Almost everything we know about human origins has been discovered during the past 100 years. In the 1800s, European Neandertals were the only human fossils known. In 1925, Raymond Dart discovered the remarkable Taung child, now known as Australopithecus. This discovery demonstrated the first characteristics that separated the human lineage from our ape forebears were not our impressive brains, but walking upright on two feet and that the explosion of human intelligence and culture are more recent. Since then paleontologists have discovered many species on the human family tree and have made remarkable discoveries about the course of human evolution.

Despite the burgeoning fossil record, age-old questions about human evolution remain, such as which of these many species gave rise to Homo? What were the earliest hominids like? What did they eat? What kind of groups did they live in? When did we gain our distinctive features such as manual dexterity, bipedal locomotion and large brains? What about language and culture? Recent fossil discoveries along with new approaches to understanding existing fossils are providing exciting new insights into these and other questions surrounding our origins and evolution.

This symposium examines the latest evidence for evolution in the beginnings of our lineage in Africa, and new interpretations of “old” evidence for the special case of Neandertals in Europe. Human paleontology is a dynamic scientific field and these researchers present the latest information of some of the more interesting issues in the human fossil record.

Speakers

Carol Ward is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri, where she teaches human anatomy and does research on the evolution of human origins. Her research, based on fossils from East and South Africa, covers a critical time span when Miocene apes were diversifying and ultimately gave rise to early bipedal hominins, or australopithecines. She also works on the anatomy and evolution of early hominins from austalopithecines through Homo erectus. As a functional morphologist she has made major contributions to our understanding of postural and locomotor adaptations in these early hominoids, which were key changes shaping the origins and early evolution of our lineage. She is particularly interested in the functional anatomy of the spines of modern and fossil humans, apes and monkeys, and also applies an evolutionary approach in working with physicians to improve the diagnosis and treatment of modern spinal and other skeletal disorders.

David Frayer is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2009–2010. His early work focused on the evolution of European Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic populations, which emphasized that evolution did not stop with the appearance of “modern” Homo sapiens 30,000 years ago. He has devoted significant research effort studying Neandertals and documenting the persistence of Neandertal features in post-Neandertal Europeans; as well investigating behavioral, social and cultural features of these populations (e.g. speech, social patterning, ritual behavior, cannibalism, violence and warfare). More recently his work has broadened to include topics ranging from the Pakistani Neolithic to early Homo in Eritrea and even a critique on Homo floresiensis (otherwise known as the hobbit).

Allan Hook is the Lucian Professor of Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s University. Hook, who organized this symposium, has taught at St. Edward’s since 1988. His research focuses on the behavior and biodiversity of solitary wasps. Hook holds a BS in Biology from the University of Maine, and an MS in Entomology from the University of Georgia and a PhD in Zoology and Entomology from Colorado State University.