Interests:

My interests focus on better understand the evolution of human life history (patterns of growth, maintenance, and reproduction) and how it co-evolved with our social, behavioural, and cognitive adaptations.

Relevant Publications:

• Cerrito, P., Gascon, E., Roberts, A. C., Sawiak, S. J., & Burkart, J. M. (2024). Neurodevelopmental timing and socio-cognitive development in a prosocial cooperatively breeding primate (Callithrix jacchus). Science Advances, 10(44), eado3486.
• Cerrito, P., & Burkart, J. M. (2023). Human amygdala volumetric patterns convergently evolved in cooperatively breeding and domesticated species. Human Nature, 34(3), 501-511.
• Cerrito, P., & Spear, J. K. (2022). A milk-sharing economy allows placental mammals to overcome their metabolic limits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(10), e2114674119.
• Cerrito, P., Nava, A., Radovčić, D., Borić, D., Cerrito, L., Basdeo, T., ... & Bromage, T. G. (2022). Dental cementum virtual histology of Neanderthal teeth from Krapina (Croatia, 130–120 kyr): an informed estimate of age, sex and adult stressors. Journal of the royal society interface, 19(187), 20210820.
• Cerrito, P., Bailey, S. E., Hu, B., & Bromage, T. G. (2020). Parturitions, menopause and other physiological stressors are recorded in dental cementum microstructure. Scientific reports, 10(1), 5381.

Research themes:

• developing and applying novel analytical methods (histology, elemental analysis, etc.) to fossil remains that act as "recording structures" (teeth and bones) of an individual's life in order to reconstruct hominin life histories
• elucidating the interplay between a species’ life-history profile and the aspects of its physiology, cognition, and communication