the American polygenist Samuel George Morton (1799–1851). In the late 19th century, German-American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) strongly impacted biological anthropology by emphasizing the influence of culture and experience on the human form. His research showed that head shape was malleable to environmental and nutritional factors rather than a stable "racial" trait. However, scientific racism still persisted in biological anthropology, with prominent figures such as Earnest Hooton and Aleš Hrdlička promoting theories of racial superiority and a European origin of modern humans. "New Physical Anthropology" In 1951 Sherwood Washburn, a former student of Hooton, introduced a "new physical anthropology." He changed the focus from racial typology to concentrate upon the study of human evolution, moving away from classification towards evolutionary process. Anthropology expanded to include paleoanthropology and primatology. The 20th century also saw the modern synthesis in biology: the reconciling of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's research on heredity. Advances in the understanding of the molecular structure of DNA and the development of chronological dating methods opened doors to understanding human variation, both past and present, more accurately and in much greater detail. Notable biological anthropologists Zeresenay Alemseged John Lawrence Angel George J. Armelagos William M. Bass Caroline Bond Day Jane E. Buikstra William Montague Cobb Carleton S. Coon Robert Corruccini Raymond Dart Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt Linda Fedigan A. Roberto Frisancho Jane Goodall Earnest Hooton Aleš Hrdlička Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Anténor Firmin Dian Fossey Birute Galdikas Richard Lynch Garner Colin Groves Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ralph Holloway William W. Howells Donald Johanson Robert Jurmain Melvin Konner Louis Leakey Mary Leakey Richard Leakey Frank B. Livingstone Owen Lovejoy Jonathan M. Marks Robert D. Martin Russell Mittermeier Desmond Morris Douglas W. Owsley David Pilbeam Kathy Reichs Alice Roberts Pardis Sabeti Robert Sapolsky Eugenie C. Scott Meredith Small Phillip V. Tobias Douglas H. Ubelaker Sherwood Washburn David Watts Tim White Milford H. Wolpoff Richard Wrangham Teuku Jacob Biraja Sankar Guha See also Anthropometry, the measurement of the human individual Biocultural anthropology Ethology Evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary biology Evolutionary psychology Human evolution Paleontology Primatology Race (human categorization) Sociobiology References Further reading Michael A. Little and Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, eds. Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century, (Lexington Books; 2010); 259 pages; essays on the field from the late 19th to the late 20th century; topics include Sherwood L. Washburn (1911–2000) and the "new physical anthropology" Brown, Ryan A and Armelagos, George,