Kaye Reed (born April 1951) is a biological anthropologist focused on discovering evidence of early hominins and interpreting their paleoenvironment.
She is presently concentrating her research on the lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia, as well as the South African Pleistocene, in order to study behavioral ecology.
[1][2] Kaye Reed is currently working at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ, where she is the Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC).
[3] Reed's other research interests include the paleoecology of early hominids, mammalian paleontology and biogeography, community ecology, human evolution, and macroecology.
[3] Reed's work as a postdoctoral research associate with the Institute of Human Origins (1995–1997) brought her to ASU when IHO moved there in 1997.
Reed uses large comparative data sets to interpret the community structure of fossils mammals from various Plio-Pleistocene sites.
africanus was not able to tolerate more arid and open habitats and suggested that a longer dry season eventually caused the extinction of the species.
[3] In addition to her research in Africa, Reed has conducted field work in the Crazy Mountain Basin in Montana in 1990, in Cabeza Blanca, Chubut, Argentina in 1993, and in the Sopeña Cave in Asturias, Spain from 2004 to 2006.