Elen Feuerriegel

rdf:langString Elen Feuerriegel

rdf:langString Elen Feuerriegel

rdf:langString Elen Feuerriegel

rdf:langString Biomechanics of the Hominoid Shoulder: Entheseal Development and Manual Manipulation

rdf:langString Australian National University

rdf:langString University of Queensland

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Discovery of Homo naledi

rdf:langString Australian

rdf:langString Elen Feuerriegel is an Australian palaeoanthropologist, known for being one of the "underground astronauts" of the Rising Star Expedition. She is a researcher at the University of Washington. Feuerriegel studied anthropology at the University of Queensland (BA, 2011) and the Australian National University (M. Biol. Anth, 2012). She then embarked on a PhD at ANU, under the supervision of Colin Groves, which she completed in 2017. Her thesis was on the biomechanics of the hominoid shoulder and its role in tool-making (flint knapping), and included research on Homo naledi fossils from Rising Star Cave. In 2013, whilst a PhD student, Feuerriegal responded to an advertisement on Facebook calling for "skinny, highly-qualified paleontologists" with caving experience. The advertisement was placed by Lee Berger, who was recruiting a team to recover hominid fossils he had discovered in the difficult-to-access Dinaledi Chamber of Rising Star Cave. Feuerriegal helped excavate the fossils, which were subsequently assigned to a new species of human, Homo naledi. She also studied its upper limb bones.