Staff profile

• Ecology, palaeobiology and palaeoecology
• Evolutionary medicine
• Functional morphology
• Old World monkey biogeography
• Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution
• Primate locomotion

Authored book

• Ulijaszek, S., Mann, N., & Elton, S. (2012). Evolving Human Nutrition: Implications for Public Health. Cambridge University Press

Chapter in book

• Lillie, M. C., & Elton, S. (2022). Palaeoecology: considering proximate and ultimate influences in human diets and environmental responses in the early Holocene Dnieper River region of Ukraine. In K. A. Plomp, C. A. Roberts, S. Elton, & G. R. Bentley (Eds.), Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine: An Integrated Approach. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849711.003.0007
• Plomp, K. A., Roberts, C. A., Elton, S., & Bentley, G. R. (2022). What's it all about? A legacy for the next generation of scholars in evolutionary medicine and palaeopathology,. In K. A. Plomp, C. A. Roberts, S. Elton, & G. R. Bentley (Eds.), Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine: An Integrated Approach. Oxford University Press
• Bentley, G. R., Roberts, C. A., Elton, S., & Plomp, K. A. (2022). Now you have read the book, what next?. In K. A. Plomp, C. A. Roberts, S. Elton, & G. R. Bentley (Eds.), Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine: An Integrated Approach. Oxford University Press
• Elton, S. (2017). Palaeoenvironmental and sea-level change. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0481
• Elton, S. (2017). Paleobiology and behavior. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0485
• Elton, S. (2017). Pliocene primates. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0476
• Elton, S. (2017). Adaptive Radiation. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0207
• Elton, S., & Dunn, J. (2015). Species, populations and groups in human evolution. In P. Kreager, B. Winney, S. Ulijaszek, & C. Capelli (Eds.), Population in the human sciences : concepts, models, evidence (401-430). Oxford University Press
• Elton, S. (2012). Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present. In S. C. Reynolds, & A. Gallagher (Eds.), African genesis : perspectives on hominin evolution (471-486). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139096164.028
• Cardini, A., Diniz Filho, J., Polly, P., & Elton, S. (2010). Chapter 8: Biogeographic analysis using geometric morphometrics: clines in skull size and shape in a widespread African arboreal monkey. In Morphometrics for Nonmorphometricians (191-217). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-95853-6_8
• Shaw, L., & Elton, S. (2008). Seasonality, climatic unpredictability, food deprivation and polycystic ovary syndrome. In S. Elton, & P. O’Higgins (Eds.), Medicine and evolution : current applications, future prospects (77-97). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420051377.ch5
• O'Higgins, P., & Elton, S. (2008). Is there a place for evolution in UK medical education?. In S. Elton, & P. O'Higgins (Eds.), Medicine and Evolution (257-272). https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420051377.ch12
• Elton, E. (2008). Environments, adaptation and evolutionary medicine: should we be eating a ‘Stone Age’ diet?. In P. O’Higgins, & S. Elton (Eds.), Medicine and evolution: current applications, future prospects (9-34). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420051377.ch2
• Elton, S., & O’Higgins, P. (2008). Medicine and evolution : current applications, future prospects (Introduction). In P. O’Higgins, & S. Elton (Eds.), Medicine and evolution : current applications, future prospects (1-8). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420051377
• Foley, R., & Elton, S. (1998). Time and energy: the ecological context for the evolution of bipedalism. In E. Strasser, J. Fleagle, A. Rosenberger, & H. McHenry (Eds.), Primate Locomotion: Recent Advances (419-433). Plenum Press

Conference Paper

• O’Regan, H., Bishop, L., Elton, S., Lamb, A., & Turner, A. (2004, December). Afro-Eurasian mamalian dispersions of the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. Presented at Terra Nostra: 18th International Senckenberg Conference and 6th International Colloquium in Weimar Late Neogene and Quaternary Biodiversity and Evolution: regional development and interregional correlations

Edited book

• Plomp, K. A., Roberts, C. A., Elton, S., & Bentley, G. R. (Eds.). (2022). Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine: An Integrated Approach. Oxford University Press
• Elton, S., & O'Higgins, P. (Eds.). (2008). Medicine and Evolution: Current Applications, Future Prospects. Taylor and Francis

Journal Article

• Crompton, R., Elton, S., Heaton, J., Pickering, T., Carlson, K., Jashashvili, T., Beaudet, A., Bruxelles, L., Kuman, K., Thorpe, S. K., Hirasaki, E., Scott, C., Sellers, W., Pataky, T., Clarke, R., & McClymont, J. (online). Bipedalism or bipedalisms: The os coxae of StW 573. Journal of Anatomy, https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.14106
• Berthaume, M., & Elton, S. (2024). Biomechanics in anthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 33(2), Article e22019. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.22019
• Grunstra, N. D., Louys, J., & Elton, S. (2023). Climate, not Quaternary biogeography, explains skull morphology of the long-tailed macaque on the Sunda Shelf. Quaternary Science Reviews, 310, Article 108121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108121
• Elton, S. (2022). JHE 50th anniversary: Generosity. Journal of Human Evolution, 170, Article 103236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103236
• Schroeder, L., Elton, S., & Ackermann, R. R. (2022). Skull variation in Afro-Eurasian monkeys results from both adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 12516. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16734-x
• Elton, S., Adams, J. W., Arenson, J. L., Beaudet, A., Belmaker, M., Harrison, T., Jolly, C. J., & Hlusko, L. (2022). Comment (Case 3847) – Support for proposed conservation of Simopithecus oswaldi Andrews, 1916 (currently Theropithecus oswaldi; Mammalia, Primates, Cercopithecidae) by reversal of precedence with Cynocephalus atlanticus Thomas, 1884 (see BZN 78: 99–106 [Case]; BZN 79: 53–54 [Comment]; BZN 79: 55–57 [authors' response to Comment]). Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 79(1), 58-60. https://doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v79.a012
• Crompton, R., McClymont, J., Elton, S., Thorpe, S., Sellers, W., Heaton, J., Pickering, T., Pataky, T., Carlson, K., Jashashvili, T., Beaudet, A., Bruxelles, L., Goh, E., Kuman, K., & Clarke, R. (2022). StW 573 Australopithecus prometheus: Its Significance for an Australopith Bauplan. Folia Primatologica, 92(5-6), 243-275. https://doi.org/10.1159/000519723
• Cardini, A., Elton, S., Kovarovic, K., Strand Vidarsdottir, U., & Polly, D. (2021). On the misidentification of species: sampling error in primates and other mammals using geometric morphometrics in more than 4,000 individuals. Evolutionary Biology, 48(2), 190-220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-021-09531-3
• Nadell, J., Elton, S., & Kovarovic, K. (2021). Ontogenetic and morphological variation in primate long bones reflect signals of size and behavior. American journal of physical anthropology, 174(2), 327-351. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24198
• Elton, S., & Dunn, J. (2020). Baboon biogeography, divergence and evolution: morphological and palaeoecological perspectives. Journal of Human Evolution, 145, Article 102799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102799
• Elton, S. (2020). My New Year's resolution for 2020 is to try harder at sharing data. American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 172(3), 337-338. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24071
• Fischer, J., Higham, J. P., Alberts, S. C., Barrett, L., Beehner, J. C., Bergman, T. J., Carter, A. J., Collins, A., Elton, S., Fagot, J., Ferreira da Silva, M. J., Hammerschmidt, K., Henzi, P., Jolly, C. J., Knauf, S., Kopp, G. H., Rogers, J., Roos, C., Ross, C., Seyfarth, R. M., …Zinner, D. (2019). Insights into the evolution of social systems and species from baboon studies. eLife, 8, Article e50989. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.50989
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2017). Is there a "Wainer's rule"? Testing which sex varies most as an example analysis using GueSDat, the free Guenon Skull Database. Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy, 28(2), 147-156. https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix-28.2-12139
• Bjarnason, A., Soligo, C., & Elton, S. (2017). Phylogeny, phylogenetic inference, and cranial evolution in pitheciids and Aotus. American Journal of Primatology, 79(3), Article e22621. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22621
• Elton, S. (2016). Mismatch or mass marketing? Stone Age diets, industrialisation and ultra-processed foods (in Turkish). Toplum ve hekim, 31(5), 323-333
• Elton, S., Jansson, A.-U., Meloro, C., Louys, J., Plummer, T., & Bishop, L. C. (2016). Exploring morphological generality in the Old World monkey postcranium using an ecomorphological framework. Journal of Anatomy, 228(4), 534-560. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12428
• Bishop, L., Barham, L., Ditchfield, P., Elton, S., Harcourt-Smith, W., & Dawkins, P. (2016). Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(3), 178-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2855
• Stevenson, T., Visser, M., Arnold, W., Barrett, P., Biello, S., Dawson, A., Denlinger, D., Dominoni, D., Ebling, F., Elton, S., Evans, N., Ferguson, H., Foster, R., Hau, M., Haydon, D., Hazlerigg, D., Heideman, P., Hopcraft, J., Jonsson, N., Kronfeld-Schor, N., …Helm, B. (2015). Disrupted seasonal biology impacts health, food security and ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1817), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1453
• Bjarnason, A., Soligo, C., & Elton, S. (2015). Phylogeny, ecology, and morphological evolution in the atelid cranium. International Journal of Primatology, 36(3), 513-529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9839-z
• Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. C. (2015). The potential and pitfalls of using simple dental metrics to infer the diets of African antelopes (Mammalia: Bovidae). Palaeontologia africana, 49, 8-24
• Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. C. (2015). Analytical framework for reconstructing heterogeneous environmental variables from mammal community structure. Journal of Human Evolution, 78, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.11.001
• Elton, S. (2014). Adaptive diversity: from the trees to the ground. Antiquity, 88(341), 923-924. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00050821
• Elton, S., & O'Regan, H. J. (2014). Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews, 96, 117-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.025
• O'Regan, H. J., Elton, S., & Schreve, D. (2014). Introduction: Editors' overview for the Alan Turner Memorial volume. Quaternary Science Reviews, 96, 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.06.010
• Kuykendall, K., & Elton, S. (2014). The Human Biology of the Past. Annals of Human Biology, 41(4), 283-286. https://doi.org/10.3109/03014460.2014.924252
• Dunn, J., Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2013). Biogeographic variation in the baboon: dissecting the cline. Journal of Anatomy, 223(4), 337-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12085
• Meloro, C., Elton, S., Louys, J., Bishop, L., & Ditchfield, P. (2013). Cats in the forest: predicting habitat adaptations from humerus morphometry in extant and fossil Felidae (Carnivora). Paleobiology, 39(3), 323-344. https://doi.org/10.1666/12001
• Meloro, C., & Elton, S. (2013). The Evolutionary History and Palaeo-Ecology of Primate Predation: Macaca sylvanus from Plio-Pleistocene Europe as a Case Study. Folia Primatologica, 83(3-6), 216-235. https://doi.org/10.1159/000343494
• Walmsley, A., Elton, S., Louys, J., Bishop, L., & Meloro, C. (2012). Humeral shape in felids: phylogenetic, locomotor and allometric influences. Journal of Morphology, 273(12), 1424-1438. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20084
• Louys, J., Ditchfield, P., Meloro, C., Elton, S., & Bishop, L. (2012). Stable isotopes provide independent support for the use of mesowear variables for inferring diets in African antelopes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1746), 4441-4446. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1473
• Cardini, A., Dunn, J., O'Higgins, P., & Elton, S. (2012). Clines in Africa: does size vary in the same way among widespread sub-Saharan monkeys?. Journal of Biogeography, 40(2), 370-381. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02783.x
• Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. (2011). Mesowear as a means of determining diets in African antelopes. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38(7), 1485-1495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.011
• O’Regan, H., Turner, A., Bishop, L., Elton, S., & Lamb, A. (2011). Hominins without fellow travellers? First appearances and inferred dispersals of Afro-Eurasian large-mammals in the Plio-Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(11-12), 1343-1352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.11.028
• Chenery, C., Lamb, A., O’Regan, H., & Elton, S. (2011). Multi-tissue analysis of oxygen isotopes in wild rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 25(6), 779-788. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.4916
• Louys, J., Meloro, C., Elton, S., Ditchfield, P., & Bishop, L. (2011). Mammal community structure correlates with arboreal heterogeneity in faunally and geographically diverse habitats. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20(5), 717-729. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00643.x
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2011). 'Geometric morphometric approach to the study of biological diversity': an example study from the red colobus species complex. International Journal of Primatology, 32(2), 377-389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-010-9475-6
• Murdoch-Eaton, D., Drewery, S., Elton, S., Emmerson, C., Marshall, M., Smith, J., Stark, P., & Whittle, S. (2010). What Do Medical Students Understand By Research And Research Skills? Identifying Research Opportunities Within Undergraduate Projects. Medical Teacher, 32(3), https://doi.org/10.3109/01421591003657493
• Elton, S., Dunn, J., & Cardini, A. (2010). Size variation facilitates population divergence but does not explain it all: an example study from a widespread African monkey. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 101(4), 823-843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01504.x
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2009). Geographic and taxonomic influences on cranial variation in red colobus monkeys (Primates, Colobinae): introducing a new approach to ‘morph’ monkeys. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 18(2), 248-263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2008.00432.x
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2009). The radiation of red colobus monkeys (Primates, Colobinae): morphological evolution in a clade of endangered African primates. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 157(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00508.x
• O’Regan, H., Chenery, C., Lamb, A., Stevens, R., Rook, L., & Elton, S. (2008). Modern macaque dietary heterogeneity assessed using stable isotope analysis of hair and bone. Journal of Human Evolution, 55(4), 617-626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.05.001
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2008). Variation in guenon skulls I: species divergence, ecological and genetic differences. Journal of Human Evolution, 54(5), 615-637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.09.022
• Wood, B., & Elton, S. (2008). Symposium on ‘Human evolution: ancestors and relatives’. Journal of Anatomy, 212(4), 335-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00873.x
• Nowak, K., Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2008). Evolutionary acceleration in an endangered African primate: speciation and divergence in the Zanzibar red colobus monkey. International Journal of Primatology, 29(5), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-008-9306-1
• Elton, S., & Cardini, A. (2008). Anthropology from the desk? The challenges of the emerging era of data sharing. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 86, 209-212
• Hughes, J., Elton, S., & O’Regan, H. (2008). Theropithecus and ‘Out of Africa’ dispersals in the Plio-Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution, 54(1), 43-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.06.004
• Shaw, L., & Elton, S. (2008). Author response to: Polycystic ovary syndrome: a transgenerational evolutionary adaptation. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 115(7), 144-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.01725.x
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2008). Variation in guenon skulls II: sexual dimorphism. Journal of Human Evolution, 54(5), 638-647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.09.023
• Elton, S. (2008). The environmental context of human evolutionary history in Eurasia and Africa. Journal of Anatomy, 212(4), 377-393. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00872.x
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2008). GeMBiD, a ‘Geometric morphometric approach to the study of biological diversity’
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2008). Does the skull carry a phylogenetic signal? Evolution and modularity in the guenons. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93(4), 813-834. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2008.01011.x
• O'Higgins, P., & Elton, S. (2007). Walking on trees. Science, 316(5829), 1292-1294. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1143571
• Elton, S. (2007). Fossils, Hunters, and Controversies: Exploring Primate Evolution. Reviews in Anthropology, 36(4), 283-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00938150701684185
• Cardini, A., Jansson, A., & Elton, S. (2007). Ecomorphology of vervet monkeys: a geometric morphometric approach to the study of clinal variation. Journal of Biogeography, 34, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01731.x
• Elton, S. (2007). Environmental correlates of the cercopithecoid radiations. Folia Primatologica, 78(5-6), 344-364. https://doi.org/10.1159/000105149
• Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2007). Sample size and sampling error in geometric morphometric studies of size and shape. Zoomorphology, 126(2), https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-007-0036-2
• Elton, S., & Morgan, B. (2006). Muzzle size, paranasal swelling size and body mass in Mandrillus leucophaeus. Primates, 47(2), 151-157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-005-0164-6
• Elton, S. (2006). Forty years on and still going strong: the use of hominin-cercopithecid comparisons in palaeoanthropology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12(1), 19-38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00279.x
• O’Regan, H., Bishop, L., Elton, S., Lamb, A., & Turner, A. (2006). Afro-Eurasian dispersions of the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, and their bearing on earliest hominin movements
• O'Regan, H., Bishop, L., Lamb, A., Elton, S., & Turner, A. (2005). Large mammal turnover in Africa and the Near East 1.0 - 0.5Ma. Geological Society Special Publications, 247(1), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1144/gsl.sp.2005.247.01.13
• Elton, S., Barham, L., Andrews, P., & Sambrook Smith, G. (2003). Pliocene femur of Theropithecus from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Journal of Human Evolution, 44(1), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0047-2484%2802%2900198-7
• Elton, S. (2002). A reappraisal of the locomotion and habitat preference of Theropithecus oswaldi. Folia Primatologica, 73(5), 252-280. https://doi.org/10.1159/000067457
• Elton, S. (2001). Locomotor and habitat classification of cercopithecoid postcranial material from Sterkfontein Member 4, Bolt’s Farm and Swartkrans Members 1 and 2, South Africa. Palaeontologia africana, 37, 115-126
• Elton, S., Bishop, L., & Wood, B. (2001). Comparative context of Plio-Pleistocene hominin brain evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, 41(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0475
• Elton, S., Foley, R., & Ulijaszek, S. (1998). Habitual energy expenditure of human climbing and clambering. Annals of Human Biology, 25, 523-531. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014469800006762