News
27.04.2023
The paleoecology of Laetoli and its implications for early hominin speciation and extinction
Colloquium by Prof. Dr. Terry Harrison
Time: Thursday, 27th April 2023 at 1pm (sharp)
Location: Rümelinstraße 23, Room 602 or via Zoom (the link will be send around the day before the colloquium)
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Terry Harrison
Title: The paleoecology of Laetoli and its implications for early hominin speciation and extinction
Abstract:
Paleoanthropologists have been painstakingly piecing together the human fossil record so that we now have an excellent understanding of the major steps that took place in our evolutionary history. However, we are just beginning to tackle the more fundamental question of what were the major environmental drivers of speciation, evolutionary change, and extinction. What role did global climate, regional tectonics, and local environmental factors play? This colloquium explores how the study of paleoecology at the Pliocene site of Laetoli in Tanzania has yielded important new clues for understanding the environmental context in which Australopithecus afarensis went extinct and was replaced by Paranthropus aethiopicus. At the same time, the presentation highlights the empirical limits of the paleoecological paradigm for drawing inferences about the drivers of early hominin evolutionary events.
We welcome you all to join us in-person or via Zoom.
Back