#645 Steven Churchill: Homo naledi, Australopithecus sediba, and Human Evolution
RECORDED ON APRIL 6th 2022.
Dr. Steven Churchill is a Professor and past Chair of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. He is also an Honorary Reader in the Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a paleontologist who studies the fossil record of human evolution, especially that of early members of our genus (Homo) that lived between about two million to ten thousand years ago.
In this episode, we talk about aspects of human evolution. We start by asking where it starts. We talk about anatomical features anthropologists use to classify fossils, the classification of species, and determining the sex of a specimen. We get deep into Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba, two new species discovered by Dr. Churchill and his collaborators. We go through the timeline of our evolution since H. erectus. We discuss the oldest hominin species, and how to compare hominins behaviorally with other apes, primates and other animal groups. We talk about behavioral modernity, and the role of self-domestication in our evolution. Finally, we discuss how speculative is the history of human evolution.
Time Links:
Intro
When does human evolution start, exactly?
Anatomical features anthropologists look for to classify a fossil
Species classification
Determining the sex of a fossil
Homo species studied by Dr. Churchill
H. naledi, and its relation to other species
A timeline of our evolution since H. erectus
Australopithecus sediba
The oldest hominin species
Behavioral comparisons with other apes, primates, and other animal groups
Convergent evolution
What is behavioral modernity?
The role of self-domestication in our evolution
How speculative is the history of our evolution?
Follow Dr. Churchill’s work!
Follow Dr. Churchill’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3EJVyN5
Works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/3eJHokM