How Do Paleoanthropologists Identify Our Evolutionary Relatives?

While some of us today enjoy exploring our own family genealogy, paleoanthropologists study fossils of our evolutionary family members and try to identify our relatives in the deep past. How do they determine these evolutionary relationships, which now-extinct ancient species are more closely related to us, and which fossils belong to which species?

Dr. Bernard Wood, University Professor of Human Origins at the George Washington University, will explain how paleoanthropologists attempt to answer these questions.

Moderator: Dr. Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

This program is part of the ongoing HOT (Human Origins Today) Topics series and will be presented as a Zoom video webinar. A link will be emailed to all registrants.

 

Image caption: Bronze sculpture of a Paranthropus boisei created by paleoartist John Gurche in the Smithsonian’s Hall of Human Origins.

Image credit: Smithsonian Institution