About

Darryl De Ruiter is a Regent’s Professor and Department Head of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on paleoanthropology, paleoecology, isotope ecology, zooarchaeology, and taphonomy, with a particular emphasis on the ecology and evolution of early hominins in Africa. He has contributed significantly to the discovery and analysis of new hominin species, including Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, which have provided insights into human evolutionary history. His work involves examining fossil remains, reconstructing paleoenvironmental conditions, and investigating the behaviors and reproductive strategies of extinct hominin species. De Ruiter arrived at Texas A&M University in 2003 after earning his PhD in Anatomical Sciences from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Over the years, he has been recognized for his research, teaching, and service, receiving several fellowships and awards, including the Distinguished Achievement Award in Research from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students. Since July 2019, he has served as the Department Head of Anthropology, leading research and academic initiatives within the department.

Research topics

• Geography
• Archaeology
• Geology
• Paleontology
• Biology
• Evolutionary biology

Selected publications

• Effect of Polarization Mode Dispersion on Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion Photon Pairs in Coincidence Counting

  2025-06-23

  articleOpen access

  Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference is a cornerstone of many quantum information processing tasks. It relies on the destructive interference between Feynman paths and provides a measure of photon indistinguishability. For certain applications, e.g. in some quantum secure authentication schemes, the HOM readout needs to be performed remotely, i.e. far away from where the photons were originally created. It is therefore important to understand the effect of dispersion on the two-photon state and consequently its effect on the coincidence probability. Our work focuses on providing measurement data of the effect of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) on the HOM interference for photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa allows tracing origins of victims of the transatlantic slave trade

  Nature Communications · 2024-12-30 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Strontium isotope ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression. We demonstrate the efficacy of this Sr isoscape, in combination with other lines of evidence, to trace the African roots of individuals from historic slavery contexts, particularly those with highly radiogenic 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios uncommon in the African Diaspora. Our study provides an extensive African 87 Sr/ 86 Sr dataset which includes scientifically marginalized regions of Africa, with significant implications for the archaeology of the transatlantic slave trade, wildlife ecology, conservation, and forensics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Descriptive catalog of Homo naledi dental remains from the 2013 to 2015 excavations of the Dinaledi Chamber, site U.W. 101, within the Rising Star cave system, South Africa

  Journal of Human Evolution · 2023 · 11 citations

  • Geography
  • Paleontology
  • Archaeology
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using the Faunal Community to Determine the Local Ecology for Early Hominins at Cooper’s Cave at 1.5 Ma

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2022-05-19

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Cooper’s Cave has been known as a hominin-bearing locality since 1938, when J.C. Middleton Shaw discovered the first hominin tooth there while exploring for fossils on the farm of a Mr. Cooper (Shaw, 1939, 1940). The site was described being about midway between Sterkfontein and Kromdraai, and had been extensively mined for lime, resulting in large dumps of breccia. Shaw’s senior assistant, Dr. Julius Staz, was searching through breccia dumps outside of what is today referred to as Cooper’s B using hammers and chisels to break up the rock when he discovered an upper third molar of some type of hominin. The obvious comparisons at the time were with Australopithecusafricanus and Paranthropusrobustus, although Shaw (1939) felt his tooth was more human-like than either of these taxa. In a later, more detailed discussion of the tooth, Shaw (1940) concluded that it did not belong to either australopith taxon, but was otherwise unwilling to allocate it taxonomically. Broom (1946) and Robinson (1956) later examined Cooper’s tooth, and concluded that it was probably an Australopithecus africanus upper left third molar. Unfortunately, the original tooth has been lost, leaving only a cast of the specimen behind. Berger et al. (1995) re-examined this cast, and agreed with Broom’s and Robinson’s conclusion that the tooth was likely Australopithecus cf. africanus. However, given the poor quality of the available cast, the taxonomic affinity of the specimen might be best considered unconfirmed.

  PublisherDOI

• Special Issue: Australopithecus sediba --- The Skull of Australopithecus sediba

  DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 2022-10-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Swartkrans: A Record of Paleoenvironmental Change in the Cradle of Humankind

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2022-05-19 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The first hominin fossils were recovered from Swartkrans by Robert Broom and John Robinson of the Transvaal Museum, working at the site at the behest of Wendell Phillips of the University of California’s Africa Expedition, in September of 1948. Broom considered the Swartkrans fossils to represent a new species of robust australopith that he named Paranthropuscrassidens (Broom, 1949), although the material was later transferred to P. robustus (Robinson, 1954, 1956). Excavations continued through 1949, when a shortage of funds brought work to an end in November of that year. During the succeeding Christmas holiday, a local lime miner by the name of Fourie moved into Swartkrans and began blasting operations to remove a recently exposed seam of limestone for use by the gold-mining industry in nearby Krugersdorp. Broom and Robinson occasionally returned to the site to inspect the breccia that was also being loosened during the course of Fourie’s limestone blasting, which resulted in the recovery of several spectacular australopith specimens such as SK 23 and SK 48. In addition, Broom and Robinson recovered several specimens that could be attributed to early Homo, such as SK 15 and SK 45 (Broom and Robinson, 1949, 1952). Because SK 15 was derived from the “brown breccia” (Member 2, see below), Broom and Robinson initially held it to be considerably younger than the australopith fossils recovered from the “pink breccia” (Hanging Remnant of Member 1, see below). However, SK 45 was derived from the same “pink breccia” that had produced so many P. robustus fossils, and thus demonstrated for the first time the coexistence of multiple species of early hominin (Broom and Robinson, 1952). Broom died in 1951, but Robinson continued to conduct paleontological research at the site until 1953, unearthing numerous additional hominin fossils.

  PublisherDOI

• Immature Hominin Craniodental Remains From a New Locality in the Rising Star Cave System, South Africa

  PaleoAnthropology · 2021 · 13 citations

  • Paleontology
  • Geology
  • Geography

  Homo naledi is known from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa, where its remains have previously been reported from two localities: the Dinaledi Chamber (U.W. 101) and Lesedi Chamber (U.W. 102). Continued exploration of the cave system has expanded our knowledge of the Dinaledi Chamber and its surrounding passageways (the Dinaledi Subsystem), leading to the discovery of new fossil localities. This paper discusses the fossil assemblage from the locality designated U.W. 110. This locality is within a narrow fissure of the Dinaledi Subsystem approximately 12 meters southwest of the 2013–2014 excavation. Fossil remains recovered from this locality include six hominin teeth and 28 cranial fragments, all consistent with a single immature hominin individual. The dental morphology of the new specimens supports attribution to H. naledi. This is the first immature individual of H. naledi to preserve morphological details of the calvaria in association with dental evidence. This partial skull provides information about the maturation of H. naledi and will be important in reconstructing the developmental sequence of immature remains from other H. naledi occurrences. This is the third locality described with H. naledi material in the Rising Star cave system and represents a depositional situation that resembles the Lesedi Chamber in some respects.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A comparison of hominin teeth from Lincoln Cave, Sterkfontein L/63, and the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa

  South African Journal of Science · 2019-05-28

  articleOpen access

  Prior to the recovery of Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave system, the Middle Pleistocene fossil record in Africa was particularly sparse. With the large sample size now available from Dinaledi, the opportunity exists to reassess taxonomically ambiguous teeth unearthed at the nearby site of Sterkfontein. Teeth recovered from Lincoln Cave South and area L/63 at Sterkfontein have been considered ‘most probably Homo ergaster’ and ‘perhaps Archaic Homo sapiens’, respectively. Given the similarities shared between Lincoln Cave, area L/63, and the Dinaledi Chamber with regard to climatic/geologic depositional context and age, two teeth from the former sites, StW 592 and StW 585 respectively, were compared with corresponding tooth types of H. naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber. The results of our study indicate that the Lincoln Cave and area L/63 teeth are morphologically inconsistent with the variation recognised in the H. naledi teeth.
 Significance: 
 
 The similar age and climatic/geologic depositional and post-depositional circumstances at Lincoln Cave South, area L/63 at Sterkfontein and the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star raise the possibility that these fossils might represent the same species.
 The teeth StW 592 and StW 585 are not consistent with the variation evident in the known naledi sample.
 The results of the study do not add to the question of the existence of at least two species of the genus Homo living in close proximity to each other in South Africa at approximately the same time.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Homo naledi cranial remains from the Lesedi chamber of the rising star cave system, South Africa

  Journal of Human Evolution · 2019-04-28 · 8 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• New craniodental remains of the type specimen of Australopithecus sediba

  The 87th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Austin, TX · 2018-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Lee R. Berger

  University of the Witwatersrand

  77 shared

• Matt Sponheimer

  University of Colorado Boulder

  63 shared

• Steven E. Churchill

  Duke University

  53 shared

• Julia A. Lee‐Thorp

  53 shared

• Juliet K. Brophy

  University of the Witwatersrand

  44 shared

• John Hawks

  University of the Witwatersrand

  38 shared

• Peter Schmid

  37 shared

• Kristian J. Carlson

  University of the Witwatersrand

  36 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Anatomical Sciences

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2001

• M.A., Anthropology

  University of Manitoba

  1995

• B.A. (Hons), Anthropology

  University of Manitoba

  1992

Awards & honors

• Ray A. Rothrock '77 Fellowship
• Cornerstone Faculty Fellowship in Liberal Arts
• Distinguished Achievement Award in Research from the Associa…