http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings daily 0.75 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594850812162-K35W7MTK4KNA7JZU269B/IMG_9474.jpg Happenings http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2025/11/3/western-students-took-to-portugal-this-summer-to-learn-about-museum-studies monthly 0.5 2025-11-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/2b9e3dab-de5c-4a5d-a71b-176dfedb1fff/Image+5.jpg Happenings - Western students took to Portugal this summer to learn about museum studies - Make it stand out Excursion to Gondar to learn about traditional pottery production and firing techniques https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/2132ddd0-d6ca-4334-85de-d4b139804f5b/Image+4.jpeg Happenings - Western students took to Portugal this summer to learn about museum studies - Make it stand out Pottery workshop led by local ceramicist and art instructor https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/9e4cfefd-4346-46ff-8846-ea18a2e30202/Image+2.jpg Happenings - Western students took to Portugal this summer to learn about museum studies - Make it stand out Excursions to archaeological sites: Castro de São Paio (top left), Citânia de Briteiros (top right), and Cividade de Bagunte (bottom) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/5198c65e-41f9-46b3-88da-719d24949204/Image+3.jpeg Happenings - Western students took to Portugal this summer to learn about museum studies - Make it stand out Students 3D surface scanning a handaxe from a local site https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/89b9a56d-5d32-4432-a999-fde138d7e4c9/Image+1.jpeg Happenings - Western students took to Portugal this summer to learn about museum studies - Make it stand out Students working on ceramic reconstructions in the Vila do Conde archaeology lab http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2023/6/21/a-bittersweet-reflection-on-my-time-at-uc-berkeley-as-i-move-on-to-my-new-academic-home monthly 0.5 2023-06-21 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2023/4/4/new-job-find-me-at-western-washington-university-starting-in-september monthly 0.5 2023-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/88961dd1-c2f4-4eda-b217-5979264a9d90/Western_AnnouncementPhoto_31Mar2023.jpg Happenings - New job! Find me at Western Washington University starting in September - Make it stand out The happy moment I signed my contract with Western Washington University! : Austin Peck; taken in Berlin, Germany while on a research trip to the Museum für Naturkunde. http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2022/11/14/almost-1000-new-monkey-fossils-from-ethiopia-just-published-in-three-papers-at-ajba monthly 0.5 2022-11-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/460e2f23-2322-410b-8cb3-0f4b0c209e28/AJBA_2022_skeletons.png Happenings - (Almost) 1,000 new monkey fossils from Ethiopia just published in three papers at AJBA - Make it stand out Skeletons of cf. Chlorocebus (left), Papio hamadryas ssp. (center), and Colobus cf. guereza (right) from the later Pleistocene of the Middle Awash study area in the Afar region of Ethiopia. http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2022/10/3/new-paper-on-estimating-prenatal-growth-rates-in-the-fossil-record monthly 0.5 2022-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/443b10ea-57d0-4f1a-91f8-3606edb50e30/Screen+Shot+2022-10-03+at+3.28.01+PM.png Happenings - New paper on estimating prenatal growth rates in the fossil record - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2020/9/1/new-paper-out-today-on-the-evolution-of-dental-proportions-in-hominids monthly 0.5 2020-09-01 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/happenings/2020/7/15/finishing-a-phd-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic monthly 0.5 2020-07-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851666996-BXCUOIES0PCCYYBX5NHQ/IMG_1463.jpg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851673438-27DC6Y6IA2FYPRPKHXAQ/IMG_1469.jpg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851672120-F4CM1ST3LHVHGBIOUY1D/IMG_1499.jpg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851763457-XRO1E2CVJCSYIVBSB3YA/3E044C15-99A2-49BA-909E-AEAC708CC5AC.jpg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic The happy day I received my “Phinally Done” lollipop in the mail. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851442116-DW69U29ST8ZFFVHZU0PT/LH_Twitter_Sigs.jpeg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic Picking up my signature page (and congratulatory lollipops) from my advisor’s house. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594851285039-0PFDYR3EQA5QXWJ53PBT/IMG_1301.jpg Happenings - Finishing a PhD in the middle of a pandemic My pup, Tater, hanging out under my chair while I wrote. http://www.mariannebrasil.com/pagecv daily 0.75 2018-05-25 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/research daily 0.75 2018-05-25 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/contact daily 0.75 2018-05-25 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/home daily 0.75 2018-05-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1477526160096-HCHY8PG4P8FTCT8W08QT/image-asset.jpeg Home Data collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, May 2016. Photo credit: Tesla Monson. http://www.mariannebrasil.com/teaching daily 0.75 2018-05-25 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/outreach daily 0.75 2018-05-25 http://www.mariannebrasil.com/pagecv-1 daily 0.75 2023-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543126087197-R41OPRC59B0WN4XL2518/image-asset.jpeg CV http://www.mariannebrasil.com/contact-1 daily 0.75 2023-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543126203034-9KIRM119HJR6N9DH76BG/image-asset.jpeg Contact http://www.mariannebrasil.com/home-1 daily 1.0 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/d9824245-3c70-415d-91e1-721439b22c49/Headshot_Switzerland_Aug2025.jpeg Home - ABOUT ME I’m a biological anthropologist (/evolutionary biologist) with a primary research interest in skeletal variation and evolution. I’m particularly interested in how variation is patterned, and how it’s parsed and interpreted in the fossil record. I’ve explored this mostly in primates, including cercopithecid monkeys and modern humans. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555108757669-AQ8YM1U3XBQO6CBIPU0D/IMG_9418.jpg Home http://www.mariannebrasil.com/outreach-1 daily 0.75 2023-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594849444031-OUI9L9Z2F5PYBSOEP6NI/IMG_8789.JPG Outreach - SCIENCE COMMUNICATION I had the pleasure of interviewing with Andrew Saintsing for The Graduates radio show on UC Berkeley’s KALX 90.7 FM, which highlights graduate student research across the UC Berkeley campus. We talked about my dissertation research and where it’s taken me, the challenges of fieldwork, and how I got interested in science. You can listen to my interview here (aired August 13th, 2019). And a shout-out to my collaborator and friend, Tesla Monson, who started The Graduates back when she was a graduate student at UC Berkeley - you can learn more about that history here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543108350074-KMI4NTB3G753071R0FOX/Science+Sketching+%282%29.jpg Outreach - SCIENCE NOTEBOOK PROJECT During Spring 2018 I participated in the pilot program for the “Science Notebook Project,” one of the many programs supported by Community Resources for Science. I visited 4th and 5th grade classrooms in Berkeley and shared examples of how I use my science notebook (which usually includes taking meticulous notes in the field and on museum trips). I then guided an outdoor activity where each student got to be a naturalist for a day. Together, we explored the natural world with a new perspective, thinking about how (and why) scientists take notes about what they observe, and realizing along the way that, really, anyone can be a scientist. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555109688270-7XW0BBUMWVK9F1ANK4D8/IMG_5340.jpg Outreach - St. Joseph’s Biomedical science fair In early 2018 I mentored a bright and determined high school student over the course of a multi-week long independent research project. I helped guide her through formulating a research question, thinking about testable hypotheses, planning data collection and analysis (and seeing it through), and then interpreting the results. We spent many hours in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley collecting long bone measurements from six mammalian species to test her hypotheses about the relationship between trophic levels and limb proportions. Her hard work paid off when she saw all those beautiful data points support (some) of her hypotheses (and when she won second place in her category at the St. Joseph’s Biomedical Science Fair!). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555110246836-0CKI9V95KNCBX55CZFF2/image-asset.jpeg Outreach - BE A SCIENTIST During Fall 2015 I volunteered in the “Be A Scientist” program (another one of the many programs supported by Community Resources for Science), which pairs graduate student mentors in the sciences with small groups of 7th grade students as they take on independent science projects. Over the course of six weeks, I mentored a group of three students through their own scientific investigations, helping them think of a question, design an experiment, collect and analyze data, and then present their findings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555110097649-3R8S1MW8G8LZGMO5AD2R/IMG_1909.JPG Outreach - EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) is a volunteer-based organization with roots in the SF Bay Area that organizes annual conferences worldwide to provide middle- and high-school girls with hands-on opportunities and women role models in STEM. I’ve volunteered repeatedly at the UC Berkeley-based conference, both as a day-of volunteer and as a member of the logistics planning committee. Watching young women from a range of backgrounds interact with women role models in STEM and seeing their excitement and enthusiasm about STEM fields (and their future place in them) makes this one of my favorite organizations to volunteer with. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594855943823-ZS7O3DCXZWHFGVWQLUPF/IMG_0242.jpg Outreach - Letters to a Pre-scientist I’ve participated in the Letters to a Pre-Scientist program since 2019, and am excited to be a scientist penpal again for this year’s program! This awesome program aims to connect elementary and middle school students from primarily low-income schools with scientist penpals as a way to form friendships, provide encouragement, and help students see their future selves in a STEM field. I always look forward to the day that a letter will arrive from my pen-pal, and love learning about their excitement for and curiosity about science. For any scientists reading this, I definitely recommend participating in this program - it’s a fun way to work toward making STEM more inclusive, and there’s nothing quite like getting a hand-written letter from a pal! You can find more information here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543085237973-IYGJ3TEVKKNG5M1FF07U/image-asset.jpeg Outreach http://www.mariannebrasil.com/research-1 daily 0.75 2025-11-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555109001197-Q08CPVNKUA0T7KGSE0PZ/DSC04544.JPG Research - AFRICAN CERCOPITHECID MONKEY EVOLUTION In parallel to my more human-focused work and my work with the Middle Awash Research Project, I’ve been involved in an ongoing set of projects investigating cercopithecid monkey morphology. This has included exploring craniofacial variation in southern African monkeys and reassessing taxonomic categories, and taking a more explicitly hypothesis-based approach to the taxonomy of genus Parapapio (in prep). You can read about some of this work (and ensuing adventures) here in a blog post I wrote with Tesla Monson for the University of California Museum of Paleontology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543127664419-26SA69RTKEKTRS9349LF/Photo1.jpg Research - Early modern HUMAN EVOLUTION My dissertation research was centered on the description of Late Pleistocene human postcranial fossils, including a partial skeleton, from the Middle Awash study area in Ethiopia. This work included the initial comparative description, placing these fossils in the context of the Pleistocene fossil record and recent modern human populations. My research was generously funded by the National Science Foundation (see Award Abstract here), the Leakey Foundation (see Grantee Spotlight here), the Portuguese Studies Program at UC Berkeley, and the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley (see Project Description here). Publication of the chronostratigraphic framework for these fossils was led by my collaborator Elizabeth Niespolo (PNAS, 2021). The results of my dissertation and ongoing work are being prepared for publication, in coordination with the associated behavioral and ecological evidence. The next phases of this research will turn to hominid fossils from one of the most elusive time periods of human evolution: the Middle Pleistocene. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594848796967-RUV7INO27E89UTWTEYCB/IMG_6600.jpg Research - MODERN HUMAN SKELETAL VARIATION The newest branch of my research program is focused on skeletal variation in recent modern humans, exploring patterns of covariation in the postcranial skeleton. I’m currently working on a project assessing population-based variation in shaft-to-end proportions of human limb bones. Other projects are in development, so please stay tuned! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555108856964-S8KGNPT947IU3J0N1J1N/IMG_9186.jpg Research - MECHANISMS PATTERNING MAMMALIAN DENTAL VARIATION I’m collaborating on an ongoing set of projects that grew out of a really fun and exciting initial project (/adventure…) led by Leslea Hlusko. By leveraging very large and diverse extant and fossil datasets and pulling in quantitative genetic analyses, we identified two dental phenotypes that reflect the output of genetic patterning mechanisms (PNAS, 2016). My former labmate and collaborator Tesla Monson led an international team in examining the relationship between these two phenotypes with diet and phylogeny in a large sample of boreoeutherian mammals (Ecology and Evolution, 2019). I then led our team in exploring how these phenotypes pattern across the human clade, which has implications for the selection of phenotypes in taxonomic assessments and phylogenetic analyses (The Science of Nature, 2020). More recently, we assessed variation and evolution of these dental phenotypes in the maxillary dentition of cercopithecid monkeys. We combined quantitative genetic analyses with ancestral state reconstruction to find that observed phenotypes in the cercopithecid fossil record exceed the variation among predicted ancestral values, underscoring the value and necessity of fossil evidence for elucidating evolutionary patterns (Biology, 2022). Our most recent work leverages these dental phenotypes to study prenatal growth rates in the hominid fossil record, opening a new window onto the evolution of human pregnancy (PNAS, 2022). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555112018412-3O73U2DPX407S16E3RPF/PB143653.jpg Research - FIELD REsearch in THE middle awash, Ethiopia I’m a paleontologist on the Middle Awash Research Project, focusing on fossil hominids and monkeys. I’ve been out for two field seasons with the project (2015, 2017) and am involved in ongoing work at the National Museum of Ethiopia. Ongoing projects include the curation, taxonomic description, and detailed comparative study of early modern humans and cercopithecid monkeys. Along with collaborators Cat Taylor, Tesla Monson, Ryan Yohler, and Leslea Hlusko (AKA #TeamMonkey), I’ve been working on describing nearly a thousand monkey individuals from later Pleistocene sediments, sampling three lineages (Colobus, Papio, and cf. Chlorocebus). Our work has culminated in three papers, recently published at the American Journal of Biological Anthropology (Brasil et al., Colobus; Brasil et al., Papio; and Taylor et al., cf. Chlorocebus). Our next big phase of this project will look to even more monkeys in older (Middle Pleistocene) sediments. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1594845432238-6KNCGZ66ZG7976G1P0KC/image-asset.jpeg Research http://www.mariannebrasil.com/teaching-1 daily 0.75 2022-10-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1556923278453-EFBCA9VBFZNW9JC7QOYX/image-asset.jpeg Teaching - HUMAN OSTEOLOGY Graduate student instructor. Prepared and administered weekly practical examinations. Provided one-on-one instruction and feedback. (Spring 2018) Course description: An intensive study of the human skeleton, including reconstruction of individual and population characteristics. Emphasis on methodology and analysis of human populations from archaeological and paleontological contexts, taphonomy, and paleopathology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1556923240387-JQE8FJH0ESX1NZ7RTR5N/image-asset.jpeg Teaching - HUMAN BIOLOGICAL VARIATION Lead instructor. (Summer 2019) Graduate student instructor. Led weekly lab and discussion sections. (Fall 2018, Fall 2019) Co-instructor. Co-lecturer and facilitator of lab and discussion sections. (Summer 2017) Course description: This course addresses modern human biological variation from historical, comparative, evolutionary, biomedical, and cultural perspectives. It is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of comparative biology, evolutionary theory, and genetics. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1557006438968-8JFEPM1O5Z29ODFIHI86/image-asset.jpeg Teaching - HUMAN FerTILITY Graduate student instructor. Developed curriculum for the laboratory and discussion sections, and led weekly sections. (Fall 2014) Course description: This course explores human reproduction through the lenses of evolutionary biology, population statistics, and culture. We examine what happened to human fertility and to the possibility of making choices about fertility at such moments of change as the emergence of pair bonding in hominids, the advent of agriculture, the industrial revolution, and today with the development of both contraceptive and prospective technologies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1557006653650-X6EOY0Z9O972FDA6WFS6/image-asset.jpeg Teaching - HUMAN REPRODUCTION Graduate student instructor. Led weekly discussion sections. Created weekly study aids. (Spring 2015) Course description: This course focuses on the biological and cultural aspects of human reproduction including conception, embryology, pregnancy, labor & delivery, lactation, infant/child development, puberty, and reproductive aging. This includes the study of factors that diminish and factors that enhance fertility, reproduction, and maternal-child health. We explore evolutionary, ecological, environmental, cultural, ethnobiological, and nutritional determinants of fertility, reproductive rate, infant survival, and population growth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1555111199466-C74JSHLRX6DYHQNGY588/image-asset.jpeg Teaching - HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY Graduate student instructor. Led weekly laboratory sections and developed laboratory curriculum. (Spring 2017) Course description: This course examines the hominid fossil record through an historical and interdisciplinary lens spanning the fields of geology, archaeology, and evolutionary biology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1543084944987-VC528E65MYUOTXSRI70R/image-asset.jpeg Teaching http://www.mariannebrasil.com/lettersofrec daily 0.75 2023-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56d7c7591d07c0ad6ddca807/1694645447184-DOKALJK0WFTV4VIE9M3C/image-asset.jpeg Letters of Rec