Survival of the fleetest, smartest, or fattest?
Our understanding of human evolution has grown exponentially since Darwin’s time. This week marks the 206th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, so we’re sharing a Darwin-related Leakey Foundation lecture from our archives. In this lecture, recorded in 2009 at the Field Museum in Chicago, Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University discusses the evolution and dysevolution of humans 150 years
Grantee Spotlight: Maura Tyrrell
The next fall 2014 grantee we would like to introduce to you is Maura Tyrrell. She is a PhD candidate from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and her dissertation project is entitled “Effect of competition on male coalition patterns in crested macaques.”
Maura Tyrrell and a crested macaque
My dissertation focuses on the social relationships between wild adult male
Cranium discovery sheds light on early human migration
Leakey Foundation grantees Israel Hershkovitz and Ofer Marder led an international team of archaeologists who discovered a 55,000 year old cranium in Manot Cave in Israel. Their discovery was described last week in the journal Nature.
Photo courtesy of : Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority
A key event in human evolution was the expansion of modern humans of African origin
Grantee Spotlight: Naomi Cleghorn
Naomi Cleghorn, University of Texas at Arlington, was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant in the fall of 2014 for her project entitled “Investigating a rare Early Later Stone Age site at Knysna, South Africa.”
Naomi Cleghorn at Pinnacle Point site 5/6, Mossel Bay, South Africa
Despite widespread interest in the potential origins of modern human cognitive, social, and technological
Grantee Spotlight: Shelby S. Putt
We are happy to introduce another one of our fall 2014 grantees, Shelby S. Putt, PhD candidate from the University of Iowa. Her dissertation project is entitled “Investigating the co-evolution of language and toolmaking: An fNIRS study.”
Shelby S. Putt
Our language and cognition are arguably the features that most distinguish us from other species, and yet, we still know