This lecture focuses on the fossil record with an emphasis on ecological changes and associated dietary changes facilitating the appearance of anatomically modern humans (AMHs). We begin by tracing the evolution of the earliest primate-like mammals from more than 50 million years ago (mya), to the earliest monkey/ape-like primates about 29 mya, to apes and ape-like members of our own lineage between 23-5 mya. We end with members of our lineage in an unusually bushy portion of our family tree between around 5 and 1 mya, leading to the subsequent appearance of AMHs around 180,000 years ago.
Osher Master Class I: Special Topics in Human Origins
Wednesday, September 30, 2020Abstracts
Abstracts
This lecture will address the evolution of the human diet in a comparative setting. It will highlight the importance of cultural inventions from hunting prey much larger than ourselves to processing and cooking food. All indications are that humans are now biologically dependent on the cultural practice of cooking.
This lecture will discuss the concept of morality as it relates to human behavior. What are the social and neurobiological roots of moral behavior?
Humans are social animals, but so are many other animals. Yet compared to other non-human primates, humans appear to be more cooperative with each other, have greater control of their communicative signals, and appear to spend more time interacting with each other. So what is special about human social life? This lecture introduces some of the building blocks of social cognition that make social living possible without constant fighting. It presents these abilities through a developmental and evolutionary perspective and explains how scientists are trying to tackle the mystery of the primate mind through behavioral studies.
The Rising Star Cave near South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site has produced some of the greatest fossil hominin discoveries. Paleoanthropologist and underground astronaut Lindsay Hunter gives a firsthand account of its exploration.
