{{Short description|German-Israeli paleontologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Yoel Rak | native_name = יואל רק | native_name_lang = he | image = Professor Yoel Rak.jpg | fields = Paleoanthropology<br />Anatomy<br />Anthropology | known_for = Member of Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities | awards = Igor Orenstein Chair }}
'''Yoel Rak''' ({{Langx|he|יואל רק}}; born 29 June 1946) is an Israeli anatomist, paleoanthropologist and researcher.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-12-09 |title=A Bitter Archaeological Battle Is Rocking Tel Aviv University |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-12-09/ty-article-magazine/a-bitter-archaeological-battle-is-rocking-tel-aviv-university/0000017f-f317-df98-a5ff-f3bf3add0000 |work=Haaretz}}</ref> He is a professor emeritus in the Department of Anatomy and Physical Anthropology at Tel Aviv University's School of Medicine.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last=AP and ToI Staff |title=Tel Aviv prof helps shake up evolutionary tree with 1.8m-year-old skull find |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-prof-helps-shake-up-evolutionary-tree-with-1-8m-year-old-skull-find/ |access-date=2025-06-27 |website=The Times of Israel |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-04-16 |title=Israeli researchers: 'Lucy' is not direct ancestor of humans |url=https://www.jpost.com/health-and-sci-tech/science-and-environment/israeli-researchers-lucy-is-not-direct-ancestor-of-humans |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=The Jerusalem Post |language=en |issn=0792-822X }}</ref>
== Career == In 1972, Rak received a bachelor's degree in prehistoric archaeology from the Hebrew University. After earning his master's degree in 1975, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley. There, under the guidance of Sherwood L. Washburn, Tim D. White, and Francis Clark Howell, Rak completed his doctoral dissertation, ''The Morphology and Architecture of the Australopithecine Face'', in 1981. Two years later, an edited version of his dissertation was published in New York by Academic Press as ''The Australopithecine Face''. In 1981, Rak returned to Israel and was appointed as a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, where he became a full professor in 1991. From 2004 to 2008, he headed the Department of Anatomy and Physical Anthropology.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=http://www2.colman.ac.il/al_hagova/1/21netanotzer.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018115939/http://www2.colman.ac.il/al_hagova/1/21netanotzer.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-18 |access-date=2025-08-01 |website=www2.colman.ac.il}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="444" הקדומה בגולגולות האדם |url=https://thinkil.co.il/texts/m067p050-065/ |access-date=2025-08-01 |website=מחשבות {{!}} ThinkIL |language=he-IL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=פרופ' יואל רק |url=https://academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=752&entryId=18538 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250619063857/https://academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=752&entryId=18538 |archive-date=2025-06-19 |access-date=2025-08-01 |website=www.academy.ac.il |language=he |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Research areas == Yoel Rak studies human anatomy and evolution. He focuses on facial anatomy, jaw function, and the mechanics of walking upright.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Saraceni |first=Jessica Esther |date=2024-10-29 |title=News - Study Compares Modern Human and Neanderthal Burials in the Levant |url=https://archaeology.org/news/2024/10/29/study-compares-modern-human-and-neanderthal-burials-in-the-levant/ |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Archaeology Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Yoel |last2=Ginzburg |first2=Avishag |last3=Geffen |first3=Eli |date=2007-04-17 |title=Gorilla-like anatomy on Australopithecus afarensis mandibles suggests Au. afarensis link to robust australopiths |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=104 |issue=16 |pages=6568–6572 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0606454104 |doi-access=free |pmc=1871826 |pmid=17426152}}</ref>
Yoel Rak’s second area of research focuses on Neanderthal remains found in Israel. For a long period of time, this region was inhabited by Neanderthals migrating from the north while Homo sapiens was coming from the south.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UNM professor on team studying Neandertal remains |url=https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-professor-on-team-studying-neandertal-remains |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=UNM UCAM Newsroom |language=en}}</ref> Both groups took turns living in the same caves.
Rak led several excavations and took part in projects such as the exploration of Amud Cave<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hovers |first1=Erella |last2=Rak |first2=Yoel |last3=Lavi |first3=Ron |last4=Kimbel |first4=William H. |date=1995 |title=Hominid Remains from Amud Cave in the Context of the Levantine Middle Paleolithic |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/paleo_0153-9345_1995_num_21_2_4617 |journal=Paléorient |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=47–61 |doi=10.3406/paleo.1995.4617}}</ref>(1990–1994) and Kebara Cave (1982–1990),<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Y. |last2=Arensburg |first2=B. |date=1987 |title=Kebara 2 Neanderthal pelvis: First look at a complete inlet |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330730209 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |language=en |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=227–231 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330730209 |pmid=3113264 |issn=1096-8644|url-access=subscription }}</ref> where the southernmost evidence of a Neanderthal presence was identified.<ref>{{Cite web |title=בשביל מה הוא היה צריך אף כל כך גדול? |url=https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/2005-11-30/ty-article/0000017f-ef92-d497-a1ff-ef921d690000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222022837/https://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/2005-11-30/ty-article/0000017f-ef92-d497-a1ff-ef921d690000 |archive-date=2025-02-22 |access-date=2025-08-01 |website=Haaretz הארץ |language=he |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-23 |title=Jaw of Contention: Who Was Nesher Ramla Homo? |url=https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/sciencenews/jaw-contention-who-was-homo-nesher-ramla |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=Davidson Institute of Science Education |language=en-US}}</ref> Since 1990, Rak has participated as the expedition’s anatomist for the Hadar project in Ethiopia. In 1992 he discovered the first complete skull of A. afarensis (AL444.2).<ref>{{Cite web |date=1992-01-01 |title=AL 444-2 {{!}} The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program |url=https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/al-444-2 |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=humanorigins.si.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Artifact Scans {{!}} The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program |url=https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/3d-collection/fossils/753/al-444-2 |access-date=2025-08-10 |website=humanorigins.si.edu}}</ref>
== Honors == In 2008, Rak was elected as a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prof. Yoel Rak |url=https://www.academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=809&entryId=18539 |website=Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities}}</ref> In 1999, he was awarded the Igor Orenstein Chair for the Study of Aging at Tel Aviv University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tel Aviv University Webflash - December 1999 |url=http://mondrian.tau.ac.il/webflash.old/wf-9912.html |website=Tel Aviv University }}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
== Selected publications ==
=== Books ===
* ''The Australopithecine Face.'' Academic Press, New York 1983, {{ISBN|978-0125762809}}. * William H. Kimbel, Yoel Rak, Donald Johanson, Ralph L Holloway and Michael S Yuan: ''The Skull of Australopithecus afarensis''. Oxford University Press , London 2004, {{ISBN|978-0195157062}}.
=== Articles ===
* {{Cite journal |last=Rak |first=Yoel |date=1978 |title=The functional significance of the squamosal suture in Australopithecus boisei |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330490111 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |language=en |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=71–78 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330490111 |pmid=98055 |issn=0002-9483|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Yoel |last2=Howell |first2=F. Clark |date=1978 |title=Cranium of a juvenile Australopithecus boisei from the lower Omo Basin, Ethiopia |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330480311 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |language=en |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=345–365 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330480311 |issn=1096-8644|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Yoel |last2=Clarke |first2=Ronald J. |date=1979 |title=Ear ossicle of Australopithecus robustus |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/279062a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=279 |issue=5708 |pages=62–63 |doi=10.1038/279062a0 |pmid=377094 |bibcode=1979Natur.279...62R |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Y. |last2=Clarke |first2=R. J. |date=1979 |title=Aspects of the middle and external ear of early South African hominids |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=471–474 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330510320 |issn=0002-9483 |pmid=119440}} * Rak, Y (1985). ''Australopithecine taxonomy and phylogeny in light of facial morphology,'' American Journal of Physical Anthropology''.'' {{doi|10.1002/ajpa.1330660305}} * {{Cite journal |last=Rak |first=Yoel |date=1986-03-01 |title=The Neanderthal: A new look at an old face |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248486800422 |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=151–164 |doi=10.1016/S0047-2484(86)80042-2 |bibcode=1986JHumE..15..151R |issn=0047-2484|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite web |title=On the differences between two pelvises of Mousterian context from the Qafzeh and Kebara caves, Israel |url=https://scispace.com/papers/on-the-differences-between-two-pelvises-of-mousterian-3vl00u54ev |access-date=2025-06-27 |website=scispace.com}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Kimbel |first1=William H. |last2=Johanson |first2=Donald C. |last3=Rak |first3=Yoel |date=1994 |title=The first skull and other new discoveries of Australopithecus afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/368449a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=368 |issue=6470 |pages=449–451 |doi=10.1038/368449a0 |pmid=8133889 |bibcode=1994Natur.368..449K |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Y. |last2=Kimbel |first2=W. H. |last3=Johanson |first3=D. C. |date=1996 |title=The crescent of foramina in Australopithecus afarensis and other early hominids |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=101 |issue=1 |pages=93–99 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199609)101:1<93::AID-AJPA6>3.0.CO;2-E |issn=0002-9483 |pmid=8876815}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Rak |first1=Yoel |last2=Ginzburg |first2=Avishag |last3=Geffen |first3=Eli |date=2007-04-17 |title=Gorilla-like anatomy on Australopithecus afarensis mandibles suggests Au. afarensis link to robust australopiths |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=104 |issue=16 |pages=6568–6572 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0606454104 |doi-access=free |pmc=1871826 |pmid=17426152}}
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Category:Israeli anthropologists Category:Israeli zoologists Category:21st-century Israeli biologists Category:German emigrants to Israel Category:Paleoanthropologists Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Category:Human evolution theorists Category:Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)