Associate Professor of Biology
Associate Dean of College
B.S. University
of Michigan
Ph.D. Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and
Kent State University
Gerstacker 214
(330) 569-5261
madarsi@hiram.edu
I am an
anatomist and a paleontologist, interested in the functional
morphology of mammals. In other words, I study animal
locomotion and how it determined the life style of extinct
groups, including diet, prey capture, and habitat usage. My
dissertation work focused on 10 million year old apes from
Pakistan that were at one time considered human ancestors,
and are now some what contentiously considered relatives of
the modern orangutan. Most recently I have been studying the
earliest whales - four legged carnivores that made the
transition from living exclusively on land to living in
rivers and oceans more than 50 million years ago. Both of
these projects have taken me to Pakistan for fieldwork, as
this country’s position at the foothills of the Himalayan
mountains made it an ideal place to preserve fossils from
both time periods.
Current
Research Including Hiram Undergraduates:
Brooke Horning (`97) Reduction of the sacro-iliac joint surface area in secondarily aquatic modern mammals. Her work with seals and otters is being incorporated into a publication describing the newly recovered pelvis (ilium) of the earliest whale, the 50 million year old Ambulocetus natans, "the walking whale swims."
Megan McMullen (`00) Brain expansion in Cetacea (whales): sensory adaptations for living in an aquatic environment. This is a pilot project that will examine the comparative anatomy of living species prior to examining the endocasts (brain casts) of fossil whales to determine at what point of their evolutionary history whales obtained the ability to echolocate.
Katie Cicora (`00) Dietary analysis of early whales based on coprolite analysis. This study will examine fossilized dung from 50 million year old fossil localities in Pakistan to determine whether the material is mammalian, and whether coprolites preserve evidence of diet. Knowing the diet of an animal tells you a great deal about the behavior of the organism and its adaptations to the environment.
Jilian Riley (`00) Compensatory curvature of the lower back in individuals with Scheuermann`s thoracic kyphosis. This paper will describe a subset of humans with abnormally large kyphosis that exhibit a different localization of their kyphosis than is typically described in the clinical literature. It will discuss the results of their spinal deformity on the remainder of the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar region.
Education
B.S. Anthropology and Zoology, with honors and distinction
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, December 1989
Ph.D.
Departments of Anatomy and Anthropology
Division of Biomedical Sciences
Kent State University and Northeastern Ohio Universities
College of Medicine (NEOUCOM)
December 1996
Dissertation title: Postcranial Morphology of Sivapithecus: an Asian Large-bodied Miocene Hominoid.
Teaching Experience
Assistant Professor of Biology, Hiram College - 1996 through
present: ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY, VERTEBRATE ANATOMY, HUMAN
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY, INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY,
DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY, EVOLUTION, THE SCIENCE OF BEING
HUMAN, HUMAN VARIATION.
Visiting Instructor in Biology, Hiram College - 1994 - 1996:
ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY, VERTEBRATE ANATOMY, INTRODUCTION TO
ZOOLOGY.
Lecturer, Ohio College of Medical Arts - 1993, 1994: HUMAN
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY, HUMAN PATHOLOGY ( massotherapy
students).
Laboratory Instructor and Lecturer , NEOUCOM - 1992 through
1995: HUMAN GROSS ANATOMY AND EMBRYOLOGY (medical students).
Laboratory Instructor, NEOUCOM - 1991, 1992: MEDICAL
PHYSIOLOGY (for medical students).
Research and Field
Experience
Research Associate (Kala Chitta Hills, Pakistan; NEOUCOM),
in consort with NEOUCOM, Howard University and the
Geological Survey of Pakistan, 1994 - present. Project
focuses on radiations of mammalian orders (cetaceans,
sirenians, artiodactyls, primates, marsupials) during the
early Eocene.
Field survey and excavation associate (Potwar Plateau,
Pakistan), in consort with the University of Illinois,
Harvard University, and the Geological Survey of Pakistan,
1993 - present. Project examines mammalian evolution during
the Miocene of Indo-Pakistan.
Graduate Assistant, Kent State University, 1990, 1991
Curatorial Assistant, Archaeology Range, University of
Michigan Museum of Natural History, 1988
Kirtlandia Student Research Assistant , Department of
Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History,
1988
Academic Service
Director, Animal Care Committee
Chair, Health Sciences Board
Faculty Advisor,
Medicus
Member, Retention Committee
Professional
Associations
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Pi Gamma Mu, National Honor Society of the Social Sciences
Research Publications
Madar, SI (in press). Structural adaptations of early
archaeocete long bones. In The Emergence of Whales, JGM
Thewissen, ed. New York, Plenum Press.
Thewissen, JGM; Hussain ST; Arif, M; Aslan, A; Madar, SI;
Roe, LJ (submitted). The origin of the modern orders of
mammals within the context of Paleogene deposition in
Northern Pakistan. In The Siwaliks of South Asia. The
Records of the Geological Survey of Pakistan, Quetta.
Thewissen, JGM; Madar, SI; Hussain ST; Ganz, E (1997).
Fossil yak (Bos grunniens: Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the
Himalayas of Pakistan. Kirtlandia. 50:11-16.
Thewissen, JGM; Madar, SI, and Hussain, ST (1996).
Ambulocetus natans, an Eocene cetacean (Mammalia) from
Pakistan. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 191:1-86.
Scoles, PV; Latimer, B; DiGiovanni, BF; Vargo, E; Bauza, S;
and Jellemma, LM (1990). Vertebral alterations in
Scheuermann's kyphosis. Spine. 16:509-515.
Published
Abstracts:
Madar, SI. (1997). Diaphyseal morphology and the locomotor
capabilities of archaeocete cetaceans. Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. 17(Suppl. 3): 61A.
Madar, SI. (1997). Comparative humeral morphology of
anthropoid primates and the Miocene hominoid Sivapithecus.
Journal of Morphology. (Suppl. 32) for Vertebrate Morphology
IV conference, June 1997).
Thewissen, JGM; Hussain, ST; and Madar SI. (1996). The
origin of Cetacea: morphological diversity of archaeocetes
from the Kuldana Formation of Pakistan. Paleontological
Society Special Publication 8: 391.
Brown, BA; Ward, SC; Madar, SI (1996). New mandibles of
Miocene hominoids from Pakistan. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology. Supplement 20: 141.
Madar, SI; Brown BA; Ward, SC (1995). Humeral shaft
morphology of Sivapithecus. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology. Supplement 19: 144.
Madar, SI; Thewissen, JGM (1995). Vertebral morphology of
Early Eocene archaeocete Ambulocetus natans from the Kala
Chitta Hills, Pakistan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
14(Suppl. 3): 35A.
Madar, SI; Lovejoy, CO (1993). Scapular ontogeny and the
role of mechanical loading in extant hominoids. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology. Supplement 16:136.
Bauza, SI; Latimer, BM; Scoles, PV (1991). Thoracic kyphosis
in a chimpanzee, with implications for its appearance in
early hominids. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
85:120.
Projects in
preparation:
Madar, SI; Kelley, J; Rose, MR; Pilbeam, D; McLatchy, L (in
prep). New postcranial remains of the Miocene hominoid
Sivapithecus from the Siwaliks of Pakistan.
Madar, SI.; Thewissen JGM; Hussain, ST. Additional remains
of the type specimen of
Ambulocetus natans, an Eocene cetacean from Indo-Pakistan:
new evidence of transitional
morphphology in early whales.
Madar, SI. Cross sectional evidence of forelimb loading
patterns in Sivapithecus (Primates, Mammalia): can
postcranial anatomy resolve hominoid phylogeny?
Madar, SI; Phillips, K; Lovejoy, C.O. Non-lactational breast
enlargement and the concealment of ovulation in early
hominids.
Madar, SI; Latimer, B. A case of thoracic kyphosis in a
chimpanzee, with implications for its appearance in early
hominids.
