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paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Richard Leakey

  • Richard Leakey profile

    Sat, 2012-05-26 15:32 -- John Hawks

    The Associated Press profiles Richard Leakey: "Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history". The article gives a bit of Leakey's biography and discusses how he came to join the faculty at Stony Brook University and his current fundraising efforts for the Turkana Basin Institute. The "evolution debate" quote comes from the interview:

    "If you don't like the word evolution, I don't care what you call it, but life has changed. You can lay out all the fossils that have been collected and establish lineages that even a fool could work up. So the question is why, how does this happen? It's not covered by Genesis. There's no explanation for this change going back 500 million years in any book I've read from the lips of any God."

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    Richard Leakey
    profiles
    creationism

  • "Bones of Turkana" to air

    Thu, 2012-05-10 19:21 -- John Hawks

    On Wednesday, May 16, PBS here in the U.S. is broadcasting a film called "Bones of Turkana".

    The astonishing life of Richard Leakey — paleoanthropologist, conservationist, statesman, provocateur —will be the subject of an hour-long special from National Geographic, Bones of Turkana. The program investigates four decades of exploration and discovery around Northern Kenya's Lake Turkana, which have given rise to both breakthroughs and controversy in the contentious field of human evolution.

    The film follows Leakey today — along with his wife, Meave, daughter Louise and the world-famous fossil hunters of the Turkana Basin Institute team — striving and exploring along the shores of a mercurial and prophetic lake. It is both a portrait of a remarkable family, as well as a dramatic tale of a place that, despite momentous climate change, has never ceased being the cauldron of human evolution.

    Sounds like a lot to squeeze into an hour...

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    tv
    Richard Leakey
    Turkana

  • AMNH Leakey-Johanson event

    Wed, 2011-05-04 16:24 -- John Hawks

    The American Museum of Natural History has arranged an event featuring Richard Leakey and Don Johanson, which is happening tomorrow evening: "Human Evolution and Why It Matters: A Conversation with Leakey and Johanson".

    Celebrating decades of groundbreaking exploration in East Africa, renowned paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey will share the stage to discuss the overwhelming evidence for evolution in the hominid fossil record and why understanding our evolutionary history is so important.

    Known for such landmark discoveries as "Lucy" (Johanson) and "Turkana Boy" (Leakey), the work of these two scientists has produced much of the fossil evidence which forms our understanding of human evolution.

    Looking back over careers spanning 40-plus years, these men will share the stories behind their monumental finds and offer a look at what's ahead in human evolutionary research.

    AMNH site will be live-streaming the event, starting at 6:30 pm EDT, Thursday, May 5.

    A "student town hall event" with the two scientists speaking to students from five schools was scheduled to be held today.

    Virginia Morell described what happened the first time the two men met in AMNH, on that occasion moderated by Walter Cronkite. It's such an interesting story! I find it exceptional that they are reprising the event.

    Tags: 
    Richard Leakey
    Don Johanson
    history of anthropology
    museums
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Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.