Dr. John Kappelman, professor of zoology at The University of Texas at Austin, will lecture on how the recovery of new fossil specimens has changed our understanding of the timing of human origins.
Admission is free and open to the public.
The UT Austin Department of Geological Sciences Outreach Lecture Series is designed for the public in general and for K-12 science teachers in particular. The March 2 lecture will show that the subject of human origins and evolution has witnessed a revolution during the past 30 years. The lecture will present not only some of the high points of this revolution, but Kappelman also will discuss how the recovery of new fossil specimens has changed our understanding of the timing of hominid origins and the factors that drove the evolution of our ancestors who walked upright. In addition, new observations about the genus Homo integrate data from body mass and brain size and together with the archaeological record, suggest a long, distinctly non-modern phase in human evolution. The final topic in the lecture will include a discussion of the origin of modern humans, and how the combination of new specimens from the fossil record along with data from the molecular genetics of living and ancient humans offers new insights into our own origins.