2011 News Coverage

2011 Featured Science

Tracking Lineage Through a Bramble New York Times

05.10.2011
Those stars among the hunter-gatherers of fossils related to human origins, Donald C. Johanson and Richard Leakey, returned last week to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the scene of a bitter televised brawl between the two 30 years ago. They were older, presumably wiser and definitely much more temperate. The title of the program, “Human Evolution and Why It Matters: A Conversation with Leakey and Johanson,” signaled that this was not to be a re-enactment.

Link to the full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/science/10paleo.html
(may need a subscription to NYT online) 

Link to ASU News: Anthropologists promote understanding of human origins
05.09.2011
On May 5, 2011, famed paleoanthroplogists ASU professor Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey came together at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to discuss human evolution, its overwhelming evidence in the extant hominid fossil record, and why understanding our evolutionary history is of such critical relevance today.

Additional coverage on CNN.com 
09.08.2011 “Lucy” discoverer: Why I study human evolution"

Lucy Had a Spring in Her Step Science

02.10.2011
The petite 3.2-million-year-old skeleton called Lucy is one of the most famous and most complete of human ancestors. But she was found without her foot bones, so researchers have debated whether she walked as we do or retained some apelike adaptations for climbing in trees that altered her gait. Now, a 3.2-million-year-old foot bone from a member of Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis, reveals that this hominin was no flat foot: It had already evolved arches and a stiff midfoot similar to living humans. That means if Lucy were alive today, she could fit in high heels or march for miles without breaking her feet. "This discovery puts the spring back into afarensis's step," says co-author Donald Johanson of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe.

Link to ASU News: On their own two feet: Fossil reveals early human bipedalism
02.11.2011
A fossilized foot bone recovered from Hadar, Ethiopia, shows that by 3.2 million years ago human ancestors walked bipedally with a modern human-like foot, according to a report that appears in the Feb. 11 edition of the journalScience.The fossil, a fourth metatarsal, or midfoot bone, indicates that a permanently arched foot was present in the species Australopithecus afarensis. The report's authors include Carol Ward of the University of Missouri and William Kimbel and Donald Johanson of ASU’s Institute of Human Origins. 
 

ASU News (top)

Year in Pictures: 2011
12.19.2011 Kimbel/Johanson Museum exhibition ribbon cutting photo
http://asunews.asu.edu/20111219_gallery_yearinreview#25

Year in Review: Top 10 Stories of 2011
12.12.2011
Fossil Found in Ethiopia Reveals Bipedalism
http://asunews.asu.edu/yearinreview2011

Becoming Human: Exhibition aims to fully explain human origins
11.23.2011
State Press print edition: Cover story

Becoming human: ASU experts explore how humans evolve
Video featured on ASU News homepage
11.10.2011
http://researchmatters.asu.edu/videos/becoming-human 

“Science Lives” features ASU scientist Curtis Marean
10.07.2011
http://asunews.asu.edu/20111010_Marean 

On their own two feet: Fossil reveals early human bipedalism
02.11.2011
http://asunews.asu.edu/20110211_twofeet
Wide national and international coverage as well as front-page Arizona Republic coverage

External Media (top)

ASU to display 3 million-year-old skeleton cast
The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com
10.20.2011
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2011/10/20/20111020tempe-museum-lucy-skeleton-ethiopia1022.html

Science Lives: Curtis Marean, Studying Grecian Battles and Human Origins
LiveScience.com
10.6.2011
http://www.livescience.com/16431-human-origins-marean-nsf-sl.html 

Not just skin deep—CT study of early humans reveals evolutionary relationships
Science Daily
09.20.2011
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919151322.htm

Not just skin deep—CT study of early humans reveals evolutionary relationships
EurekAlert
09.15.2011
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/ucl-njs091911.php 

“Lucy” discoverer: Why I study human evolution
CNN
09.08.2011
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/08/lucy-discoverer-why-i-study-human-evolution

Water’s Edge Ancestors
Science News
08.13.2011
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/332828/title/Water%E2%80%99s_edge_ancestors

Paleoanthropologist And 'Lucy' Discoverer Donald Johanson
KUOW.org (Seattle Public Radio)
06.06.2011
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=23594

Tracking Lineage Through a Bramble
New York Times
05.10.2011 Science Times Front Page (D1)
05.09.2011 New York Times website homepage http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/science/10paleo.html
05.10.2011 Science webpage http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/science/10paleo.html

Blog: 30 Years After Televised Spat, Rival Anthropologists Agree to Bury the Hand-Ax
Scientific American
05.05.2011
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/05/05/30-years-after-televised-spat-rival-anthropologists-agree-to-bury-the-hand-ax/ 

Remains filled in part of puzzle
Omaha World-Herald
04.28.2011
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110428/NEWS01/704289923
(Johanson speaking engagement)
http://omaha.com/article/20110428/NEWS01/704289927/1009
(Q&A with Johanson) 

Walk with me. New fossil evidence confirms that Lucy and her kin strolled like modern man
Time Magazine
02.28.2011
Print edition 

Lucy Had a Spring in Her Step
Science
02.10.2011
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/02/lucy-had-a-spring-in-her-step.html 

Fossil suggests Lucy walked like humans
The Arizona Republic
02.11.2011
Print edition: Front page 

On their own 2 feet
EurekAlert
02.10.2011
http://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2011-02/asu-oto020711.php

Noted + Quoted (top)

Early human ate more like a cow than a ‘nutcracker’
Salt Lake City Tribune
05.02.2011
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51734067-78/cerling-teeth-early-university.html.csp
(Johanson quoted) 

Bones give peek at key evolutionary period
UPI.com
06.16.2011
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/06/16/Bones-give-peek-at-key-evolutionary-period/UPI-22821308252545/
(Dibble and Marean quoted) 

News & Analysis, Paleoanthropology: Who was Homo habilis—And was it really Homo?
Science
06.17.2011
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6036/1370.full
(Kimbel quoted) 

Part Ape Part Human
National Geographic Magazine
August 2011 (Print edition)
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ 
(Kimbel quoted)

6 million years of African savanna
EurekAlert
08.04.2011
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/nsf-smy080411.php
(Reed quoted) 

U. researchers show human ancestors evolved in grasslands
Salt Lake City Tribune
08.05.2011
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52303909-78/cerling-carbon-university-human.html.csp
(Campisano quoted) 

Was there a fork in our family tree?
msnbc.com/Cosmic Log
09.08.2011
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/08/7675326-was-there-a-fork-in-our-family-tree
(Johanson quoted) 

Paleoanthropologist Now Rides High on a New Fossil Tide
Science
09.09.2011
Print edition: www.sciencemag.org
(Johanson quoted)

Interactive Media (top)

Erich Fisher's Research in Western South African Coast of "Pondoland" Featured in National Geographic Today
IHO postdoctoral research Erich Fisher has been working with Curtis Marean for many years in the southern caves at Mossel Bay, South Africa. Fisher has extended that research into the western coast of South Africa, looking for more evidence of coastal adaptations that have been found in the Pinnacle Point caves. His research has been supported by National Geographic grants and National Geographic has posted a short video about Fisher's research, which can be viewed below or at the link at National Geographic Today (http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/ng-today/112811-prehistoric-caves-ngtoday/).

Curtis Marean Interview Featured for "Science Lives": Studying Grecian Battles and Human Origins
LiveScience.com
10.06.2011 
In a video interview, Curtis Marean answers some basic, but revealing, questions about the nature of being of scientist—his inspiration, the societal benefits of his research, the biggest influences on his professional life, and what his first “experiment” was as a child.

The website LiveScience.com has a series called “Science Lives,” which features interviews with prominent researchers—from engineers to historians to a diversity of scientists. This week, “Science Lives” features an interview with Curtis Marean, Institute of Human Origins Associate Director and professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change. This “Science Lives” interview was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

The interview is also available at http://www.livescience.com/16431-human-origins-marean-nsf-sl.html.

Don Johanson Speaking at the California Academy of Sciences
How "Lucy" Got Her Name
05.09.2011
View on YouTube at http://youtu.be/SKYjpetqYWI

Popular Media (top)

Beatles Stories: A Beatle Fan’s Ultimate Journey
ND: Don Johanson
http://beatlesstories.com/about/donald-johanson/

Best of Phoenix: Donald Johanson “Best Digger” 2011
Phoenix New Times
10.2011
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/bestof/2011/award/best-digger-2728698/