Paleoanthropologists are people who study our prehistoric human ancestors (hominids). They do this by studying their biological development, cultural development, and their skeletal remains. Paleoanthropologists often lead archaeological teams.
Paleoanthropologists look at and classify preserved bodies, such as those frozen in ice, as well as skeletal remains.
As we explore the Ice Age, we will want to pay attention to the size and shape of the remains, especially of the teeth and skulls and some bones, because these parts reveal the size, age, and sex of the hominid at the time of death.
We will also want to speculate about what their lives could have been like, based on the injuries shown by the bones and how their teeth were worn. We will make some guesses about what hunting was like, and what eating was like, based on what we see in the skeletons.
You can learn more about being a paleoanthropologist from this excerpt of an interview with Dr. Tim White.
A famous paleoanthopologist is Mary Leakey.
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