The Leakey Foundation

Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State

We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it and pierce it. Skin mediates the most important transactions of our lives, while protecting us, advertising our health, our identity and our individuality. Join Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State, as she explores the unique biological and cultural aspects of human skin and its importance as a key element of human adaptation.

Part of the American Museum of Natural History’s popular SciCafe lecture series. Enjoy cocktails, cutting-edge science, and conversation at this after-hours series, which takes place on the first Wednesday of every month.

Let us know you are coming on our Facebook page!

Wednesday May 2, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
The American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

Free; please reserve your ticket online now.

Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

Dr. Ofer Bar-Yosef, professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Harvard University and Curator of Palaeolithic Archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The dispersal routes of modern humans from Africa through Eurasia and into Sahul (Australia and New-Guinea) are partially known from scant isolated fossils, current genetics and ancient DNA studies.

The abundant archaeological evidence to be presented facilitates the recognition of these routes, which are marked by the discarded stone tools found, in rare cases with bone, antler and ivory objects, in sites dated to 55-45,000 years ago.

The process of colonization by the new people resulted in the demise of the local Neanderthals in Europe, western and northern Asia, and the Denisovans in Asia. However, interbreeding between the older and new populations was detected as a low percentage of Neanderthal and Denisovans genes carried by today’s people who occupy the entire vast terrestrial continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts and the islands.

Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 1:00 PM
The Field Museum, Chicago, IL
Free with museum admission; call 312.665.7400 to reserve your seat.
Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

UPDATE: If you are unable to join us in San Francisco, you can still see the symposium LIVE, online. Sign up for your conference pass today!

A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the span of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution.

On Saturday, April 28 join leading scientists for a special symposium at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco as they discuss the The Female in Evolution. This rich topic will be considered in the context of the three research areas funded by The Leakey Foundation; Paleoanthropology, Behavioral and Hunter-gatherers and will integrate life history, behavior, anatomy, development, and cultural identity of females.

After an introduction by primatologist Kelly Stewart, pioneering anthropologist Adrienne Zilhman will give the keynote presentation. Zihlman’s research has had major impacts on the fields of physical anthropology and human evolution. In the 1970s, her critique of the “Man the Hunter” model opened the way for researchers to incorporate the role of females in hominid biological evolution and in human cultural development, an approach that has since become mainstream.

Chaired by Leslea Hlusko, the Paleoanthropology session will feature an overiew lecture by Daniel Lieberman and a case study lecture by Dean Falk on “The Role of Prehistoric Mothers in the Evolution of Language”.

The Behavioral session, chaired by Jill Pruetz, consists of an overview lecture by Joan Silk. Dorothy Cheney will discuss “Primate Social Cognition” for the case study lecture.

For the afternoon keynote, Robert Martin will discuss “The Evolution of Mothering”.

Chaired by Brooke Scelza, the Hunter-forager session will have an overview lecture by Kristen Hawkes, and a case study by Rebecca Bliege Bird on the role of women amongst Australia’s Aboriginal peoples.

Each session of this intimate event will end with a question and answer session. Leslie Aiello will conclude the day’s proceedings with a symposium wrap-up.

This event is now sold out! But you can still see the symposium LIVE, online. Sign up for your conference pass today!

Produced in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences, this special symposium is generously sponsored by Jean and Ray Auel, Gordon and Ann Getty, and Wells Fargo Bank.

Dr. Richard Wrangham, Professor at Harvard University and co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project

Ever since Darwin and The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. Renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Dr. Wrangham will show that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evolution.

When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began.

Once our hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be used instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor.

Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors’ diets, Dr. Wrangham sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, Dr. Wrangham will fascinate anyone interested in our ancient origins or in our modern eating habits.

Dr. Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. He is co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, the long-term study of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. His research culminates in the study of human evolution in which he draws conclusions based on the behavioral ecology of apes. As a graduate student, Dr. Wrangham studied under Robert Hinde and Jane Goodall. He also helped the late Dian Fossey establish her eponymous Gorilla Fund to protect and research the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 @ 6:30pm

Houston Museum of Natural Science

General Admission: $18

HMNS, Leakey Foundation & Harvard Club Members: $12

Please call the Museum Box Office at (713) 639-4629 or reserve your ticket online.

There will be a book signing immediately after the lecture. Reserve your copy of Catching Fire by Dr. Richard Wrangham now.

If you are on Facebook, let us know you are coming on the Facebook event page for this lecture.

Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

A Homo floresiensis skull (left) compared to a Homo sapien skull on the right. Photo courtesy of Peter Brown

In the history of exploring human origins, there has never been a more baffling discovery than the extraordinary Homo floresiensis, now known as world-famous as the “Hobbit”. Found on an obscure Indonesian island in 2004, this tiny, small-brained, big-footed hominin is unlike any other discovery.

But who was this 14,000 year old being, and who were its ancestors? These questions fuel a huge debate among paleoanthropologists. Is the fairly complete LB1 skeleton simply a modern human wracked with genetic disease. Maybe it belongs to a “dwarfed” island species descended from the renowned Homo erectus of nearby Java? Or was this individual a remote descendant of the very first hominin ancestors to exit Africa?

Depending on the answer, this little person may make a crucial contribution to our knowledge of the early evolution of modern humans. In this light-hearted debate, two eminent biological anthropologists, Dr. Robert Martin of Chicago’s Field Museum, and Dr. Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, will present contrasting viewpoints on this amazing find, and attempt to lift a corner of the veil that still obscures one of paleoanthropology’s most intriguing mysteries.

Who Was the Hobbit?

A Debate with Dr. Robert D. Martin, Curator of Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum and Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator at The American Museum of Natural History

Featuring Guest Moderator:
Roy Eisenhardt,
Former President of the California Academy of Sciences

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 @ 7pm
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA

Let us know you are coming on our Facebook page!

Generous support provided by Wells Fargo Bank.

Dr. Robert D. Martin, Curator of Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum	Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator at The American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State

We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it and pierce it. Skin mediates the most important transactions of our lives, while protecting us, advertising our health, our identity and our individuality. Join Dr. Nina Jablonski, Professor and Head of Anthropology at Penn State, as she explores the unique biological and cultural aspects of human skin and its importance as a key element of human adaptation.

Let us know you are coming on our Facebook page!

Saturday October 1, 2011 @ 1 pm
The Field Museum, Chicago, IL

Free with basic admission; please call (312) 665-7400 to reserve your seat.

Generous support provided by The Segal Family Foundation and Wells Fargo Bank.

Is Man a Wolf to Man? – Morality and the Social Behavior of our Fellow Primates

Frans de Waal, C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University and Director,Living Links Center

Homo homini lupus – “man is wolf to man” – is an old Roman proverb popularized by Thomas Hobbes. Even though it permeates large parts of law, economics, and political science, the proverb fails to do justice to our species’ thoroughly social nature as well as to canids, which are among the most gregarious and cooperative animals. For the past quarter century, this cynical view has also been promoted by an influential school of biology, followers of Thomas Henry Huxley, which holds that we are born nasty as a result of “selfish” genes. Accordingly, it is only with the greatest possible effort that we can hope to become moral beings. Charles Darwin, however, saw things differently: he believed in continuity between animal social instincts and human morality. He wrote an entire book about The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Modern psychology and neuroscience support Darwin’s view about the moral emotions. Human moral decisions often stem from “gut” reactions, some of which we share with other animals. de Waal will elaborate on the connection between morality and primate behavior. Other primates show signs of empathy, prosocial tendencies, reciprocity, and a sense of fairness that promote a mutually satisfactory modus vivendi. de Waal will review evidence for continuity to support the view that the building blocks of morality are older than humanity.

Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American behavioral biologist known for his work on the social intelligence of primates. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982) compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. Ever since, de Waal has drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from peacemaking and morality to culture. His latest book is The Age of Empathy (2009). De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a member of the (US) National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, Time selected him as one of the Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today.

Thursday, May 5, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 7, 2011 @ 1:00pm
Please note date change
American Museum on Natural History | New York, NY
Free with museum admission.
Information: 415.561.4646

First Out of Africa

David Lordkipanidze, General Director at the Georgian National Museum

Saturday, April 9, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
The Field Museum | Chicago, IL
Free with museum admission.
Information: 415.561.4646

Some of the most controversial issues remaining in paleoanthropology are when and why our ancestors left their motherland and began global colonization. The site of Dmanisi, Georgia has produced surprising evidence for the early dispersal of hominids out of Africa. Dmanisi dates to approximately 1.77 million years ago and has revealed a wealth of cranial and post-cranial hominid fossil material along with many well-preserved animal bones and quantities of stone artifacts. The Dmanisi hominids have a surprising mosaic of primitive morphology such as small body and brain sizes and an absence of humeral torsion coupled with derived human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology. These fossils bring into question whether Homo erectus was the first hominid out of Africa. The Dmanisi hominid remains are the first discovered outside of Africa to show clear affinities to early Homo, they represent the missing link between Africa, Asia and Europe.

David Lordkipanidze, Ph.D. is the first General Director of the newly founded National Museum of Georgia which unifies 10 major museums of the country and 2 research institutes. Under his leadership the Museum is gradually transforming from a Soviet-type institution into a vibrant space for culture, education and science. Lordkipanidze’s professional activities are connected with Dmanisi, the world famous archaeological site. Lordkipanidze has authored over 100 scientific articles published in widely respected and well-known scientific journals such as Nature, Science Magazine, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of USA, Journal of Human Evolution and more. He is regularly featured in the popular scientific magazines such as National Geographic magazine, GEO magazine, Scientific American. In 2004 Lordkipanidze received the Rolex Award for Enterprise. He was also given the National Decoration of Georgia (2001), Award of the Prince of Monaco (2001), the French decorations Palmes Académiques (2002) and L`Ordre du Mérite (2006), a Fulbright Scholarship (2002), and the Georgian National Prize for Science and Technology (2004). Since 2007 David Lordkipanidze is a foreign associate member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), corresponding member of German archaeological institute(2008), corresponding member of Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2009), Member of European academy of Science and Arts (2009).

Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project

Spencer Wells, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 Professor at Cornell University

Genetics has revolutionized our understanding of human diversity. It is now widely accepted that our species originated in Africa within the past 200,000 years, and that we started to populate the world outside of Africa only in the past 60,000. Using data from hundreds of thousands of people, including members of the general public, the Genographic Project is deciphering the migratory routes followed by early humans as they populated Earth. New results from the project will be presented and discussed.

Spencer Wells, Ph.D. is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. Wells received his Ph.D. in population genetics from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford. He has written three books, The Journey of Man, Deep Ancestry and Pandora’s Seed, and has appeared in numerous documentary films. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, a filmmaker.

Made possible, in partnership with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, by the generous support of our sponsors— Wells Fargo Bank, The Brown Foundation and Wallace S. Wilson.

Monday, March 7, 2011 @ 6:30 pm
Houston Museum of Natural Science | Houston, TX
Tickets: Adults $17, Students $12, Leakey Foundation & HMNS members $12.
Information and tickets: 713.639.4629

Neandertals Deciphered

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Director, Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute

Neanderthals were the first fossil hominins discovered and, since then, have been the most studied. However, it is only in the last two decades that entirely new techniques have made new and fascinating insights into their biology and behavior possible. Beyond their odd anatomy, we are now able to explore the mechanisms of their birth and growth, the way their brains developed, and the chemical signals left in their bones from their diet. The decoding of their genome has opened a new era in Paleoanthropology. Ultimately, understanding the rise and the fall of the Neanderthals will help us to elucidate the unrivaled evolutionary success of our own species.

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Ph.D., is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), where he created the Department of Human Evolution in 2004. Initially his research focused on the origin and evolution of Neanderthals and he has proposed an accretion model for the emergence of the Neanderthal lineage that roots it in time in the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. He has also worked on the processes associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens in North Africa and on the interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans in Europe. He developed the use of medical and virtual imaging in the reconstruction and study of fossil hominids, paying particular attention to growth and development issues. He has led field operations in North Africa, Spain, and France. In addition to his scientific papers, he regularly publishes popular books and articles on the subjects of Neanderthal and early modern human evolution.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 @ 7 pm
The Hearst Forum at the California Academy of Sciences | San Francisco, CA
Tickets: Adults $12, Seniors $10, Leakey Foundation & Academy members $10.
Reserve a space online or call 800.794.7576.