Mark Maslin, Climatologist at University College London, giving a talk about why evolution favoured the brainy ape, on the Earth Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019
Humans are rather weak compared with many other animals. We are not particular fast and have no natural weapons. Yet Homo sapiens currently number nearly billion and influenced almost every part of the Earth system. So how did we become the world’s apex predator and take over the planet? Fundamental to our success is our intelligence, not only individually but more importantly collectively. But why did evolution favour the brainy ape? Mark Maslin brings together the latest insights from hominin fossils and combines them with evidence of the changing landscape of the East African Rift Valley to show how all these factors led to the evolution of most successful animal on the planet. Mark Maslin is a professor of palaeoclimatology with particular expertise in global and regional climatic change. He has published over 160 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, The Lancet and Nature Climate Change. He has written 11 books, over 50 popular articles and appears regularly on radio and television. His books include the high successful "Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction", "The Cradle of Humanity" and "The Human Planet" co-authored with Simon Lewis. Maslin's research has been underpinned by his participation in international funded research expeditions (, IMAGES, Ocean Drilling Program), fieldwork in Africa (2003; 2007; 2010) and invited study visits (, Yale, Potsdam, Berne, Penn State, Stony Brook, Rio de Janeiro, Smithsonian Institute and Turkana Basin Institute). He has published over 165 papers in journals such as Nature (9), Science (4), Geology (8), Nature Geosciences (2), Nature Climate Change (2), The Lancet (6), PTRS (7) and Paleoceanography (10). His citation count is currently over 13,500* (with >1289 citation in 2017), H=56* and i10 index=145* (Google) with 29 papers that have been cited over 100 times. He has also published 11 books, 16 book chapters, 6 edited volumes and over 55 popular articles/blogs of which his Conversation articles
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Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
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