BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Inaugural Lecture 2022\, The new pic
 ture of Australopithecus - Doctor Zeresenay Alemseged\, (University of Chi
 cago)
DTSTART:20221121T173000Z
DTEND:20221121T183000Z
UID:TALK192665@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:106925
DESCRIPTION:One hundred fifty years ago\, Darwin prophesied that our earli
 est ancestor would be found in Africa based on morphological and biogeogra
 phic argument and without the benefit of genetic and fossil evidence. Toda
 y\, DNA studies show that the Homo/Pan lineages separated around 7 million
  years ago and human fossil ancestors that are older that 2 million years 
 are exclusively African. A plethora of hominin species occupied the contin
 ent from around 7 million years ago up until the emergence of our species 
 some 300\,000 years ago. One of these earliest hominin genera\, which is b
 elieved to have been ancestral to our genus Homo is Australopithecus. This
  genus which was first described in 1925 based on South African fossils an
 d subsequently found in several corners of the continent\, was for long ch
 aracterized as a small brained\, non stone tool using\, bipedal creature w
 ith largely ape like behavior and cranial morphology. This portrayal has h
 owever significantly changed over the past decades owing to the proliferat
 ion of fossil discoveries as well as the application of novel data collect
 ion and analytical methods in paleoanthropology. In this presentation\, I 
 will show that Australopithecus practiced arboreality while being bipedal 
 on the ground\, used stone tools to consume animal resources\, and possess
 ed some human like behavioral attributes including the presence of childho
 od. These new findings support the notion that the long-lived and cosmopol
 itan species Australopithecus afarensis was ancestral to multiple species 
 including early Homo\, which ultimately gave rise to Homo sapiens. 
LOCATION:The McCrum Lecture Theatre
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR