Discovering Us: Great Discoveries in Human Origins
06.09.22 Dan Lieberman and Evan Hadingham discuss the thrilling stories behind some of the most important human origins discoveries ever made.
San Francisco, CA
May 2, 2018 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
$15© Atapuerca Foundation
Archaeological sites at Sierre de Atapuerca in Northern Spain offer extraordinary insight into the evolution of humankind. Atapuerca is a unique treasure trove that includes the earliest and most abundant evidence of humans in Europe, the earliest evidence of human cannibalism, and possibly the first burial in our history. Atapuerca is a UNESCO World Heritage site celebrated for its outstanding contribution to reconstructing the earliest human communities in Europe. In this talk María Martinón-Torres will discuss her work tracing the origins of our closest extinct relatives, the Neanderthals. She will also share how fossils of Homo antecessor, an early human species, found at Atapuerca have shifted our understanding of the ancestry of the first Europeans.
This event is produced in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences.
Sponsored by:
Ann and Gordon Getty
Camilla and George Smith
Virginia and Wilson Crook
Rebecca del Rio and Numa Marlborough
María Martinón-Torres is Director of the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain and Honorary Reader at the Anthropology Department of University College London. She is a member of the Atapuerca Research Team since 1998, Reader in Paleoanthropology at UCL from 2015 to 2017 and Research Leader of the Dental Anthropology Group from 2007 to 2015 at the CENIEH. Her research focuses on hominin palaeobiology, palaeopathology, and the evolutionary scenario of the first Europeans. She has lead and participated in international projects related to the study of the hominin dental evidence in Dmanisi and China. Martinón-Torres has published more than 60 book chapters and peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, including Nature, Science, PNAS, and the Journal of Human Evolution. Her work has been highlighted as Top 1% of most cited authors in the field of Social Sciences according to Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators. Martinón-Torres received a Leakey Foundation grant for her work at Atapuerca.