News

Mark your calendar for our fall 2018 lecture series featuring Nina Jablonski, John Mitani, and Craig Stanford.

Kevin Hatala is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Chatham University. He was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant in our fall 2017 cycle for his project entitled “Paleoecological investigation of 1.5 Ma footprint sites near Nariokotome, Kenya.”

Leakey Foundation supporters and grantees gathered in San Francisco on May 3 to celebrate 50 years of exploration, discovery and sharing our human story.

White-faced capuchin monkeys in Panama’s Coiba National Park habitually use hammer-and-anvil stones to break hermit crab shells, snail shells, coconuts and other food items, according to research conducted by Leakey Foundation grantees. This is the first report of habitual stone-tool use by Cebus monkeys.

Stephanie Musgrave, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant during our spring 2016 cycle for her project entitled “Ontogeny of complex tool use among Goualougo Triangle chimpanzees.” 

For the first time, we have an amazing window into what walking was like for a 2½-year-old, more than three million years ago.

Mae Goder-Goldberger, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant during our spring 2017 cycle for her project entitled “The site of Far’ah II, western Negev, and the MP-UP transition.”

On June 6th, Dr. Erin Vogel gave a lecture titled “Primate Palate: Orangutans, Obesity, and Human Evolution” as part of a joint production by the American Museum of Natural History and The Leakey Foundation.

Primates are fascinating. They are intelligent, live in complex societies and are a vital part of the ecosystem. Lemurs, lorises, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes are our closest biological relatives and just like them, humans are also primates. However, while the human population has spread to all corners of the earth, many of our closest relatives are under serious threat.

Meagan Vakiener was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant during our fall 2017 for her project entitled “Weaned age in gorillas using trace element distributions in teeth.” She is a PhD candidate at George Washington University.