Teaching

image from DeSilva et al. 2018 Dikika Foot This fossil is part of the 3.3 mya skeleton of a Australopithecus afarensis child. If you don’t know about this skeleton, named Selam, check out Paige Madison’s story that details this amazing fossil find. Feet are not well-known in the early human fossil record. This is a shame, since feet tell us a lot about how a species moved.

LH 4 sample from efossils Laetoli Hominid 4 was discovered by Mary Leakey in 1974. Among other important traits, it serves as the type specimen for Australopithecus afarensis! When they first described it, Leakey and colleagues noted that “presence of a C/P3 diastema, inclined symphyseal axis, bulbous anterior corpus, and low placement of the mental foramen on the adult mandible”. Originally they placed LH 4 and the other fossils from the site in the genus Homo but later work by Tim White, Don Johanson, and others linked the Laetoli fossils to the ones being uncovered 1,500 KM north in Hadar, where the famous Lucy skeleton was found.

MRD-VP-¹⁄₁ was announced only a few months ago (fun fact: you can tell when there is going to be a new fossil find by just asking me when I am planning to print my course syllabus and then banking on the fossil being published 24 hrs later…). Its importance is hard to overstate, as up till now we didn’t know much about the facial architecture of early members of the Australopith genus, with the expectation of the Little Foot fossil from Sterkfontein in South Africa that may date to ~3.

Lothagam mandible from Kissel and Hawks 2015 While this fragmentary (and often over-looked) fossil may pale in comparison to other recent finds in terms of its preservation and allure, at one point it was one of the oldest examples we had of hominin evolution! {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[3.42,35.8,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of KNM-LT 329 “,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[3.42,3.42],“lng”:[35.8,35.8]},“setView”:[[0.7529,35.8749],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} The date of this fossil, known to its close friends as KNM-LT 329, is uncertain.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Image from http://humanorigins.si.edu/ This fossil dates to between ~7-6 million years ago and thus may be the earliest hominin known. It was found in the Toros-Menalla area of the Djurab Desert of northern Chad. {“x”:{“options”:{“crs”:{“crsClass”:“L.CRS.EPSG3857”,“code”:null,“proj4def”:null,“projectedBounds”:null,“options”:{}}},“calls”:[{“method”:“addTiles”,“args”:[“//{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png”,null,null,{“minZoom”:0,“maxZoom”:18,“tileSize”:256,“subdomains”:“abc”,“errorTileUrl”:“”,“tms”:false,“noWrap”:false,“zoomOffset”:0,“zoomReverse”:false,“opacity”:1,“zIndex”:1,“detectRetina”:false,“attribution”:”© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA”}]},{“method”:“addMarkers”,“args”:[17,18,null,null,null,{“interactive”:true,“draggable”:false,“keyboard”:true,“title”:“”,“alt”:“”,“zIndexOffset”:0,“opacity”:1,“riseOnHover”:false,“riseOffset”:250},“aprox location of Sahelanthropus tchadensis”,null,null,null,null,{“interactive”:false,“permanent”:false,“direction”:“auto”,“opacity”:1,“offset”:[0,0],“textsize”:“10px”,“textOnly”:false,“className”:“”,“sticky”:true},null]}],“limits”:{“lat”:[17,17],“lng”:[18,18]},“setView”:[[17,18],2,[]]},“evals”:[],“jsHooks”:[]} The fossil was first published in 2002, with subsequent material published in 2005. Scientists argued that it was bipedal based mostly on the placement of the foramen magnum, the large hole at the base of the skull through which the spinal column attaches to the skull.

This week marks the end of my first year of teaching at Appalachian State University. It has been great getting to know my colleagues in the anthro department and learning to live in the mountains (before coming here we lived in South Bend, IN, which is a lot flatter than Boone, NC…In South Bend you can watch your dog run away for 2 days). I’ve been teaching two of the General Education courses in the department (Our Primate Heritage and Gender, Race, & Class).

Last May I was visiting family in New York when I got a call from the amazing and irreplaceable Natalia Reagan. She asked me if I was interested in being on “StarTalk All Stars” (a podcast that is part of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s network of science outreach). My first reaction was panic! It sounded very scary as I hate my voice and get very nervous at the thought of having to seem like I know what I’m talking about.