[2][3] Wolpoff is best known for his vocal support of the multiregional model of human evolution when it was challenged by the 'Out of Africa' theory.
The basis for advancing the multiregional interpretation stems from his skepticism of punctuated equilibrium (the idea evolution typically proceeds with long static periods and abrupt changes, instead of gradual modification during speciation) as an accurate model for Pleistocene humanity, noting that speciation played a role earlier in human evolution.
With his multidisciplinary training, he brings to the study of the human and non-human primate fossil record a background that combines evolutionary theory, population genetics, and biomechanics.
With over 50 grants funded by the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, and the University of Michigan, Wolpoff has visited the museums where human and primate fossils are stored and has studied in detail and at length all the materials addressing the fossil evidence for human evolution across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
"The earliest H. sapiens remains differ significantly from australopithecines in both size and anatomical details," he notes, "Insofar as we can tell, these changes were sudden and not gradual.
Some notable awards are[5] His work with Rachel Caspari, Race and Human Evolution earned them the W.W. Howells Book Prize in 1999.