2024 was another amazing year in human origins research. In this episode, three Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the most exciting discoveries of the year.

Support this show and the science we talk about. Your tax-deductible gift to The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched through midnight on December 31! Click here to donate. 

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Links to learn more

All research articles are open-access and free to read

On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes

Why don’t humans have tails? Scientists find answers in an unlikely place

Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction

Meet Thorin: A cave-dwelling population of Neanderthals isolated for 50,000 years

Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the amylase locus

How early humans evolved to eat starch

Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins

Fossilized footprints reveal two extinct hominin species living side by side 1.5 million years ago

In this episode, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, one of the most iconic and important scientific discoveries ever made. Paleoanthropologist Don Johanson tells the story of his early scientific career and the pivotal moment when he discovered 3.2 million-year-old hominin fossils in Ethiopia's Afar region. It's a story that connects us to our deepest roots and shows how one remarkable fossil changed our view of what it means to be human.

Links to learn more:

Lucy and the Taung Child: A Century of Science - from The Leakey Foundation

Institute of Human Origins Lucy 50—A Year for Human Origins

Lucy 50th Anniversary Video Playlist from the Institute of Human Origins

How the Famous Lucy Fossil Revolutionized the Study of Human Origins - Scientific American

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Sponsors

This episode is generously sponsored by the Leis family in honor of Jorge Leis, who has served on The Leakey Foundation board of trustees since 2017. 

Jorge and his siblings grew up in a family where curiosity, exploration, learning, and science were the most valued of human endeavors. His family members are proud of Jorge's dedication to helping keep scientific organizations such as The Leakey Foundation relevant and growing. 

Special thanks to Dianne and Joe Leis, Donna, and Art Leis for sponsoring this tribute to Jorge. 

Origin Stories is listener-supported. Additional support comes from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.

Credits

This episode was produced by Ray Pang and Meredith Johnson, sound design by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Music by Henry Nagle, Blue Dot Sessions, and Lee Roservere.

Are humans the only animals that practice medicine? In this episode, two scientists share surprising observations of orangutans and chimpanzees treating wounds–their own and others'–with plants and insects. These discoveries challenge ideas about uniquely human behaviors and offer insights into animal intelligence, empathy, and the evolutionary roots of medicine.

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to learn more about our work! 

Videos

Rakus and his wound

Rakus doing a long call after being wounded

Chimp applying insect to wound

Caroline Schuppli on Lunch Break Science 

Links to learn more

SUAQ Orangutan Program

Ozouga Chimpanzees (where Alessandra studies chimpanzee behavior)

Research papers

Active self-treatment of a facial wound with a biologically active plant by a male Sumatran orangutan (open access)

Application of insects to wounds of self and others by chimpanzees in the wild (pdf)

Credits

Origin Stories is a listener-supported show. Additional support comes from Jeanne Newman, , Camilla and George Smith, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund. 

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

Over 50,000 years ago on what is now the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, someone climbed a towering rock formation and painted a mysterious image on a cave ceiling. The painting shows three half-human, half-animal figures and a large wild pig. The image, dated to 51,200 years old, is now the oldest known visual story in the world. In this episode, archaeologist Adam Brumm shares the story of this incredible discovery.

Help make more Origin Stories. We're $3,000 short of our quadruple-match fundraising goal and our deadline is August 31! Please donate today and your gift will be quadruple-matched! Click here to 4x your donation! 

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Links to learn more:

• Google Arts and Culture virtual tour of the cave art site
• Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago Nature, July 2024
• Adam Brumm's website
• Blog post by Adhi Oktaviana

Episode produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang Sound design by Ray Pang Edited by Audrey Quinn

Theme music by Henry Nagle. Ending credit music by Lee Roservere. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Hungry for more science?

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream on the third Thursday of every month.

Click here to watch!

Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today’s researchers work in ways that early prehistorians could never have imagined.

Archaeologist and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Art, and Death synthesizes more than a century of research on Neanderthals – from the first Neanderthal fossil discovered, to the most up to date and cutting edge research - revealing a vivid portrait of one of our most intriguing and misunderstood relatives.

Links

• Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
• Rebecca Wragg Sykes' website
• Kindred bibliography with 61 pages of Neanderthal research papers
• Leakey Foundation grantee Carolina Mallol's Neanderthal Fire Project

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

Support this show and the science we talk about. leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

Why do humans have most of our hair on our heads, not our bodies? Why do we have so many varieties of hair color, thickness, and curliness? Dr. Tina Lasisi is a biological anthropologist whose work explores these evolutionary mysteries. In this episode, she shares her research into why humans have scalp hair as well as her insights on why curly hair is uniquely human. 

Links to learn more:

• Dr. Tina Lasisi's website
• Why Am I Like This? - PBS Terra series
• Dr. Lasisi's AMNH/Leakey Foundation SciCafe lecture
• Why Care About Hair? Leakey Foundation event
• Quantifying variation in human scalp hair - research paper

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human origins research and education.

Donate to support the show. Your gift will be quadruple-matched! Click here to give!

This episode was produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

Music is universal in all human cultures, but why? What gives us the ability to hear sound as music? Are we the only musical species–or was Darwin right when he said every animal with a backbone should be able to perceive, if not enjoy music? Professor Henkjan Honing is on a mission to find out.

Learn more

• Henkjan Honing's website
• Music Cognition Group Blog
• The Evolving Animal Orchestra - Henkjan Honing
• What makes us musical animals - Henkjan Honing lecture
• Henkjan Honing TedX Amsterdam
• Snowball dancing to the Backstreet Boys
• Ronan the sea lion
• Songs to make the forest happy
• It turns out we were born to groove - beat perception study

Support the show

All monthly or one-time donations will be quadruple-matched! Click here to turn $10 into $40 or $25 into $100!

Credits

This episode was written and produced by Ray Pang and Meredith Johnson. Sound design, mixing, and scoring by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere. 

This episode uses many sounds from Freesound.org, including:

Neon Dreams: A Retro-Futuristic Synthwave Track - Instrument 02 by Robbnix  - License: Attribution 4.0

Music Box, Happy Birthday.wav - by InspectorJ - License: Attribution 4.0

What is it like to be responsible for the safekeeping of the ancestors of everyone in the world? In this episode, we travel to the National Museum of Ethiopia to see our most famous fossil relative – Lucy – and meet Yared Assefa, the person who takes care of her and all of our Ethiopian fossil ancestors and relatives. 

If you love fossils, you won't want to miss this episode!

Special thanks

Thanks to Yared Assefa, Dr. Berhane Asfaw, and Dr. Mulugeta Feseha, who hosted The Leakey Foundation at the National Museum of Ethiopia.

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Links to learn more

President Obama's speech to the African Union Lucy: A marvelous specimen Top ten human evolution discoveries in Ethiopia Rare 3.8 million-year-old fossil skull recasts origins of iconic Lucy  Ethiopia is top choice for the cradle of Homo sapiens

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Funding provided by the Foundation has made many of the fossil hominin discoveries in Ethiopia possible. In addition, Our Baldwin Fellowship program has been building scientific capacity in Ethiopia and other countries since 1978. We also have a new program called the Francis H. Brown African Scholarship Fund that provides up to $25,000 for East African students or early career researchers in botany and geology. Learn about all of our grant programs at leakeyfoundation.org/grants

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's online series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Feed your brain with Lunch Break Science every third Thursday at 11 am Pacific on Facebook, YouTube, and leakeyfoundation.org/live.

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson Editor: Audrey Quinn Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

Origin Stories is made possible by support from Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund, and donors like you!

Travel through 50,000 years of human history following clues hidden inside beads made from ostrich eggshells. In this episode, researchers Jennifer Miller and Yiming Wang share how these tiny artifacts reveal a sweeping story of ancient social networks, cultural connections, and human adaptability.

Support the show

Help us make more episodes! All tax-deductible donations to Origin Stories will be quadruple-matched!

>>>> Please click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. 

Guests

• Dr. Jennifer Miller
• Dr. Yiming Wang

Links to learn more

• Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 50,000-year-old social network in Africa (open access)
• An ancient social safety net in Africa was built on beads
• Are these snail shells the world's oldest known beads?
• Zambezi basin (Wikipedia)
• Paleoclimatology info and interactive paleoclimate map (National Centers for Environmental Education

Sponsors and credits

This episode was generously sponsored by Leakey Foundation Fellow Eddie Kislinger in honor of his wife, jewelry designer Cathy Waterman. Her designs are inspired by nature and influenced by her study of and connection with ancient human history. We are grateful to them for making this episode possible.

Additional support comes from Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund, and our listener-supporters.

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

2023 was another exciting year in human origins research! Fossil discoveries and long-term primate studies expanded our understanding of what makes us human. In this episode, four Leakey Foundation scientists shared their favorite human evolution discoveries from the past year.

Help us make more episodes! All tax-deductible donations to Origin Stories will be quadruple-matched!

>>>> Please click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. 

Guests

• Briana Pobiner
• Emma Finestone
• Nasser Malit 
• Risa Luther

Links to learn more

• Top 13 Discoveries in Human Evolution, 2023 Edition
• Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants 125,000 years ago: Implications for Neanderthal behavior (open-access research paper)
• Neanderthals lived in groups big enough to eat giant elephants
• Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago (open-access research paper
• Early Homo erectus lived at high altitudes and produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools (open-access research paper)
• The surprising toolbox of the early Homo erectus
• Demographic and hormonal evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees (open-access research paper)
• Wild chimpanzees experience menopause
• Chimpanzee menopause revealed ft. Melissa Emery Thompson (Lunch Break Science on YouTube)

Sponsors and credits

Origin Stories is sponsored by Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation,  and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund. 

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

Sibling relationships can include everything from love and support–to tension, competition, and conflict. They might also play a fundamental role in the evolution of our species. In the final installment of our three-part series on family relationships, researchers Karen Kramer, Cat Hobaiter, and Rachna Reddy explore surprising new science about the role of siblings in primate and human evolution.

Links to learn more:

• Why are there so many humans?
• Children and social learning
• Karen Kramer
• Cat Hobaiter
• Rachna Reddy

Support Origin Stories and help us explore human evolution one story at a time.

Your tax-deductible gift makes our show possible. Click here to donate!

Credits:

This episode was produced by Leo Hornak. Sound design and production by Ray Pang. Host and executive producer, Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere and Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors:

Dana LaJoie and Bill Richards, Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.