Neandertals Revisited: Katerina Harvati, University of Tubingen

Institute of Human Origins 30th Anniversary Lecture Series

Thursday, February 23, 5:30 pm

Human Evolution and Social Change
Institute of Human Origins
Location: Coor Hall 170
Campus: Tempe
Cost: Free and open to the public.

Neandertals inhabited Western Eurasia from approximately 300- to 30-thousand years ago. They are distinguished by a unique combination of anatomical traits and are commonly associated with Middle Paleolithic lithic industries. Current consensus among paleoanthropologists is that they represent a separate Eurasian human lineage, which evolved in isolation and which shared a common ancestor with modern humans in the Middle Pleistocene. Some aspects of the distinctive Neandertal anatomy may have evolved in response to selection related to the extreme cold of the European glacial cycles, although genetic drift seems to be responsible for the evolution of many Neandertal characteristic features. Neandertals disappear from the fossil record ca. 30 ka BP, a few millennia after the arrival of modern humans in Europe, and the causes of their extinction are debated. The retrieval of ancient mitochondrial and, more recently, nuclear DNA from Neandertal fossils puts us in the unique position to combine fossil with genetic evidence to address questions about their evolution, paleobiology, and eventual fate.

Katerina Harvati is Professor of Paleoanthropology at the Institute for Early Prehistory and Medieval Archaeology and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, University of Tübingen. Her research focuses on Neandertal evolution, modern human origins, and the application of 3D geometric morphometrics and virtual anthropology to paleoanthropology.

This is the final lecture in IHO's 30th Anniversary Lecture Series. The year-long celebration of the institute's anniversary will culminate in a day-long symposium—Human Origins on the Edge of Discovery—on April 27, featuring internationally known experts in anthropology including Zeray Alemseged, Robin Dunbar, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Michael Ruse, Ian Tattersall, Carol Ward, and Bernard Wood, in addition to IHO scientists. On the evening of April 26, a Gala Dinner is planned at the Phoenix Zoo with IHO Founding Director Donald Johanson, PhD, as the featured speaker. The event is open to all and tickets are $200 per person with opportunites to sponsor a table and have one of the symposium speakers at the table. More information on the symposium and gala at iho.asu.edu/30th.