Rate My Professor David Byers

David Byers serves as Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences at Utah State University. His scholarly work focuses on archaeology, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, experimental archaeology, site formation processes, and stable isotope analysis. Byers investigates prehistoric human subsistence strategies, hunting behaviors, faunal exploitation, and environmental impacts on ancient populations, often applying optimal foraging theory and analyzing archaeofaunal assemblages from regions such as the Great Basin, Wyoming Basin, Snake River Plain, and Aleutian Islands.

Byers has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals. Among his most cited publications is 'Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans' in Nature (2011), with 865 citations, which examines differential responses of megafauna to climatic shifts and human pressures. Other significant contributions include 'Should we expect large game specialization in the late Pleistocene? An optimal foraging perspective on early Paleoindian prey choice' in the Journal of Archaeological Science (2005, 215 citations); 'Prey body size and ranking in zooarchaeology: theory, empirical evidence, and applications from the northern Great Basin' in American Antiquity (2011, 194 citations); 'Holocene environmental change, artiodactyl abundances, and human hunting strategies in the Great Basin' in American Antiquity (2004, 178 citations); 'Did climatic seasonality control late Quaternary artiodactyl densities in western North America?' in Quaternary Science Reviews (2008, 99 citations); 'Synchronization of energy consumption by human societies throughout the Holocene' in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018, 59 citations); and 'Holocene cold storage practices on the eastern Snake River Plain: A risk-mitigation strategy for lean times' in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (2016). These works demonstrate his influence on understanding long-term human ecological dynamics and population histories. Byers also holds the role of Graduate Program Director for Utah State University's programs in Archaeological Data Analytics, Cultural Resource Management Policy, Advocacy and Business Administration, and Museum Administration and Collections Management.