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Understanding Neanderthals
06/06/24 • 43 min
1 Listener
Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today’s researchers work in ways that early prehistorians could never have imagined.
Archaeologist and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Art, and Death synthesizes more than a century of research on Neanderthals – from the first Neanderthal fossil discovered, to the most up to date and cutting edge research - revealing a vivid portrait of one of our most intriguing and misunderstood relatives.
Links
- Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Rebecca Wragg Sykes' website
- Kindred bibliography with 61 pages of Neanderthal research papers
- Leakey Foundation grantee Carolina Mallol's Neanderthal Fire Project
The Leakey Foundation
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.
Support The Leakey Foundation
Support this show and the science we talk about. leakeyfoundation.org/donate
Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today’s researchers work in ways that early prehistorians could never have imagined.
Archaeologist and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Art, and Death synthesizes more than a century of research on Neanderthals – from the first Neanderthal fossil discovered, to the most up to date and cutting edge research - revealing a vivid portrait of one of our most intriguing and misunderstood relatives.
Links
- Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Rebecca Wragg Sykes' website
- Kindred bibliography with 61 pages of Neanderthal research papers
- Leakey Foundation grantee Carolina Mallol's Neanderthal Fire Project
The Leakey Foundation
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.
Support The Leakey Foundation
Support this show and the science we talk about. leakeyfoundation.org/donate
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The Story of Human Hair
Why do humans have most of our hair on our heads, not our bodies? Why do we have so many varieties of hair color, thickness, and curliness? Dr. Tina Lasisi is a biological anthropologist whose work explores these evolutionary mysteries. In this episode, she shares her research into why humans have scalp hair as well as her insights on why curly hair is uniquely human.
Links to learn more:
- Dr. Tina Lasisi's website
- Why Am I Like This? - PBS Terra series
- Dr. Lasisi's AMNH/Leakey Foundation SciCafe lecture
- Why Care About Hair? Leakey Foundation event
- Quantifying variation in human scalp hair - research paper
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human origins research and education.
Donate to support the show. Your gift will be quadruple-matched! Click here to give!
This episode was produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.
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The First Story
Over 50,000 years ago on what is now the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, someone climbed a towering rock formation and painted a mysterious image on a cave ceiling. The painting shows three half-human, half-animal figures and a large wild pig. The image, dated to 51,200 years old, is now the oldest known visual story in the world. In this episode, archaeologist Adam Brumm shares the story of this incredible discovery.
Help make more Origin Stories. We're $3,000 short of our quadruple-match fundraising goal and our deadline is August 31! Please donate today and your gift will be quadruple-matched! Click here to 4x your donation!
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.
Links to learn more:
- Google Arts and Culture virtual tour of the cave art site
- Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago Nature, July 2024
- Adam Brumm's website
- Blog post by Adhi Oktaviana
Episode produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang Sound design by Ray Pang Edited by Audrey Quinn
Theme music by Henry Nagle. Ending credit music by Lee Roservere. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Hungry for more science?
Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream on the third Thursday of every month.
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