Associate Teaching Professor

About

  • Role:

    Faculty

  • Position:

    • Associate Teaching Professor

  • Concentration:

    • Biological Anthropology

  • Department:

    • Anthropology and Geography

  • Education:

    • M.A. in Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder
    • B.A. in Anthropology, University of California at Santa Cruz

Biography

Kim Nichols was born in Nuremberg, Germany and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Her undergraduate education at the University of California at Santa Cruz included extensive participation in nonhuman primate anatomical research, casework experience in forensic anthropology, and archaeological research at the State of California Mission Santa Cruz

Her graduate education at the University of Colorado at Boulder included field research on Howling Monkey locomotor behaviors in Costa Rica. In addition, she participated in primate paleontological field research at sites in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and in the Fayum Depression in

Additionally, she has studied primate skeletal and dental variation in museum collections in Washington DC, New York City, and Chicago, Illinois. Kim’s current research interest is in nonhuman primate skeletal dimension variation in captive and wild populations and implications for the interpretation of reproductive pathways in extinct primate

Kim is a strong advocate of undergraduate research experience because she started doing research as an

“Based on my experience, and that of many of my colleagues, every undergraduate who is willing to do the work and who is curious enough to ask questions about the relationships between things, should be doing research. Access to research opportunities enhances undergraduate education …” (KA Nichols, HHMI interview,

For this reason, Kim has supervised numerous undergraduate research projects using the Paleontology Field School Lab collection. These investigations have formed the basis of several successful Senior Capstone research projects and have resulted in undergraduate research presentations for the annual CURC event and at conference meetings for professional organizations (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Geological Society of America, Plains Anthropology Society) along with abstract publications.

Research

Primatology; primate paleontology; functional anatomy

 

Publications

Research Presentations & Publications for Professional Meetings

2015 Weaver LN. Early Eocene primate distribution in relation to paleosol maturity: implications for determining microhabitat preferences using geologic proxies. Geological Society of America (GSA), Rocky Mountain Section Annual Meeting (Casper, Wyoming), Abstracts with Programs 47(6):12.

2015 Clark NM, Nichols KA, Weaver LN, Bown TM. Dental-based body mass estimation in early Eocene Primates and Plesiadapiformes; Willwood Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Geological Society of America (GSA), Rocky Mountain Section Annual Meeting (Casper, Wyoming), Abstracts with Programs 47(6):12.

2015 Bown TM, Nichols KA, Weaver LN, Clark NM. Role of lowered baselevels in the generation of early Eocene Biohorizons; Willwood Formation, southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Geological Society of America (GSA), Rocky Mountain Section Annual Meeting (Casper, Wyoming), Abstracts with Programs 47(6):12.

2015 Nichols KA, Bown TM, Clark NM, Weaver LN. New, partially articulated skeleton of Palaeanodon (Mammalia; Palaeanodonta) from the Willwood Formation (lower Eocene), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Geological Society of America (GSA), Rocky Mountain Section Annual Meeting (Casper, Wyoming), Abstracts with Programs 47(6):12.

2015 Weaver LN, Nichols KA. Lateral and Temporal Distribution of Early Eocene Primates in Relation to Relative Paleosol Maturity, Willwood Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontology (VP) Annual Meeting, Turlock, CA, Abstract, PaleoBios 32(1):17.

2013 Nichols KA, Bown T, Allen L, Erickson S, Meier-Bilbo J, Nugent M. Inaugural Paleontology Field Course: 2013 Field Season, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. 71st Plains Anthropological Conference, Annual Meeting, Loveland, CO, Abstracts with Programs.

2013 Nichols KA, Bown T, Allen L, Clark N, Dinkel M, Kuyper B, Weaver L. Early Eocene Primates & Their Closely-Related Allies: 2013 Field Season, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. 71st Plains Anthropological Conference, Annual Meeting, Loveland, CO, Abstracts with Programs.

2013 Nichols KA, Bown T, Borjas R, Clark N, Dinkel M, Erickson S, Kuyper B, Meier-Bilbo J, Nugent M, Weaver L. Early Eocene Primate Paleocommunities: 2013 Field Season, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. 71st Plains Anthropological Conference, Annual Meeting, Loveland, CO, Abstracts with Programs.

Senior Capstone & CURC Presentations and Projects

2013, Fall Natalia Clark, Total Body Mass Estimation in Eocene Primates. Also given as a podium presentation for the Spring 2014 CURC event.

2014, Fall Luke Weaver, Anthropology Capstone: Lateral and Temporal Distribution of Early Eocene Primates in Relation to Relative Paleosol Maturity, Willwood Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Also given as a poster presentation for the Spring 2015 CURC event.

2015, Spring Jared Peltzman, Anthropology & Honors Capstone: Dietary Adaptations in Early Eocene Primates of the Willwood Formation (55-53 mya), Bighorn Basin, WY: A Dental Metrics Analysis. Also given as a poster presentation for the Spring 2015 CURC event.

Courses

  • ANTH 120, Human Origins & Variation

  • ANTH 121, Lab Human Origins & Variation

  • ANTH 376, Evolution of Human Adaptations

  • ANTH 470, Paleontology Field School

    ANTH 470 is a summer field course at the Paleontology Field School in which Kim, Dr. Tom Bown, and their undergraduate students survey for new fossil-bearing localities dating to 55-53 mya in the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming AND collect the fossils! After two field seasons, the field course lab now holds over 800 mammalian fossil specimens — nearly 100 of which are extinct Primates!