Ankarapithecus meteai remains include a handful of mandibles and partial faces from Central Turkey, and date to around 10 million years ago (Begun and Gulic, 1998). These remains show many similarities to Sivapithecus from South Asia, and have sometimes been included in that genus. However, Ankarapithecus lacks a number of features that link Sivapithecus with living and fossil orangutans, causing some paleontologists to suggest that it may represent the earliest radiation of Asian apes. Such a position would explain the retention of many primitive similarities with European apes like Dryopithecus, and would mean that the Anatolian population survived as a relict of the early Asian radiation even as the subsequent radiation of Sivapithecus into the later Asian apes occurred in South Asia.
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.