what is physical anthropology

Physical anthropology, also known as biological anthropology, is a scientific discipline that studies the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates. Physical anthropologists work on three major sets of problems: human and nonhuman primate evolution, human variation and its significance, and the biological bases of human behavior. The course that human evolution has taken and the processes that have brought it about are of equal concern. Practical applications of physical anthropological data include using estimates of the probabilities that children will inherit certain genes to counsel families about some medical conditions and providing invaluable assistance in the identification of victims and perpetrators of crimes and casualties of accidents and wars. There are many subfields within physical anthropology, including osteology, paleopathology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, paleoanthropology, molecular anthropology, nutritional anthropology, human biology, and primatology.