Dr. Russell L. Ciochon is a leading paleoanthropologist specializing in human and primate evolution in Asia, as well as the geochronology of Asian Plio-Pleistocene sites. He earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches at the University of Iowa, where he is Chair of the Department of Anthropology.

Dr. Ciochon teaches courses in non-human and hominin primate evolution, as well as ecology, primate behavior, and functional anatomy. Besides co-authoring more than one hundred technical articles, Russell has also co-written two popular books: Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice Age Saga Of Homo Erectus and Other Origins: The Search For The Giant Ape In Prehistory.