PAVElab - Western University, Canada

Phenotypic Adaptability, Variation, and Evolution Laboratory

Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

PAVE is an interdisciplinary research group in the Department of Anthropology at Western University. Our research aims to understand the ways in which the human phenotype is adaptable to environmental variation throughout the life course and across broad time scales. Adaptive variation can reflect either the natural or behavioural environment of the individual, through natural selection or plasticity in development and maintenance of the organism. We're interested in the ways in which these mechanisms interact to produce variation within our species and among earlier human and hominin populations. Our research in these areas involves bioarchaeology, palaeoanthropology, and human biology. Many of our current research projects study human athletes as a model for understanding the tremendous adaptability of our species.