Timothy D. Weaver

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology, Stanford University, 2002
• A.M., Anthropology, Stanford University, 1998
• A.B., Computer Science and Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, 1995 (cum laude overall with high honors for thesis)

About

Tim Weaver is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis. He graduated with a double major in Computer Science and Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College (1995), and he received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University (2002). He was a postdoc in the Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2003-2004), and the Human Evolution Department, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2004-2006). He joined the UC Davis Anthropology Department in 2006.

Research Focus

Professor Weaver studies human evolution, with a focus on 400,000-40,000 years ago when Neandertals and Denisovans, who were close relatives of humans, were inhabiting Eurasia, and early members of our own human lineage emerged in Africa. Near the end of this time period, some humans spread from Africa into Eurasia, where they encountered and exchanged genes with Neandertals and Denisovans. While his emphasis is on the later phases of human evolution, he has also conducted research on earlier periods, mostly in the context of the evolution of human bipedal (two-legged) walking and running and childbirth, and contemporary human biological variation. Most of his publications address specific questions about why Neandertal, early human, or contemporary human skeletons look the way they do. He focuses on skeletons because they are what preserves of the phenotypes (observable characteristics) of individuals who lived many generations in the past. In his research, he strives to integrate approaches and datasets from population and molecular genetics with data from the fossil and archaeological records and contemporary medical images.

Publications

• Stamos, Peter A., Abhijit J. Chaudhari, Mark N. Grote, and Timothy D. Weaver. 2025. Technical note: using machine learning to predict locomotor behavior in great apes and humans from femur metaphyseal shape. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 187:e70066.
• Adegboyega, Mayowa T., Mark N. Grote, and Timothy D. Weaver. 2025. Predicting the position of hip bones within the pelvic girdle: a case study of the Kebara 2 Neanderthal. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 186:e70014.
• Buck, Laura T., David C. Katz, Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, Leslea J. Hlusko, Sreetharan Kanthaswamy, and Timothy D. Weaver. 2025. A macaque model for the effects of hybridization on body size. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 186:e25062.

Awards

• Nominee for Associated Students of UC Davis Excellence in Education Award, 2010
• Article selected by Faculty of 1000 Biology, 2009
• Bernard J. Siegel Award (for research and publication), Stanford University, 2002
• Juan Comas Award (for a conference presentation), American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 2001