Blog
03.27.18Grantee Spotlight: Marianne Brasil
Grantee Spotlight The timing, location, and circumstances of the origin of modern humans has long been of interest, and ongoing studies continue to refine our understanding of early modern human evolution. Leakey Foundation grantee Marianne Brasil is a PhD candidate from the University of California at Berkeley who is studying the skeletal morphology of early Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia.
03.20.18From the Field: Joel Bray, Tanzania
From the Field Joel Bray, a graduate student at Arizona State University, is studying the development of male-male social relationships in chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania.
03.13.18From the Field: Carrie Miller, Ethiopia
From the Field Carrie Miller was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant during our spring 2017 cycle for her project entitled “Does paternity certainty elicit protection and support of offspring by male gelada monkeys?”
02.27.18Grantee Spotlight: Sam Patterson
Grantee Spotlight Sam Patterson, PhD candidate from Arizona State University, was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant for the project entitled "Maternal predictors of infant developmental trajectories in olive baboons."
02.21.18In 16 Years, Borneo Lost More Than 100,000 Orangutans
Journal Article, In the News Over a 16-year period, about half of the orangutans living on the island of Borneo were lost as a result of changes in land cover.
02.20.18Why Is Human Color Vision so Odd?
Guest Post Most mammals rely on scent rather than sight. Look at a dog’s eyes, for example: they’re usually on the sides of its face, not close together and forward-facing like ours. Having eyes on the side is good for creating a broad field of vision, but bad for depth perception and accurately judging distances in front.
02.15.18New Egyptian Dinosaur Reveals Ancient Link Between Africa and Europe
Journal Article, In the News The course of dinosaur evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery. But in the Sahara Desert of Egypt, scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that helps fill in some gaps in the fossil record of dinosaurs in Africa: Mansourasaurus shahinae, a school-bus-length, long-necked plant-eater with bony plates embedded in its skin.
02.13.18From the Field: Hilary Duke, Kenya
From the Field Hilary Duke was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant in the fall of 2016 for her project entitled "Taking shape: Investigating the earliest Acheulean at Kokiselei, Kenya (1.8-1.76Ma)." Last year we shared a summary of her work. Here she updates us on her progress!
01.26.18Earliest Modern Human Outside of Africa Unearthed in Israel
Journal Article, In the News A jawbone complete with teeth recently discovered by at Israel's Misliya cave has now been dated to 177,000-194,000 years ago. The finding indicates that modern humans were present in the Levant at least 50,000 years earlier than previously thought.
01.25.18Fossil Jawbone From Israel is the Oldest Modern Human Found Outside Africa
Journal Article, In the News, Guest Post New fossil finds over the past few years have been forcing anthropologists to reexamine our evolutionary path to becoming human. Now the earliest modern human fossil ever found outside the continent of Africa is pushing back the date for when our ancestors left Africa.
