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      • Bio
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      • Public Science
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          • Bio
          • Publications
          • Public Science
          • Teaching
          • Funding
          • Contact
          • Alexandra E. Kralick, Ph.D.

            An interdisciplinary biological anthropologist offering a creative, theoretically-engaged, innovative scientific inquiry into the growth and development and functional anatomy of biological sex variation in the ape skeleton.

             

            Orangutan Osteology • Life History • Functional Morphology • Ethics of Great Ape Remains • Queer Feminist Biology

          • Bio

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            Dr. Alexandra Kralick is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College. A four-field trained biological anthropologist, her research examines sex based variation in the human and great ape skeleton.

            Dr. Kralick’s work integrates contextual reflexivity, decolonial, and queer feminist theory into the study of great ape skeletal remains, with a focus on orangutans. Her research explores life history and functional morphology in orangutan skeletal development, particularly in relation to male bimaturism. She developed an osteobiographic method for identifying flanging status in museum collections.

            She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where her dissertation examined orangutan skeletal development and variation. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s GenderSci Lab, where she investigated the intersections of gender and science. She holds a B.S. in Biological Anthropology from The George Washington University, where she studied gorilla dental development and wrist bone morphology.

            CV
          • Peer-Reviewed Publications

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            Relative leg-to-arm skeletal strength proportions in orangutans by species and sex

            Publication available here

            Alexandra E. Kralick, Babette S. Zemel, Clara Nolan, Phillip Lin, Matthew W. Tocheri. (2024). Relative leg-to-arm skeletal strength proportions in orangutans by species and sex. Journal of Human Evolution 188: 103496.

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            Specimens as individuals: Four interventions and recommendations for great ape skeletal collections research and curation

            Publication available here

            Alexandra E. Kralick, Stephanie Canington, Andrea Eller, and Kate McGrath.Specimens as Individuals: Four interventions and recommendations for great ape skeletal collections research and curation. (2023) Evolutionary Anthropology.1:20. doi: 10.1002/evan.22002

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            Beyond Dimorphism: Body Size Variation among Adult Orangutans is not Dichotomous by Sex

            Open Access Publication available here

            Alexandra E Kralick, Caitlin A O'Connell, Meredith L Bastian, Morgan K Hoke, Babette S Zemel, Theodore G Schurr, Matthew W Tocheri. (2023). Beyond Dimorphism: Body Size Variation among Adult Orangutans is not Dichotomous by Sex, Integrative and Comparative Biology, icad015, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icad015

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            Sex and Biology: Broader Impacts Beyond the Binary

            Publication available here

            Sam Sharpe, Andrew P.Anderson, Idelle Cooper, Alexandra E. Kralick, Timothy James, HansLindahl, Sara Lipshutz, J. F. McLaughlin, Banu Subramaniam, Alicia Roth Weigel,A. Kelsey Lewis. Sex and Biology: Broader Impacts Beyond the Binary. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 1:8. doi: 10.1093/icb/icad113

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            More severe stress markers in the teeth of flanged versus unflanged orangutans (Pongo spp.)

            Publication available here

            Alexandra E. Kralick and Kate McGrath. (2021). More severe stress markersin the teeth of flanged versus unflanged orangutans (Pongo spp.). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 1:13. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24387

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            Faster growth corresponds with shallower linear hypoplastic defects in great ape canines

            Publication available here

            McGrath, K., Reid, D.J., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Arbenz-Smith, K., El Zaatari, S., Fatica, L.M., Kralick, A.E., Cranfield, M.R., Stoinski, T.S., Bromage, T.G. and Mudakikwa, A., 2019. Faster growth corresponds with shallower linear hypoplastic defects in great ape canines. Journal of Human Evolution, 137, p.102691

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            Evolutionary perspectives on the developing skeleton and implications for lifelong health

            Open access Publication available here

            Alexandra E. Kralick and Babette S. Zemel. (2020). Evolutionary perspectives on the developing skeleton and implications for lifelong health. Frontiers in Endocrinology. 11: 99. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.00099

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            A radiographic study of permanent molar development in wild Virunga mountain gorillas of known chronological age from Rwanda

            Publication available here

            Alexandra E. Kralick, M. Loring Burgess, Halszka Golwacka, Keely Arbenz-Smith, Kate McGrath, Christopher B. Ruff, King Chan, Michael R. Cranfield, Tara S. Stoinski, Timothy G. Bromage, Antoine Mudakikwa, Shannon C. McFarlin. (2017). A radiographic study of permanent molar development in wild Virunga mountain gorillas of known chronological age from Rwanda. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 163(1):129-147.

            Google Scholar
            Research Gate
          • Public Science Communication

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            SAPIENS article

            "Envisioning a More Empathetic Treatment of Great Ape Remains: Many museums are reckoning with the colonial legacies of the human remains and cultural objects in their collections. Now anthropologists are advocating to pay similar respects to primates."

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            Anthropology News Article

            "When Ape Sex Isn’t Simple: One type of male orangutan has perplexed scientists because they run counter to long-held binary expectations of sex differences in the skeleton."
             
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            Frontiers for Young Minds Article

            "Habitat Destruction Is Affecting The Facial Features Of Orangutans"

            Frontiers for Young Minds is an open access scientific journal that brings the latest research in real time to school kids

             

            Leakey Foundation Lunch Break Science Webinar

            "Orangutan skeletons bust the sex binary"

             

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            Smithsonian HOT Topic Webinar

            "Climate change threatens great ape biology"

             

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            Popular Science Article Sex in the Skeleton

            "What our skeletons Say about the Sex Binary" Republished at The Atlantic and Slate.

             

            University of Pennsylvania Grad Ben Talk

            "What our Skeletons Say about the Sex Binary"

             

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            The Arch & Anth Podcast Episode

            Episode 125: How do orangutan skeletons grow? What are some fun biological anthropology facts?

             

          • Teaching

            Professor Kralick prioritizes applied and experiential learning in her courses.

            In Fall of 2025, Byrn Mawr College students in the course "ANTH 283- The Living Primates: Bones Biology, and Behavior" visited the Philadelphia Zoo with Professor Kralick to collect data for a course project

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          • Professor Kralick offers a variety of courses, covering a range of topics in biological anthropology.

            The courses she has taught as instructor of record at Byrn Mawr College and University of Pennsylvania inlclude:

            • Introduction to Human Evolution
            • Introduction to Biological Anthropology and Anthropological Archaeology Laboratory
            • The Living Primates: Bones Biology, and Behavior
            • Gender and Human Evolution
            • Sex, Gender, Biology, and Culture
            • Biocultural Anthropology of Sex and Gender
            • Myths of Human Nature
          • A big thank you to funding sources

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            NSF (National Science Foundation)

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            The Leakey Foundation

             

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            P.E.O. (Philanthropic Education Organization)

             

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            AABA (American Association of Biological Anthropologists)

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            Penn Museum

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            University of Pennsylvania

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            George Washington University

          • Contact

            Feel free to each out over email.

            akralick@brynmawr.edu

            Email

          © 2022 by Alexandra Kralick

          Photos are not for reproduction

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