Grantee Spotlight: Kelly Ostrofsky
Leakey Foundation grantee Kelly Ostrofsky studies how wild apes move and climb in their natural habitats. As our closest living relatives, these apes provide an important comparative context for understanding how our ancestors may have moved and climbed.
Five Fun Facts About Gibbons
In honor of International Gibbon Day, here are five fun facts about our gibbon cousins and one fact that's no fun at all.
What Shapes the Human Gut Microbiome?
A study published on October 8, 2019, in the journal Genome Biology finds that despite our close genetic relationship to apes, the human gut microbiome is more similar to that of baboons than it is to that of apes like chimpanzees.
From the Field: Shannon McFarlin, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
Leakey Foundation grantee Shannon Mc Farlin sends an update from the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda where she has been cataloging the skeletal remains of mountain gorillas.
Grantee Spotlight: Amy Scott
Leakey Foundation grantee Amy Scott is studying orangutans in Indonesia in order to better understand how sexual conflict shapes orangutan reproductive strategies. The role of sexual conflict is often overlooked in models of human evolution, but the centrality of sexual conflict in shaping the reproductive strategies of both male and female orangutans, one of our closest living relatives, emphasizes the importance of considering how sexual conflict has shaped human evolution.