Amanda E. Slotter, Ph.D.

"Amanda Slotter"

Amanda E. Slotter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Biomedical Sciences

Office: A328
Lab: B307
Phone: (304) 647-6214

Education and Training

Ph.D., Anthropology, Arizona State University - Thesis: Dental Morphological Variation in Eastern African Hominins from 4.2-3.0 Ma: Implications for Pliocene Hominin Diversity and Speciation
M.A., Anthropology, Arizona State University
B.A., Anthropology and B.A., Evolutionary Biology, Case Western Reserve University

Research Interests

Pliocene hominin craniodental evolution. My research primarily focuses on the craniodental evolution of Pliocene hominins in eastern Africa, with a focus on understanding evolutionary patterns and processes in early hominin lineages. My current projects include: (1) quantifying dental variation among eastern African Pliocene hominins to refine our understanding of hominin diversity and speciation during this period, and (2) analyzing inter-site patterns of dental macrowear in Pliocene hominins and other primates. 

Mio-Pliocene primate evolution. I am also broadly interested in studying Mio-Pliocene primate paleobiology and the implications of dental variation for species diversity and speciation.

Awards and Honors

  • Grant. NSF Biological Anthropology Program - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. Project Title: “Dental morphological variation in eastern African hominins from 4.2-3.0 Ma: Implications for Pliocene hominin diversity and speciation”
  • Grant. Donald C. Johanson Paleoanthropological Research Endowment Scholarship, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University
  • Award. School of Human Evolutionary and Social Change Donald H. Morris Award for Outstanding Doctoral Student in Evolutionary Anthropology; Arizona State University

Publications

Conference Abstracts

  • 2025. Slotter, AE. “Inter-site differences in tooth wear patterns among eastern African, Pliocene hominins”. Poster presentation for the annual meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists; Baltimore, MD; March 2025
  • 2025. Tuka, V*, Schwartz GT, Slotter AE. “Investigating Temporal Changes in Mandibular Molar Cusp Areas in the Australopithecus anamensis-A. afarensis Lineage”
  • 2024. Slotter AE. “2D geometric morphometric analysis of hominin mandibular molars from Woranso-Mille, Afar State, Ethiopia”. Poster presentation for the annual meeting of the Eastern African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 2024. Slotter AE, Haile-Selassie Y. “A comparative morphometric analysis of hominin lower third molars from Woranso-Mille, Afar State, Ethiopia”. Poster presentation for the American Association of Biological Anthropologists; Los Angeles, CA
  • 2018. Slotter AE, Simpson SW. “A preliminary reconstruction of the paleoecological context of Galili, Ethiopia using bovid dental metrics”. Poster presentation for the American Association of Physical Anthropologists; Austin, TX