Steve J. Wolverton (Ph.D. University of Missouri, 2001) is an Associate Professor in the Geography Department at the University of North Texas. He collaborates with Crow Canyon as a zooarchaeologist, supervising the analysis of the animal bones recovered from the Center’s excavations, and as a Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant titled Collaborative Research: Modeling Crop Failure Potential in Late Pueblo III Mesa Verde Villages.
Steve is an ethnobiologist specializing in the ecology of human adaptations during the Holocene in North and South America. His interests span ecology, ethnobiology, environmental archaeology, paleozoology, and conservation biology. His recent research focuses human adaptations to elevation gradients in the Andes of central, western Argentina among prehistoric hunter-gatherers and contemporary pastoralists. In addition he studies wild animal resource use among the Ancestral Pueblo people in southwestern Colorado. Other research centers on animal ecology and the use of datasets from zooarchaeology and paleontology to address modern issues in conservation biology. In addition, Steve has interests in analytical chemistry and has on-going research in artifact residue analysis including fatty-acid and protein residues from pottery. He is co-editor of the book Sushi in Cortez: Interdisciplinary Essays on Mesa Verde with David Taylor published by University of Utah Press. Steve teaches a variety of human ecology, conservation, and geography courses.