Human Evolution (and evidence from the Turkana Basin)

Catalog description

The Turkana Basin is home to many paleoanthropological discoveries that fundamentally reshaped ideas about human evolution. Richard, Maeve, and Louise Leakey will share perspectives on eight of these finds, including Nariokotome (“Turkana boy”) and KNM-WT1700 (the “Black Skull”). Lectures and readings for each discovery will cover: 1) the research questions and strategies that led to the find; 2) the kind of analyses that have yielded the most important interpretive conclusions about the find; 3) how this discovery reshaped views of the human past; and 4) what new directions it catalyzed in human evolution research. Class activities consist of lectures by the Leakeys, laboratory exercises (reconstructions, measurements) using casts of the 5 kinds, and field trips to discovery locations.