The Leakey Foundation

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On April 27th, the Foundation’s Trustees and Scientific Executive Committee met for the Spring 2013 Granting Session. The new grantees are currently being notified; in the meantime here is a general summary of our most recent granting session.

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There were a total of 103 applications.

There were 6 Baldwin Scholarship applications.

There were 39 Behavioral applications.

There were 58 Paleoanthropology applications.

5 of the 6 Baldwin applications were awarded for a total of $45,945.00.

10 of the 39 Behavioral applications were recommended for a total of $141,718.68.

11 of the 58 Paleoanthropology applications were reccomended for a total of $143,504.73.

5 applications for research grants were recommended but not funded, due to insufficient funds, for a total of $68,200.00. All 5 of these applications were funded through the generousity of the Trustees, who raised the funds at the meeting.

An additional 2 applications were also funded in the same manner, as well as the 6th Baldwin applicant.

The amount awarded at the 2013 Spring Granting Session totaled $439,168.41

To see a further breakdown of grant applications, click here [PDF]

Throughout my career, one of my greatest rewards has come from interacting with generations of students. Their fresh, inquisitive minds have continually kept me on my toes. Countless times, I have been stopped in my tracks by smart, unexpected questions that sent me scurrying back to the drawing-board. But I must admit to feeling some dismay when, several years ago, one particular student came up to me at the end of a course and said: “I really enjoyed your lectures about primate evolution, but what is the point?” Well, as a rule my justification for what I do has been to say that studying the evolution of primates—and of humans in particular—is really just like tracing our written history. I simply go much farther back in time. Just as we are keenly interested in recorded history for its own sake, surely we should be interested in our deep biological history as well? But that student made me realize that I do have an obligation to show that understanding human evolutionary history can yield direct practical benefits. And that prompted me to get my act together and finally write my long-planned book for a general readership on the evolution of human reproduction. So I guess I owe a special acknowledgment to that student now that my book How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction is about to be published.

One crucial point is that suckling is a defining feature of mammals. Indeed, their very name reflects this; it is derived from the Latin mamma for teat. Mothering began 200 million years ago when the first mammals emerged and it was further refined to become a particular hallmark of ancestral primates by 80 million years ago. Now a biological adaptation with that kind of pedigree should surely command our respect! Yet many people today are confused about what is “natural” for human mothers because cultural influences are so overwhelming. It is no exaggeration to say we have lost our way in certain respects. Unfortunately, in the industrialized world, male members of the medical profession were only too willing to offer guidance. They readily provided advice for mothers, absent any understanding of our evolutionary past. Thus it was that decades ago mothers were told to breastfeed their infants following rigid timetables and to avoid any kind of “pampering”. Thankfully, things have gradually moved away from those rigid guidelines. But how are we to know that this is not just a shift in fashion?
Well, we know for sure that modern guidelines are more in tune with our biology. For instance, there is a major difference between mammals that suckle on schedule, as decided by the mother, and mammals that suckle on demand in response to the infant’s needs. And we can identify the adaptation of any mammal from milk composition. Mammals that suckle on schedule produce milk that is rich in fat and protein but poor in sugar, whereas mammals that suckle on demand have milk with relatively little fat and protein but a fair amount of sugar. For instance, all primates have that kind of milk because suckling on demand is a universal feature. And humans are no exception. The composition of human milk carries a signature that clearly tells us that we are biologically adapted for frequent suckling in response to the infant’s needs.

Another key question that we need to ask because cultural influences are now so overwhelming is “What is the natural duration of breastfeeding?” This question can be answered in different ways, and they all lead to virtually the same answer. We can, for instance, look at what other primates do. As you might expect, the duration of suckling is longer in larger-bodied primates, so we have to take body size into account. When that is done, the prediction is that a primate with our body size should suckle for about three years. We can also gather information from non-industrial societies, and one study of about a hundred different populations revealed that the average duration of breastfeeding is more than two-and-a-half years. This is also true of earlier human populations. Ancient Egyptian texts, for instance, indicate that breastfeeding for three years was the norm. Indeed, we can even extract information from earlier populations for which no historical records exist. By measuring stable isotopes in skeletons from young individuals, it is possible to tell when weaning occurred, and it was between two and three years of age in populations dating back thousands of years. These and other lines of evidence indicate that the natural duration of breastfeeding in our gathering-and-hunting ancestors was three years or perhaps even more.

Now two things must be emphasized straight away. The first is that exclusive breastfeeding, with no other source of food for the baby, last only six months or so. Complementary foods are provided in addition to the mother’s milk for much of that three-year period. Secondly, it has to be accepted that breastfeeding for three years is not practically possible for many modern mothers and that, for medical reasons, some are unable to breastfeed at all. So the point here is not to dictate a return to our gathering-and-hunting origins but to ensure that any substitute for breastfeeding meets all of the baby’s needs. And in that respect the biological evidence tells us that we still have a long way to go. For instance, in addition to providing nutrients, mother’s milk includes agents that protect the baby against infection until its own immune system is up and running. Bottle-fed babies suffer significantly more from various infections. There is also a large body of evidence indicating that breastfed babies have a small but statistically significant advantage over bottle-fed babies in the development of the brain. For instance, results on tests of mental performance are consistently a few points higher with breastfeeding, at least in part because certain essential fatty acids are more prevalent in human milk than in standard infant formula.

But it is not just the baby that benefits from breastfeeding. The mother benefits as well. Benefits start right after birth when stimulation of the mother’s nipples speeds up the recovery of the womb after the demands of pregnancy and birth. More seriously, various reproductive cancers occur at higher frequencies in women that breastfeed only for short periods or not at all. This is true not just of breast cancer but also of cancers of the ovaries and the womb. Once again, the take-home message is not that women should be obliged to breastfeed for long periods, but that we need to study our biological adaptations to find ways of offsetting any negative effects arising from modern lifestyles.

So, if that one-time student happens to read this, I hope that the point of studying human origins is now fully apparent.

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Dr. Robert Martin is A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago. He has devoted his career to exploring the evolutionary tree of primates, as summarized in his 1990 textbook Primate Origins. Martin is particularly interested in reproductive biology and the brain, because these systems have been of special importance in primate evolution. His research is based on broad comparisons across primates, covering reproduction,anatomy, behaviour, palaeontology and molecular evolution. He has written a new book How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction, which is due to be published in June 2013.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

1:00 PM at The Field Museum of Chicago

NOTE: Tickets are free with museum admission. Seating is limited. Tickets to this event may not be reserved online. Please call Margaret Neely at (312)665-7141 or e-mail her by May 9th.

Dr. Jean Clottes

Lascaux is the best-known painted cave in the world. It is famous for the spectacular character of its images that cover the extensive walls of the deep cave, particularly of the main chamber where many ceremonies must have taken place. Dating from the same period, and also in the Dordogne region, is a lesser-known cave called Gabillou. The body of surviving work at Gabillou, though dominated by engravings, shares many characteristics with Lascaux. Dr. Clottes will reveal the mysteries of these masterpieces created thousands of years ago.

The eminent French prehistorian Dr. Jean Clottes, is an internationally acclaimed expert on painted cave art whose research interests include not only matters of archaeological context and dating but also problems of epistemology and meaning.

Dr. Clottes is the former director of prehistoric antiquities for the Midi-Pyrénées region of France; once served as scientific advisor on prehistoric art to the French Ministry of Culture; and was the former chairman of UNESCO’s International Committee of Rock Art. He has been involved in a number of projects to present rock paintings to the general public, including as primary advisor for The Field Museum’s current exhibition on Lascaux:  Scenes from the Stone Age: The Cave Paintings of Lascaux.

Dr. Clottes’ public lecture will be the keynote for an academic symposium entitled Caves, Science, and Art at the Dawn of Humanity.

The symposium is sponsored by the Cultural Service and the French Office for Science and Technology at the Consulate General of France in Chicago. We’d like to thank them, along with The Field Museum, and our national sponsor, Wells Fargo Bank.

This month marks the 45th anniversary of the first board meeting of the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation for Research Related to Man’s Origins. The date was April 8, 1968 and one of the first orders of business was to procure a $12,000 loan. The board meeting minutes state that this money was to be used to fund a “survey and study of the objectives and procedural methods for raising funds by the Foundation.” This study, presented to the board in October 1968, was most favorable for the success of the Foundation.

In notes found in The Leakey Foundation archives Joan Travis, co-founder of The
Leakey Foundation, wrote in December 1968:

Why Archaeology in the Space Age?

Thomas Macaulay, the English historian, essayist and politician once said, “A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthwhile to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.”

Man is motivated to try to know the unknowable. Discovering his mystery-shrouded past is, today, as much of a challenge as probing his limitless future. Perhaps understanding man’s origins and evolution are even more important and gratifying than charting his future because it provides insight into the present and enables man to face his future with a greater degree of confidence.

Making a case for the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation for Research Related to Man’s Origins during the middle of the space race might have seemed daunting at first. As we were circling the moon, Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey and the founders of the Foundation sought funding for a completely different sort of research here on Earth. The Foundation was originally envisioned simply as a means by which to support the research of Louis Leakey, including garnering monetary support for his lectures. But finally in 1970, after a rather shaky financial start, the Foundation was given a one million dollar challenge gift by Robert Beck. It seemed the founders’ tireless and intelligent work had succeeded; the Foundation was up and running. By the end of 1970 the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation had given away more than $150,000 and was positioned to make a huge impact on the science of human origins.

In early case statement collateral found in archives, the first page contains these words by then-President of the Foundation, Edwin S. Munger:

Man, in seeking answers to his most basic questions about himself and his destiny, faces almost exclusively to the future. Louis Leakey and other distinguished anthropologists ask if man might not be facing the wrong way in his otherwise estimable quest. The mankind that will flourish or fail in 1974 or 2000 or 5000 has been 20 million years in the making.

More than four decades later, The Leakey Foundation has remained true to these ideas. Our name has changed ever so slightly, but our mission statement confirms that our focus on human survival has not diminished, nor has our aim to advance the important work that the Foundation funds.

Today we find ourselves in a different age, the information age, and as you might imagine, some things have changed since those early years. While The Leakey Foundation continues its long history of funding important research, the granting process has evolved. Presently, the Foundation awards more than $600,000 annually in field and laboratory grants. There are two granting cycles per year, each with typically 100 applications or more. This is all handled electronically. Proposals are submitted online and incorporated into our database. Peer reviewers from around the globe utilize the online system to both retrieve proposals and submit reviews. With numerous reviews per applicant, it’s hard to imagine the amount of paperwork this entire process would have required during the formative years of the Foundation.

The results of this effort are quite impressive. An audit of research funded by The Leakey Foundation between 1998-2006 shows that there were at least 921 articles published as a direct result of our funding, and in that same period 7,897 citations of Leakey Foundation research were made. In addition to funding important research the Foundation continues its tradition of involving the public in the process of scientific investigation. From the Annual Speaker Series on Human Origins to the Leakey Learning Expeditions education program, The Leakey Foundation continues to inspire young and old minds, alike.

From the space age to the information age, our perspectives have surely changed, but the relevance of The Leakey Foundation has not. In fact one might argue that as we witness an accelerating and expanding dependency on technology, the case for the Foundation is made stronger. As we race toward the future we must keep in mind the importance of understanding our history.

University of Cambridge has a rich history of affiliation with many of the great names in scientific research. Since 1978, The Leakey Foundation has funded $188,000 in research grants to individuals associated with this venerable institution. While on a recent trip to England, Managing Director for The Leakey Foundation, Ms. Sharal Camisa visited Cambridge and met with five Leakey Foundation grantees (pictured above).

The first Leakey Foundation Cambridge grant was awarded in 1978 to David Chivers, for research at the Malaysian Montane Forests on Pig-Tailed Macaques. Chivers was an early career scientist, having completed his PhD in 1972. Today, he is a Fellow of multiple prestigious societies, serves on several editorial boards, and has published over 100 papers.

The Leakey Foundation has a proud tradition of funding early career scientists, as demonstrated by the “seed money” given to Chivers. Many of these young grantees go on to become the leaders in their field of research, including Cambridge University’s Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Primatology, Dr. William McGrew. In 1975 McGrew received his first professional grant from The Leakey Foundation for his research on the behavior and ecology of wild chimpanzees in Senegal. Today, Dr. McGrew is a world renowned leader in primate studies. He continues to be involved with The Leakey Foundation through his role as a peer-reviewer for the Foundation’s grant application process. He is advisor and mentor to countless students, including Drs. Stewart and Bertolani, both postdoctoral researchers from Cambridge and recent recipients of Foundation grants.

While visiting the university, Ms. Camisa brought together Drs. Bertolani, McGrew, Nigst, Stewart and Mr. Buckley for an afternoon meeting. For Camisa, “it was an opportunity to meet with a pioneer and the next generation of researchers”. Camisa also observed how “wonderful [it was] to see Dr. McGrew chatting with Mr. Buckley; mentor and protégé sharing tales of life in the field, their hypotheses on primate behavior, and the role with which the Foundation has played in both careers. One cannot meet a Leakey Foundation grantee without truly understanding the impact the grant has made in their pursuit of discovery.”

Dr. Paco Bertolani’s story is an example of how the Foundation can play an important role in field studies. Bertolani had already spent countless hours studying primates at sites in Ecuador, Senegal, and Cote D’Ivoire. But it was his interest in a group of wild Bonobos that lead him to apply to The Leakey Foundation for a grant in 2011. He was awarded the funds to conduct a survey of bonobos in Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba area in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the Foundation’s hope that this pilot study will flourish into a long-term study site to investigate an endangered primate; just as the field studies of Bertolani’s fellow Cambridge alumni, Drs. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey have flourished into multi-decade research sites.

The Foundation’s namesake, Louis Leakey began his university career in 1922 at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, but a rugby injury caused him to postpone his studies. During this time and he left the university to help manage a paleontological expedition to Africa. He returned to Cambridge in 1925, resumed his formal studies, and by 1926 had graduated with degrees in both archaeology and anthropology. It was also at Cambridge where he met Mary Douglas Nicol, and in 1933 they would marry.

Donated by Leakey, collections of stone tools and artifacts, unpublished field reports, personal correspondence and official records are held at the St. John’s College Archives and at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge. One such archived item is the St. John’s College Referees’ report on Louis Leakey’s Fellowship dissertation. The head of the anthropology department, Alfred Cort Haddon wrote a glowing report describing Leakey as an “efficient field geologist, a well-trained archeologist, well able to tackle a problem in technology, and, unexpectedly, he has shown that he is a competent craniologist.”

The Leakey Foundation’s ties to Cambridge University are strong, what started with Louis Leakey’s studies has continued and grown into an ongoing relationship with the institution and it’s scholars. The most recent grant awarded to to a Cambridge scholar went to Dr. Philip Nigst in 2012. Camisa said of her visit “When one walks the grounds of Cambridge University, you are surrounded by the legacy of great scientific minds: from the education of Charles Darwin, to Crick and Watson announcing they had “discovered the secret of life” with their proposal for the structure of DNA, one wonders the legacy which will be created by the 25 Leakey Foundation grantees from Cambridge. It’s exciting to imagine!”

In celebration of International Women’s Day, ‘Dig Deeper’ in to the work of Adrienne Zihlman, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and pioneering anthropologist who has had major impacts on the study of human evolution. Her critique of the “Man-the-Hunter” concept made way for understanding the role of women in evolution, an approach that has become mainstream.

More recently, Zihlman’s work in comparative anatomy has pushed the tenets of physical anthropology research to consider more than just the bones of a being. Zihlman’s work promotes the idea that research should investigate the relationship of the many parts of a subject (bones, muscles, flesh, tendons, et al.) and not just each part separately.

Zihlman’s career has spanned several decades; she began teaching at University of California, Santa Cruz in 1967. Her first Leakey Foundation grant was awarded in 1979 for research of the locomotion of pygmy chimpanzees (now called bonobos). In 1983 the Foundation once again awarded her with a grant for research of the skeletal biology and locomotor behavior of Gombe chimpanzees. Her third Leakey Foundation grant was awarded in 2001 for the investigation of the skeletal biology and life history of the Tai chimpanzees in Ivory Coast, Africa. Her publications cover human locomotion, sexual dimorphism and growth and development. She is author of The Human Evolution Coloring Book, co-editor of The Evolving Female, and is currently co-authoring a book on comparative ape anatomy.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

6:30 PM at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, Texas

Dr. Robert Martin
A. Watson Armour III Curator of
Biological Anthropology at The Field Museum

Mammals, whose name comes from the Latin mamma for teat, are defined by suckling. Mothering began 200 million years ago with the first mammals and developed to become a hallmark of ancestral primates. Taking evidence from anthropology, archaeology and genetics, this presentation reviews the long evolutionary trajectory of human mothering. Reconstructing that history throws light on the natural basis for our own maternal behavior and highlights sources of problems encountered by modern mothers.

$12 Leakey Foundation and HMNS Members, $18 General Public
Tickets may be purchased at HMNS Box Office or by calling 713.639.4629.

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Dr. Robert Martin is A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago. He has devoted his career to exploring the evolutionary tree of primates, as summarized in his 1990 textbook Primate Origins.

Dr. Martin is particularly interested in reproductive biology and the brain, because these systems have been of special importance in primate evolution.  His research is based on broad comparisons across primates, covering reproduction,anatomy, behaviour, palaeontology and molecular evolution. Dr. Martin’s HMNS presentation is based on research he carried out for his book How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction, which is due to be published in June 2013.

This Leakey Foundation Annual Speaker Series on Human Origins event is sponsored with generous support from The Brown Foundation Inc., The Houston Museum of Natural Science, and our national sponsor, Wells Fargo Bank.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

7:30 PM at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California

NOTE:This lecture will take place during Night Life; you must be 21 or older to attend.

Dr. Michael Platt
Professor and Director Duke University Institute for Brain Science
Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University

Innovation is critical for both individual and evolutionary success, but creative disruption requires taking risks. New research marrying the theory and methods of economics to cutting-edge neuroscience techniques—an emerging field known as NeuroEconomics—is making new discoveries about the biological processes that motivate us to take risks and create new solutions to unforeseen challenges. Dr. Platt will describe how the brain overcomes uncertainty to explore novel alternatives and create new knowledge.

Parallel findings from humans, monkeys, rodents, and worms indicate that a common suite of underlying mechanisms has evolved to control the desire to explore. At one extreme, neuropsychiatric disorders like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and addiction, may arise from dysfunctional control of exploration. At the other, uniquely human faculties of creativity and technological innovation may reflect elaboration of this shared biological heritage controlling our desire to explore.

$12 Seniors, Leakey Foundation and Academy Members, $15 General Public
Tickets may be purchased online, through the California Academy Box Office

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Michael Platt is a Duke University professor of neurobiology, evolutionary anthropology, psychology and neuroscience. He is also director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS) and Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke. He investigates the brain mechanisms responsible for decision-making and social cognition, using a variety of behavioral, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, pharmacological and genetic techniques. Platt holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He came to Duke in 2000 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at New York University, and receiving his undergraduate degree at Yale University.

This Leakey Foundation Annual Speaker Series on Human Origins event is sponsored with generous support from The California Academy of Sciences and our national sponsor, Wells Fargo Bank.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Mary Leakey’s birthday, Google has made a lovely illustration of her in the field, with her beloved Dalmatians. You can read about the creation of the doodle here.

We love that her dogs made the cut! What do you think?

The Leakey Foundation is celebrating Mary too!

Issue no. 27 (Winter/Spring 2013) of The Leakey Foundation’s Newsletter, AnthroQuest has arrived!

Read the full issue here. [PDF]

To read the previous issue, no. 26, click here. [PDF]