology, palaeoeconomy, and palaeoenvironmental modelling, though I am currently working across more recent timescales at sites on Gotland.

I have broad practical, research and teaching experience in archaeology, palaeoanthropology and forensic science. My broad interests concern the application of multi‐disciplinary approaches in bioarchaeology, and particularly applying forensic taphonomy and thanatology into both current medico‐legal practice and the Evolutionary Anthropology of the deep past. Much of my academic life has focussed on the biological and cultural evolution of the genus Homo during the Middle Pleistocene, a critical period that precedes the evolution of our own species and the advent of modern behaviours. In recent years I have been working in the field of forensic anthropology and human identification, and have extensive casework experience in both forensic anthropology and archaeology in the UK and sub‐Saharan Africa, including archaeology of fatal fires, and as a member of the Mission Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires investigating human rights abuses in the Republic of Chad. I was co‐coordinator of the African School for Forensic Science and Human Rights in conjunction with the Argentine Forensic Team (EAAF). My research also encompasses the effects of disease and trauma on the skeleton, and I led multi-disciplinary research teams investigating the earliest evidence for neoplastic disease (both tumours and cancers) in the hominin fossil record.

One of the main areas of my research focusses on taphonomy and thanatology in forensic, archaeological and palaeontological contexts, with the aim of understanding mortuary behaviours, peri and post-mortem alteration to the body, and site formational processes. My work integrates decomposition modelling with multi-scalar approaches to how body deposition sites (whether intentional or natural) function and change through time - integrating bone taphonomy, sedimentology and geomorphology, biotic and abiotic factors to understand the persistence and transfer of taphonomic evidence through time.

I have research interests across the field of forensic taphonomy including human and animal decomposition processes, osseous taphonomy, differentiation of sub‐aerial and sub‐surface processes, trauma analysis, ichnotraces, and the application of digital methods in the analysis of spatial taphonomy and the decomposition process. In particular I use innovative approaches using 3D and 4D space capture and modelling (from laser, structured light scanning and photogrammetry), and remote sensing and GIS, to understand site formational processes from object to landscape level. This includes research which aims to improve methods of environmental detection of buried deposits using multi-proxy and remote sensing data from drones and UAV.

I have continued research into the human evolutionary process, working at the sites of Malapa, Rising Star and Makapansgat in South Africa. My role in the Rising Star project has been to apply skillsets derived from forensic casework (having worked on homicides, fatal fires and mass graves from war crimes) to the deep past; using the skills from modern forensic taphonomy to understand the context, decompositional environment and mortuary behaviours of Homo naledi. I am an experienced field worker and conduct fieldwork in Middle Pleistocene palaeo-archaeological deposits in the Limpopo region of South Africa, and am Co-Director of the Makapan Archaeological Landscape Project.

I am currently supervising a number of PhD projects looking at differing aspects of the forensic and palaeosciences.

Experience

  • 2024–present
    Associate Professor in Osteoarchaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University
  • 2024–present
    Director, Uppsala University Bioarchaeology Research Laboratory
  • 2020–2024
    Associate Professor in Forensic Science, School of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University
  • 2017–2020
    Reader in Biological and Forensic Anthropology, School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
  • 2016–2017
    Senior Lecturer in Biological and Forensic Anthropology, School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
  • 2012–2016
    Lecturer in Anatomy, School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand
  • 2007–2012
    Lecturer in Forensic Anthropology, Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, University of Dundee

Education

  • 2004 
    University of Liverpool, PhD Palaeoanthropology
  • 1993 
    University of Bradford, BSc (Hons) Archaeological Sciences

Publications

  • 2025
    Establishing a Pan-European, multi-disciplinary taphonomic research Infrastructure: The ‘UK-Netherlands decomposition experimental research (UNDER) Group’, Science and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2024.12.007
  • 2025
    Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi, eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89106.2
  • 2022
    Environmental conditions and bodily decomposition: Implications for long term management of war fatalities and the identification of the dead during the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, Forensic Science International: Synergy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2022.100284
  • 2022
    The OsteoDontoKeratic Culture, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.558
  • 2022
    Tooth cementum annulation: A literature review, Forensic Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/forensicsci2030038
  • 2021
    Calculation of likelihood ratios for inference of biological sex from human skeletal remains., Forensic Science International: Synergy 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100202
  • 2021
    Harnessing Thor’s Hammer: experimentally induced lightning trauma to human bone by high impulse current, Forensic Science International: Synergy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2021.100206
  • 2020
    Datura quids at Pinwheel Cave, California, provide unambiguous confirmation of the ingestion of hallucinogens at a rock art site., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (49): 31026-31037.
  • 2019
    Geometric morphometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in the mandible from panoramic X-ray images, Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology 37: 35-44
  • 2018
    The use of three-dimensional scanning and surface capture methods in recording forensic taphonomic traces: issues of technology, visualisation, and validation. , In: W.J. M. Groen and P. M. Barone (eds). Multidisciplinary Approaches to Forensic Archaeology. Berlin: Springer International Publishing, pp. 115-130.
  • 2018
    Possible bite-induced abscess and osteomyelitis in Lufengosaurus (Dinosauria: sauropodomorph) from the Lower Jurassic of the Yimen Basin, China, Scientific Reports, 8 (5045) http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23451-x
  • 2018
    A case of benign osteogenic tumour in Homo naledi: evidence for peripheral osteoma in the U.W. 101-1142 mandible, International Journal of Paleopathology 21: 47-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2017.05.003
  • 2018
    New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa, eLife http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.001
  • 2017
    Osteopathology and insect traces in the Australopithecus africanus skeleton StW 431, South African Journal of Science 113 (1/2). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2017/20160143
  • 2017
    Response to Thackeray (2016) – The possibility of lichen growth on bones of Homo naledi: Were they exposed to light?, South African Journal of Science 112 (9/10). http://dx.oi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/a0177.
  • 2017
    Beyond size: The potential of a geometric morphometric analysis of shape and form for the assessment of sex in hand stencils in rock art, Journal of Archaeological Science 78: 202-213. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.11.001
  • 2016
    Earliest hominin cancer: 1.7 million year old osteosarcoma from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, South African Journal of Science. 112 (7/8). http://dx.doi.org/10.17160/sajs.2016/20150471
  • 2016
    Osteogenic spinal tumor in Australopithecus sediba: Earliest evidence for neoplasia in the human lineage, South African Journal of Science 112 (7/8). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20150470
  • 2016
    Comment on “Deliberate body disposal by hominins in the Dinaledi Chamber, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa?” [J. Hum. Evol. 96 (2016) 145-148]. , Journal of Human Evolution 96: 149-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.04.007
  • 2016
    Multi-modal spatial mapping and visualisation of Dianeldi Chamber and Rising Star Cave, South African Journal of Science 112 (5/6). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20160032.
  • 2016
    A new star rising: Biology and mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi., South African Journal of Science 111 (9/10). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/a0122
  • 2016
    Multi-modal spatial mapping and visualisation of Dianeldi Chamber and Rising Star Cave, South African Journal of Science 112 (5/6). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20160032
  • 2016
    The mournful ape: conflating expression and meaning in the mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi. , South African Journal of Science 111 (11/12). http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2015/a01311
  • 2015
    Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, eLife 4 e09561. http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09561.001
  • 2015
    Evidence of fatal skeletal injuries on Malapa hominins 1 and 2., Scientific Reports 5 e15120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep15120.
  • 2011
    Taphonomy., In S. Black and E. Ferguson (eds.) Forensic Anthropology 2000-2010. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp 279-318.
  • 2011
    Anthropology, In A. Jamieson and A. Moenssens (eds.) Wiley Encylopedia of Forensic Science. London: Wiley & Son Ltd. pp 152-178.
  • 2011
    Skeletal Trauma, In S. Black and E. Ferguson (eds.) Forensic Anthropology 2000-2010. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp 183-236.

Professional Memberships

  • Fellow - Royal Society of Biology
  • Fellow - Higher Education Academy

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