Richard W. Wrangham
Harvard University · Human Evolutionary Biology
Active 1969–2025
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About
Richard W. Wrangham (PhD, Cambridge University, 1975) is Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. He founded the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in 1987 and has conducted extensive research on primate ecology, nutrition, and social behavior. Wrangham is best known for his work on the evolution of human warfare and human aggression, which he has described in the books Demonic Males and The Goodness Paradox. He has also written extensively on the role of cooking in human evolution, as detailed in his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. His research focuses on understanding the behavioral and ecological aspects of chimpanzees, contributing significantly to the fields of primatology and human evolutionary studies.
Research topics
- Biology
- Ecology
- Zoology
- Genetics
- Evolutionary biology
- Demography
- Sociology
- Developmental psychology
- Psychology
- Immunology
Selected publications
The evolution and changing ecology of the African hominid oral microbiome
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 174 citations
-specific acquisition of salivary amylase-binding capability by oral streptococci, suggesting microbial coadaptation with host diet. We additionally find evidence of shared genetic diversity in the oral bacteria of Neanderthal and Upper Paleolithic modern humans that is not observed in later modern human populations. Differences in the oral microbiomes of African hominids provide insights into human evolution, the ancestral state of the human microbiome, and a temporal framework for understandin…
Social selectivity in aging wild chimpanzees
Science · 2020 · 109 citations
Humans prioritize close, positive relationships during aging, and socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that this shift causally depends on capacities for thinking about personal future time horizons. To examine this theory, we tested for key elements of human social aging in longitudinal data on wild chimpanzees. Aging male chimpanzees have more mutual friendships characterized by high, equitable investment, whereas younger males have more one-sided relationships. Older males are more like…
The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis
Nature Communications · 2021 · 89 citations
Is it possible to slow the rate of ageing, or do biological constraints limit its plasticity? We test the 'invariant rate of ageing' hypothesis, which posits that the rate of ageing is relatively fixed within species, with a collection of 39 human and nonhuman primate datasets across seven genera. We first recapitulate, in nonhuman primates, the highly regular relationship between life expectancy and lifespan equality seen in humans. We next demonstrate that variation in the rate of ageing withi…
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 2020 · 89 citations
Current Biology · 2020 · 76 citations
Recent grants
Collaborative Research: SEI: Spatio-temporal Data Analysis Techniques for Behavioural Ecology
NSF · $128k · 2004–2008
Endocrine Aspects of Aggression and Dominance in Chimpanzees
NSF · $216k · 1998–2001
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Cognitive Development in Bonobos and Chimpanzees
NSF · $15k · 2009–2010
Frequent coauthors
- 195 shared
Zarin Machanda
Tufts University
- 187 shared
Martin N. Muller
- 177 shared
Melissa Emery Thompson
Kibale Chimpanzee Project
- 121 shared
Emily Otali
- 85 shared
Tony L. Goldberg
University of Wisconsin Health
- 63 shared
Colin A. Chapman
George Washington University
- 44 shared
Erik J. Scully
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- 40 shared
T.E. Pappas
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Labs
Education
- 1977
Ph.D., Biological Anthropology
Harvard University
- 1973
M.A., Biological Anthropology
Harvard University
- 1969
B.A., Anthropology
University of California, Santa Barbara
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