#270 Christopher Stringer: The Past and Future of Human Evolution
RECORDED ON OCTOBER 7th, 2019.
Dr. Christopher Stringer is a British physical anthropologist noted for his work on human evolution. He is a Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum. His early research was on the relationship of Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe, but through his work on the Recent African Origin model for modern human origins, he now collaborates with archaeologists, dating specialists, and geneticists in attempting to reconstruct the evolution of modern humans globally. He has excavated at sites in Britain and abroad, and he directed the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project from 2001 until it finished in 2013. Now he’s co-director of the follow-up Pathways to Ancient Britain project, as part of their funding from the Calleva Foundation, which has also contributed to the foundation of their new Centre for Human Evolution Research. As well as many scientific papers, he’s also written a number of books, most recently, Britain: one million years of the human story (2014, with Rob Dinnis) and Our Human Story (2018, with Louise Humphrey).
In this episode, we go through some topics about our evolutionary history. We discuss what is the best account of our origins as H. sapiens; how hard it is to distinguish between different hominin species; Out of Africa migrations, particularly by H. erectus, and how we got from H. erectus to H. sapiens and Neanderthals. We also talk about the limitations of modern dating techniques, and what we can learn from them and from genetic analysis. We address the questions of how old are modern humans, and what would have been our most important selective pressures. We then get into the issue with the term “race”, and distinguishing it from “population”. Finally, we talk a bit about how we are still evolving, and some of the major known unknowns of human evolution.
Time Links:
The origins of H. sapiens
Distinguishing between different hominin species
Out of Africa migrations, and H. erectus
From H. erectus to H. sapiens and Neanderthals
Dating techniques and their limitations
Genetic approaches
The oldest modern humans
The main selective pressures during our evolution
Population vs. Race
Population differences, and cultural selection
Are we still evolving?
The known unknowns of human evolution
Follow Dr. Stringer’s work!
Follow Dr. Stringer’s work:
Natural History Museum page: http://bit.ly/2T7IpaI
ResearchGate Profile: http://bit.ly/2Yj49WI
Twitter handle: @ChrisStringer65
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2p35MHb
Our Human Story: https://amzn.to/2noHO8Z