Prof. Dr. Katerina Harvati is head of the Section of Palaeoanthropology founded in 2009 as  part of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology (HEP),  a cooperation between the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Research Institution.

Our research focus is on Pleistocene human evolution with a special focus on Neanderthal paleobiology and modern human origins; functional anatomy, adaptation and relationship of skeletal morphology to genetics and environment in primates and humans; growth and development in human and non-human primates; and human skeletal analysis. We approach these research topics from a quantitative perspective, and one of the strengths of our section is the use of state of the art computer assisted imaging and analysis techniques, such as virtual anthropology, high resolution computing tomography and geometric morphometrics. Our imaging laboratory is one of the best equipped in the country.