University of Oxford

Eiluned (Ellie) Pearce

Contact: eiluned.pearce@anthro.ox.ac.uk

I’m a DPhil student (October 2009 – present), under the supervision of Professor Robin Dunbar (Psychology) and Dr Iain Morley (Anthropology) and funded by a Boise Studentship (October 2009 – October 2012) and a European Research Council Advanced grant bursary (October 2012 – present).  I hold a BA in Human Sciences and an MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, both from the University of Oxford.  My main research interests lie in exploring hominin sociality as it relates to brain evolution.

Research

• Using skull morphometrics to estimate brain region volumes in both recent humans and fossil Homo sapiens and Neanderthals to look at brain organisation and possible cognitive constraints on social group size.
• Investigating time constraints on social group sizes in recent hunter-gatherers and fossil hominins.

 Publications

• Pearce E., Stringer C., Dunbar R.I.M. 2013 New insights into differences in brain organization between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280(1758). (doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0168).
• Pearce, E., Shuttleworth, A. & Grove, M., in press.  The costs of being a high latitude hominin.  In Dunbar, R., Gamble, C., Gowlett, J., The Lucy Project: Benchmark Papers. Oxford University Press.
• Pearce E., Dunbar R. 2012 Latitudinal variation in light levels drives human visual system size. Biology Letters 8(1), 90 - 93.
• Grove M., Pearce E., Dunbar R.I.M. 2012 Fission-fusion and the evolution of hominin social systems. J Hum Evol 62(2), 191-200.      
• Dunbar R.I.M., Baron R., Frangou A., Pearce E., van Leeuwin E.J.C., Stow J., Partridge G., MacDonald I., Barra V., van Vugt M. 2012 Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279, 1161-1167.
• Zuur, A. F., Pearce, E. & Ieno, E. N. (2012) Review of multiple linear regression.  In Zuur, Saveliev, Ieno, Zero inflated models and generalized mixed models in R.  Highland Statistics.

 Conference Presentations

• Eiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer & Robin Dunbar ‘Brain organisation differences between Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans’.  Oral presentation, BABAO conference, 14-16th September 2012.  Runner up in student podium presentation competition.
• Eiluned Pearce ‘How many friends did a Neanderthal have?’.  Invited Lecture, Jersey Archaeological Field School, July 2012.
• Eiluned Pearce ‘Shedding light on Neanderthal Sociality’.  Oral presentation, Work in Progress Seminar Series, Department of Anthropology, University of Oxford, May 2012.
• Eiluned Pearce ‘How many friends did a Neanderthal have?’ Oral presentation, Boise Workshop, University of Oxford, April 2012.
• Eiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer & Robin Dunbar ‘Neanderthal sociocognition limited by big eyes and bodies.’  Poster presentation EHBEA conference, Durham, March 2012.
• Eiluned Pearce, Chris Stringer & Robin Dunbar ‘Neanderthals had big eyes and bodies but small social groups.’ Oral presentation, HOBET conference, Liverpool January 2012.
• Eiluned Pearce and Robin Dunbar ‘Neanderthals:  Good Eyesight but Poor Social Skills?’ Oral presentation, at the ‘Lucy to Language’ British Academy Project Conference, Magdalen College, Oxford, September 2010.