News

The Leakey Foundation is saddened to share the news that Dr. Jane Goodall has passed away at age 91. Her death leaves an immeasurable void in the scientific community and in our hearts.

Georgina Luti, a Kenyan geologist and Leakey Foundation Francis H. Brown African Scholar is working to determine dates for the Gondolin and Kromdraai caves in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind.

Ask Americans about the Scopes trial, and they might have heard of it as the “trial of the century,” a showdown over teaching human evolution. Less well known are its origins.

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.

Laura MacLatchy is a a paleoanthropologist whose Leakey-funded research investigates fossil apes from Uganda to reveal how early apes adapted to grassy woodlands 20 million years ago.

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.

Tanner Kovach is a Leakey Foundation grantee whose research explores how Neanderthals and Homo sapiens adapted to their environments and interacted during a key moment in human history.

Myra Laird, a Leakey Foundation grantee and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, investigates how tiny scratches and pits on primate teeth form as they eat. By studying four living primate species, she is uncovering how tooth shape and food interact to create dental microwear patterns, providing new insights into fossil hominin diets and human oral health.

New Leakey Foundation-supported research finds that ancient human relatives sourced raw materials for tool-making from as far as 8 miles away.

Leakey Foundation grantee Daniel García Martínez investigates 300,000-400,000-year-old fossils in Spain to learn about early human behavior and tool use.