Guest Post

01.20.20

Monkeys Smashing Nuts Hint at How Human Tool Use Evolved

Journal Article, Guest Post
Human beings used to be defined as “the tool-maker” species. But the uniqueness of this description was challenged in the 1960s when Dr. Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees will pick and modify grass stems to use to collect termites. Her observations called into question homo sapiens‘ very place in the world. Since then scientists’ knowledge of animal tool use has expanded exponentially.
11.22.19

Fossil Finders: Heselon Mukiri

Guest Post, Fossil Finders
In this installment of our "Fossil Finders" series, Leakey Foundation Fellow Carol Broderick brings us the story of  Heselon Mukiri who made several important discoveries and worked with Louis Leakey since the beginning of Leakey's career. 
07.12.19

The Discovery of “Zinj”

Guest Post, Today in History
On July 17, 1959, Mary Leakey left her camp and went out to search the layers of sediment in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, as she and her husband Louis Leakey had done for almost 30 years. Their primary goal was to find fossils of our human relatives (hominins), and as hot, dusty, backbreaking, painstakingly slow and what many friends and fellow scientists might call impossible as that goal seemed, they were determined to reach it.
05.31.19

Fossil Finders: The Hominid Gang

Guest Post, Fossil Finders
Kamoya Kimeu may be the most famous “Fossil Finder” in paleoanthropology, but he was not alone when he made many of his remarkable discoveries. With him was a group of men who came to be known as the “Hominid Gang.” Walking and surveying the often inhospitable rocky landscape in East Africa, these men became outstanding and important fossil finders.
05.30.19

Unraveling the Mystery of Human Bipedality

Guest Post
Bipedality, the ability to walk upright on two legs, is a hallmark of human evolution. Many primates can stand up and walk around for short periods of time, but only humans use this posture for their primary mode of locomotion.