john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Darwin Day 2011 pictures

Tue, 2011-02-15 18:09 -- John Hawks

Darwin Day was a huge success here in Madison. We had a crowd of several hundred people, including families doing our "Tree of Life" hands-on activities, and nearly 200 interested people who attended the lectures.

To give some idea of the size of the venue and crowd, here's the front half of the lecture forum with me as a tiny figure at the front:

John Hawks lecture on Darwin Day, 2011

Photo by Scott Johnson

Here's Jill Pruetz, starting the keynote lecture on Friday evening, describing her groundbreaking work with the chimpanzees of Fongoli, Senegal:

Jill Pruetz keynote lecture, Darwin Day, 2011

Photo by Scott Johnson

Saturday's featured lecturer was Karen Rosenberg, on the evolution of the human birth process:

Karen Rosenberg lecture, Darwin Day, 2011

Photo by Scott Johnson

I had the privilege of introducing Karen's lecture. As you can see, I was pretty thrilled about the whole day:

John Hawks introducing Karen Rosenberg lecture, Darwin Day, 2011

Photo by Scott Johnson

What a wonderful event!

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.