Katya Stansfield

Katya Stansfield

PhD

Postdoc Researcher
Lecturer

phone +43-1-4277-56706
katya.stansfield@univie.ac.at
https://bipedal-ape.univie.ac.at/

External links

About me

I am an evolutionary biologist with a background in physics and data science. My main research interest is to find out how function creates evolutionary constraints on the shape and size of an organ or a system of organs. This question requries biomechancis and statistical modelling approaches, where empirical data is considered with the reference to engineering and bayesian expectations.

In my previous projects, I midfacial adaptation to climate in prehistoric humans. I am now keenly interested in the competing evolutionary influences experienced by the human pelvis in the context of the obstetrical dilemma. In particular, I study how pelvic floor shape and function may determine size and shape of the bony pelvis in humans. I also explore how forces experienced by hip joints in humans may limit the size and shape of the pelvic girdle due to our bipedal locomotion.

Funding

2022 – to date FWF Stand-Alone funding (No. P-35714 -B) „Verursacht der aufrechte Gang das menschliche Geburtsdilemma? “

2019 – 2021 FWF Lise Meitner funding for the incoming researchers (No. AM 0277221) "Das Dilemma der menschlichen Geburt und des Beckenbodens"

2015 – 2017 European Commission Research Grant (No. PIIF-GA-2013-622846) “BIOMAN: Biomechanics of the Mandible in Mesolithic, Neolithic and Modern humans in transition to agriculture”. Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK

2012 – 2015 Russian Foundation for the Basic Research Grant (No. 13-06-00045) “Population History of Mesolithic People of Russia and Ukraine: Testing the Hypothesis on Asian Component Using Geometric Morphometric Methods”. Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Publication list

Grunstra, N. D. S., Betti, L., Fischer, B., Haeusler, M., Pavlicev, M., Stansfield, E., Trevathan, W., Webb, N. M., Wells, J. C. K., Rosenberg, K. R., & Mitteroecker, P. (2023). There is an obstetrical dilemma: Misconceptions about the evolution of human childbirth and pelvic form. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 181(4), 535-544. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24802

Stansfield, E., Mitteroecker, P., Umek, W., & Fischer, B. (2023). The variation in shape and thickness of the pelvic floor musculature in males and females: a geometric-morphometric analysis. International Urogynecology Journal, 34(2), 453-461. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-022-05311-5

Mitteroecker, P., & Stansfield, E. (2021). A model of developmental canalization, applied to human cranial form. PLoS Computational Biology, 17(2), Article e1008381. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008381

Mitteroecker, P., Grunstra, N. D. S., Stansfield, E., Waltenberger, L., & Fischer, B. (2021). Did population differences in human pelvic form evolve by drift or selection? Bulletins et Memoires de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris, 33(1), 11-26. https://doi.org/10.4000/BMSAP.7460

Stansfield, E., Kumar, K., Mitteroecker, P., & Grunstra, N. (2021). Biomechanical trade-offs in the pelvic floor constrain the evolution of the human birth canal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 118(16), Article e2022159118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022159118

Stansfield, E., Mitteroecker, P., Vasilyev, S. Y., Butaric, L. N., & Vasilyev, S. (2021). Respiratory adaptation to climate in modern humans and Upper Palaeolithic individuals from Sungir and Mladeč. Scientific Reports, 11(1), Article 7997. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86830-x

Stansfield, E., Fischer, B., Grunstra, N., Villa Pouca, M., & Mitteroecker, P. (2021). The evolution of pelvic canal shape and rotational birth in humans. BMC Biology, 19(1), Article 224. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01150-w

Stansfield, E., Jennifer, P., & O'Higgins, P. (2018). A sensitivity study of human mandibular biting simulations using finite element analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 22, 420-432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.04.026

Stansfield, E., Evteev, A., & O'Higgins, P. (2018). Can diet be inferred from the biomechanical response to simulated biting in modern and pre-historic human mandibles? Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 22, 433-443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.07.019