Alex Pelissero: Using drones to map ancient activity patterns
Alex Pelissero is a Leakey Foundation grantee who is using drones to make high-resolution maps of Oldupai Gorge to learn how ancient humans lived and moved across the landscape.
Origin Stories x The Science Podcast
This month's Origin Stories podcast episode features two stories from the Science Podcast. First, Science writer Ann Gibbons tells the story of three ancient hominin species that lived side-by-side in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind. Then, anthropologist Melanie Beasley discusses her new study on why chemical signals in Neanderthal teeth and bones make them look like hypercarnivores.
Ancient human relatives transported stones over long distances 600,000 years earlier than previously thought
New Leakey Foundation-supported research finds that ancient human relatives sourced raw materials for tool-making from as far as 8 miles away.
This stone tool is over 1 million years old. How did its maker get to Sulawesi without a boat?
Stone tools dating to at least 1.04 million years ago have been found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. This means early hominins made a major sea crossing from the Asian mainland much earlier than previously thought – and they likely didn’t have any boats.
Grantee Spotlight: René Bobe
René Bobe is a Leakey Foundation grantee and recipient of the 2025 Gordon P. Getty Award. His research examines the relationship between climate and evolution, with a focus on the environments and ecology of human origins in Africa.