pilbeam describes himself as "interested in a wide range of topics involving human and primate evolution". among his most recent activities has been working with michel brunet and colleagues on the description and analysis of the new hominin from chad, sahelanthropus tchadensis. he describes his long-term and continuing interests as including "the behavioral reconstruction and phylogenetic relationships of miocene apes, which broadens to include more theoretical aspects of phylogenetics", and "the analysis of faunal change and its relationship to environmental change" particularly based on an extensive faunal record from the neogene siwalik series of pakistan. he also describes himself as having recently become interested in evolutionary developmental biology, and particularly in the development and evolution of the anthropoid axial skeleton.