Monthly Archives: August 2015

08.14.15

The Rise of Culture and the Fall of Testosterone

Behind the Science, Education
In a paper published in the journal Current Anthropology, a team of researchers funded by The Leakey Foundation explore the biological basis of the technology boom and expansion of culture that happened 50,000 years ago. DURHAM, N.C. — Modern humans appear in the fossil record about 200,000 years ago, but it was only about 50,000 years ago that making art and advanced tools became widespread. A new… more »
08.12.15

Micro-CT study of the Pleistocene human fossil teeth from Atapuerca

Research Report
María Martinon-Torres at the Atapuerca sites. Photo credit: A. Canet. María Martinon-Torres was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant in the fall of 2012 for her project entitled “Micro-CT study of the Pleistocene human fossil teeth from Atapuerca.” By allowing researchers to reconstruct the internal structures of fossil dental samples, MicroCT provides a new dataset of… more »
08.10.15

Grantee Spotlight: Davide Faggionato

Grantee Spotlight
Davide Faggionato Davide Faggionato was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant during our spring 2015 cycle for his project entitled “Molecular and functional analysis of vision in three hominin species.” Hominin paleogenomics, the study of genomes retrieved from fossil hominin remains, has revolutionized the way we study human evolution.  For the first time, we can sample DNA from… more »
08.05.15

Origin Stories Episode 04: How to Document a Society

Origin Stories
This episode of Origin Stories is about what it takes to document the daily lives of chimpanzees, what we’ve learned, and how to handle all the data that’s been collected during the longest running study of any animal in the wild. In the 55 years since Louis Leakey sent Jane Goodall to the Gombe forest to study chimpanzees, we’ve learned a lot about the lives and behavior of these wonderful… more »