Department of Anthropology
Bio
Following her doctoral work, Dr. Kralick held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University (2023–2024) and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College (2024–2025). She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research integrates skeletal analysis and field observation with critical science studies to examine underexplored within-sex variation in our non-human primate relatives.
Learn more at www.AlexandraKralick.com
Education
Education
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
B.S., Biological Anthropology, The George Washington University, 2014
Research Interests
Great apes • Orangutan osteology • Life history • Functional morphology • Within-sex variation • Great ape skeletal collections • Critical science studies
Selected Publications
Alexandra E. Kralick, Babette Zemel, Phillip Lin, Clara Nolan, Matthew W. Tocheri. (2024) Relative leg-to-arm skeletal strength proportions in orangutans by species and sex. Journal of Human Evolution. 188: 103496.
Alexandra E. Kralick, Caitlin A. O’Connell, Meredith L. Bastian, Morgan K. Hoke, Babette S. Zemel, Theodore G. Schurr, Matthew W. Tocheri. (2023). Beyond Dimorphism: Body Size Variation among Adult Orangutans is not Dichotomous by Sex. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 63(4):907-921. doi: 10.1093/icb/icad015
Alexandra E. Kralick, Stephanie Canington, Andrea Eller, and Kate McGrath. (2023). Specimens as Individuals: Four interventions and recommendations for great ape skeletal collections research and curation. Evolutionary Anthropology. 1:20. doi: 10.1002/evan.22002
Alexandra E. Kralick and Kate McGrath. (2021). More severe stress markers in the teeth of flanged versus unflanged orangutans (Pongo spp.). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 176(4):625-637. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24387
Alexandra E. Kralick and Babette S. Zemel. (2020). Evolutionary perspectives on the developing skeleton and implications for lifelong health. Frontiers in Endocrinology. 11: 99. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.00099
Public Science Writing
Alexandra Kralick. (2023). “When Ape Sex Isn’t Simple: One type of male orangutan has perplexed scientists because they run counter to long-held binary expectations of sex differences in the skeleton.” Anthropology News. March 14. https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/when-ape-sex-isnt-simple/.
Alexandra Kralick and Kate McGrath. (2023). Habitat Destruction Is Threatening an Aspect of Orangutan Biology. Frontiers for Young Minds. 11:914617. doi: 10.3389/frym.2023.914617
Alexandra Kralick. (2018). “What Our Skeletons Say About the Sex Binary”. SAPIENS. November 9. https://www.sapiens.org/body/intersex-biological-sex/ Republished in The Atlantic on November 11 as “Is Gender Written Into Your Skeleton? The study of human bones complicates a strict binary definition of sex.”