A Human Evolution Extravaganza
This week we have a human evolution double feature. First, special guest hosts Dr. Briana Pobiner from the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program and Ryan McRae from The George Washington University talk about the biggest discoveries from 2021 in human evolution. Next up, former guest turned returning champion Dr. Ellie McNutt returns to talk about her recent work at our favorite paleo pathway in Laetoli Tanzania.
Our Guests:
Ellie McNutt uses comparative functional morphology and biomechanics to investigate primate evolution. Her current focus is on reconstructing and understanding the evolution of plantigrady in primates and bipedal locomotion in early hominins, in particular Australopithecus.
Briana Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist whose research centers on the evolution of human diet (with a focus on meat-eating), but has included topics as diverse as human cannibalism and chimpanzee carnivory. She has done fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Indonesia. Since joining the Smithsonian in 2005 to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, in addition to continuing her active field, laboratory, and experimental research programs, she also leads the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts and is an Associate Research Professor of Anthropology at the George Washington University.
Ryan McRae is a paleoanthropologist and doctoral student at The George Washington University whose research centers on better understanding how species, and the evolutionary relationships between them, are inferred from the fossil record. His research interests include living ape models of human evolution, comparative anatomy, and systematics. Ryan has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Israel, Italy, Romania, and Spain, and he has worked in science communication and outreach in association with the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program since 2019.
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