“Mid-Pliocene Hominin Diversity: The Fossil Evidence and Why It Matters” with speaker Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Director of the Institute of Human Origins and Evolutionary Anthropology Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.
About the speaker: Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is Director of the Institute of Human Origins and Evolutionary Anthropology Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His primary research interest is understanding the paleobiology and paleoecology of ancient human ancestors based on the fossil record. Since 2005, Dr. Haile-Selassie has been directing the Woranso-Mille Paleontological Project in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Through his fossil discoveries, Dr. Haile-Selassie has significantly contributed to what we know about human evolution and even challenged some long-held hypotheses. His most remarkable discoveries from the mid-Pliocene include a partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, the Burtele foot (with an opposable big toe), and most recently a complete cranium of Australopithecus anamensis. Dr. Haile-Selassie has named two early human ancestor species: Australopithecus deyiremeda from the mid-Pliocene and Ardipithecus kadabba from the late Miocene. Dr. Haile-Selassie has published his research results in internationally renowned and peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Haile-Selassie is an elected Fellow (2007) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
About the Chair’s Colloquium Series: Talks in the Anthropology Department Chair’s Colloquium Series, held once a semester, feature scholars whose research is of broad interest in and beyond Anthropology. Invited speakers for these department-wide events rotate around areas of disciplinary and interdisciplinary specialization.