Institute of Human Origins
News
>(August 16, 2010) NEW! The team at IHO organized a web conference for last week's announcement in Nature so that our board of directors and past IHO sponsored travelers to South Africa, Galapagos, and Madagascar could hear about this exciting new research firsthand from ASU scientists and researchers, Curtis Marean and Hamdallah Bearat with an introduction by Director Bill Kimbel. This exclusive conversation is now available to watch online. View it at this link. (51:25 min)
>(August 10, 2010) IHO Associate Director Curtis Marean and former postdoctoral fellow Zeresenay Alemseged are part of the team of researchers whose discovery points to ancestor "Lucy" use of stone tools and meat consumption.
Cover story for August issue in the journal Nature. Link to Nature
Two Arizona State University researchers conducting zooarchaeological and archaeometric analyses of four fossilized animal bone fragments found by the Dikika Research Project in northeastern Ethiopia – within walking distance of the discovery of the hominin skeleton “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis)—confirm that unusual marks on the bones were inflicted by stone tools. Their conclusion weighs in on findings reported in the Aug. 12 journal Nature, that A. afarensis used sharp-edged stones and a strong striking force to cleave flesh and marrow from large-sized animal carcasses some 3.4 million years ago.
Link to NPR Science Friday podscast for August 13, 2010 with Zeray Alemseged: Study Suggests Earlier Meat-eating in Homonids
Link to New York Times story Link to National Geographic story (cover courtesy of Nature) Link to Wall Street Journal story >(August 5, 2010) "Everyone alive today is descended from a small poulation that lived in one region of Arica sometime during this global cooling phase." IHO Associate Director Curtis Marean writes of discoveries at Pinnacle Point, South Africa in the cover story of the August issue of Scientific American, which is supported by web-based interactive images, video, and maps at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=interactive-seas-saved-humanity. Link to ASU News story. >(July 21, 2010) The IHO: Notes from the Field blog now has a new writer—IHO PhD student Amy Shapiro, who will be writing about the current field school in Langebaanweg, South Africa. To read her first entry, go to <http://asuiho.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/amy-shapiro-langebaanweg-week-1/>.>(July 12, 2010) IHO Board Member Ian Tattersall tells NPR.org that it makes sense that arboreal primates may have been "primed," for upright walking on the ground. "I don't think you come down to the ground and decide it would be a really good idea to stand upright and move around," he says. "I think the only reason you would do it is because this is what came naturally to you in the first place." Link to NPR.org >(July 9,2009) ASU alumna Christine Lee selected as one of National Geographic's 2010 Emerging Explorers for her bioarchaeological work investigating the mysteries of ancient China's diverse populations. Professor Don Johanson was Lee's dissertation committee co-chair. Link to story. +More current news (2010)
Events and Special Tours
Tuesday, September 7, 5:30 pm
Discovery Hall 150, Tempe Campus
Late Lessons from Early History presents Rainer Zahn, Catalan Institute of Research and Advance Studies, Barcelona, Spain
Professor Zahn will speak on "The Atlantic Overturning Circulation in a Changing World: Does the Agulhas Current Off Southern Africa (Yet Again) Decide the Fate of Human Development?"
More information: http://asuevents.asu.edu/events/info?ID=5376
September 17, 5:30–6:30 pm: “Who Are You Calling Neanderthal? Tracing Our Ancestors”
Arizona Science Center: Science Cafe series features IHO Director Bill Kimbel and School of Human Evolution and Social Change Professor Anne Stone. Sponsored by ASU’s Center for Nanotechnology in Society, the series brings together members of the community and university scientists to discuss how science and technology can change the future. Stone and Kimbel will speak for 15–20 minutes, followed by a Q+A session with the public. For more information, visit www.azscience.org. ASU Events link
>Future trips planned to South Africa and Ethiopia
+more Events + Lectures
Of Interest
>Becoming Human, IHO's Webby award-winning website, brings together interactive multimedia, research, and
scholarship to promote greater understanding of the course of human evolution. For all ages.