Eric Sargis

Professor of Anthropology, Archaeological Studies, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and School of the Environment

Division:

Biological

Degree(s):

Ph.D., City University of New York, 2000

Address:

10 Sachem Street, Room 208

203-432-6140

eric.sargis@yale.edu

Website

Eric J. Sargis is a Professor of Anthropology, with secondary appointments in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of the Environment, and Council on Archaeological Studies. He is also Curator of Mammalogy and Vertebrate Paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and Director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.

His interests include the origin and early evolution of primates, and he is currently collaborating on analyses of Paleocene euarchontan skeletons, including those of plesiadapiform primates. He also studies Old World monkey diversity using integrative approaches that synthesize data from evolutionary morphology, genetics, behavioral ecology, vocalizations, and biogeography. His current collaborative study on this topic focuses on newly discovered guenon taxa from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and this project has significant conservation implications for these threatened primates. He also co-directs Yale Peabody Museum paleontological field expeditions to latest Cretaceous and earliest Paleocene localities in Montana. He and his co-directors are studying mammalian faunal turnover across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and focusing on the earliest Paleocene from which the oldest primate fossils are known. In 2008, he published an edited book, Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology: A Tribute to Frederick S. Szalay. He has conducted fieldwork in Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Florida. He is also a Series Co-Editor for the Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology book series.

Google Scholar Citation Profile

Selected Publications:

Gilbert, CC, Gilissen, E, Arenson, JL, Patel, BA, Nakatsukasa, M, Hart, TB, Hart, JA, Detwiler, KM, and Sargis, EJ. 2021. Morphological analysis of new Dryas Monkey specimens from the central Congo Basin: taxonomic considerations and an emended diagnosis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 176: 361–389.

Weaver, LN, Varricchio, DJ, Sargis, EJ, Chen, M, Freimuth, WJ, and Wilson Mantilla, GP. 2021. Early mammalian social behaviour revealed by multituberculates from a dinosaur nesting site. Nature Ecology & Evolution 5: 32-37.

Arenson, JL, Sargis, EJ, Hart, JA, Hart, TB, Detwiler, KM, and Gilbert, CC. 2020. Skeletal morphology of the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) and the evolution of guenon locomotor behavior. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 172: 3-24. (Cover Article)

Chester, SGB, and Sargis, EJ. 2020. Pan-Primates. In K de Queiroz, PD Cantino, and JA Gauthier (eds.), Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode, CRC Press, pp. 903-906.

Chester, SGB, Williamson, TE, Silcox, MT, Bloch, JI, and Sargis, EJ. 2019. Skeletal morphology of the early Paleocene plesiadapiform Torrejonia wilsoni (Euarchonta, Palaechthonidae). Journal of Human Evolution 128: 76-92.

Mekonnen, A, Fashing, PJ, Sargis, EJ, Venkataraman, VV, Bekele, A, Hernandez-Aguilar, RA, Rueness, EK, and Stenseth, NC. 2018. Flexibility in positional behavior, strata use, and substrate utilization among Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) in response to habitat fragmentation and degradation. American Journal of Primatology 80: e22760. (Cover Article)

Chester, SGB, Williamson, TE, Bloch, JI, Silcox, MT, and Sargis, EJ. 2017. Oldest skeleton of a plesiadapiform provides additional evidence for an exclusively arboreal radiation of stem primates in the Paleocene. Royal Society Open Science 4: 170329.

Federman, S, Dornburg, A, Daly, DC, Downie, A, Perry, GH, Yoder, AD, Sargis, EJ, Richard, AF, Donoghue, MJ, and Baden, AL. 2016. Implications of lemuriform extinctions for the Malagasy flora. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113: 5041–5046.