Rassina Farassi

Research Interests

My research interests are ecology, sociality, terrestriality, primate archaeology, human evolution, emergence and technological evolution.

Short Bio

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Coimbra, funded by a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). I hold a Master’s degree in Primatology from the University of Girona, Spain, and a Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management from Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. My research focuses on using the chacma baboon as a behavioral model to explore aspects of human evolution. Specifically, I am interested in how wild primates manipulate objects, aiming to understand the factors that underpin habitual tool use in humans. For my PhD project, I am integrating emerging technologies to study bipedalism and predation in chacma baboons—an opportunistic and highly terrestrial primate that inhabits heterogeneous and highly seasonal environments resembling the landscapes where early hominins evolved.

Doctoral Student, Centre for Functional Ecology

Calçada Martim de Freitas
Departamento de Ciências da Vida
Universidade de Coimbra
3000-456
Coimbra
Portugal

Associated Student, PALEO (Primate Adaptations, Landscapes & Evolutionary Origins) group, CIBIO

CIBIO – Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos
Universidade do Porto
Campus de Vairão
Rua Padre Armando Quintas, nº 7
4485-661 Vairão
Portugal

Associated Student, ICArEHB

Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB)
FCHS, University of Algarve
Campus de Gambelas
8005-139 Faro
Portugal

Affiliated Researcher, Gorongosa National Park

Scientific Department
Parque Nacional da Gorongosa
Sofala
Moçambique

Invited Lecturer, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane

Departamento de Arqueologia e Antropologia
Faculdade de Letras e Ciências Sociais
Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Maputo
Moçambique

rassinafarassi@gmail.com

ORCID: —