Todd Surovell

Associate Professor

Archaeology

B.S. 1995, University of Wisconsin-Madison

M.A. 1999, University of Arizona

Ph.D. 2003, University of Arizona

surovell@uwyo.edu • (307) 766-3239 • Anthropology Bldg 217

Visit the Website of Todd Surovell

Dr. Surovell specializes in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and the first peoples of the New World. He has done fieldwork in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Wisconsin, Denmark, and Israel. He is a proponent of human behavioral ecology, and has used this approach to explore questions of past human demography, subsistence, and technology. He commonly uses mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and geoarchaeological methods in his work.He teaches a variety of courses in archaeology but most regularly Geoarchaeology, Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists, and Old World Archaeology.

Courses taught:

ANTH 3600            Archaeological Sciences

ANTH 4135/5135   Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists

ANTH 4130/5130   Old World Archaeology 

ANTH 4150/5150   Seminar: Colonization of the Americas

ANTH 4150/5150   Computer Programming for Archaeologists 

ANTH 4170/5170   Geoarchaeology

Recent/Selected Publications:

Surovell, T. A., V. T. Holliday, J. A. M. Gingerich, C. Ketron, C. V. Haynes, Jr., I. Hilman,

D. P. Wagner, E. Johnson, and P. Claeys

 2009 An Independent Evaluation of the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Hypothesis.

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106:18155-18158 (pdf) (link)

Faith, J. T. and T. A. Surovell

  2009  Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals.

      Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106:20641–20645. (pdf) (link)

Paquay, F. S., S. Goderis, G. Ravizza, F. Vanhaeck, M.Boyd, T. A.  Surovell, V. T. Holliday,

 C. V. Haynes, Jr., and P. Claeys

   2009 Absence of geochemical evidence for an impact event at the Bølling– Allerød/

   Younger Dryas transition.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

   106:21505-21510. (pdf) (link)

Surovell, T. A.

   2009  Toward a Behavioral Ecology of Lithic Technology: Cases from Paleoindian Archaeology.  

    University of Arizona Press, Tucson. (link)

Waguespack, N. M., T. A. Surovell, A. Denoyer, A. Dallow, A. Savage, J. Hyneman and D. Tapster

   2009   Making a point: Wood- vs. stone-tipped projectiles   Antiquity 83:786-800. (pdf)

Surovell, T. A., J. Finely, G. M. Smith, P. J. Brantingham and R. L. Kelly

    2009  Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias. Journal of Archaeological

        Science 36:1715-1724. (pdf)

Surovell, T. A. and N. M. Waguespack

   2009 Human prey choice in the late Pleistocene and its relation to megafaunal extinctions. In American

       Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene, edited by G. Haynes,  77-105. Springer. (pdf)

Surovell, T. A. and N. M. Waguespack

  2008  How many elephant kills are 14?  Clovis Mammoth and Mastodon Kills in Context.  Quaternary

    International 191:82-97. (pdf)

Stiner, M. C., J. Beaver, N. D. Munro and T. A. Surovell

    2008 Modeling Paleolithic Predator-Prey Dynamics and the Effects of Hunting Pressure on Prey Choice. In Recent

       Advances in Paleodemography: Data, Techniques and Patterns, edited by J.-P. Bocquet-Appel, pp. 143-178.

       Springer Verlag, Dordecht, The Netherlands.

Research Interests:

Human Behavioral Ecology, New World Colonization, Lithic Technology, Human Demography, Subsistence, Pleistocene Extinctions, Geoarchaeology, Archaeological Modeling