Lee Berger, Phillip Tobias Chair in Palaeoanthropology, from the University of the Witwatersrand and National Geographic Society, telling "The astonishing tale of Homo naledi", on the Main Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019
Recent discoveries of fossils of ancient human relatives in southern Africa are disrupting our long held ideas of the origins of humankind. Two of these discoveries Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi represent significant contributions to this shakeup of our family tree. The discovery of sediba in 2008 forced us to question the simplicity of the way we interpreted the end of the australopithecines and the beginning of the genus Homo, while the discovery of Homo naledi in 2013 has created significant disruption of what we thought we knew was going on in Africa at the time of the origins of Homo sapiens. In his talk Lee Berger will explore these two exciting discoveries in detail and unpack what they may mean for our present understanding of human origins. Lee Berger is an multi-award-winning researcher, explorer, author and speaker. His explorations into human origins on the African continent, Asia and Micronesia for the past two and a half decades have resulted in many new discoveries, including the discovery of two new species of early human relatives Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi. His work has also resulted in advances in the field of applied exploration methods and the application of technology to exploration, excavation and discovery. He is the author of more than 200 scholarly and popular works on palaeontology, natural history, and exploration. Berger is presently the Phillip Tobias chair in human evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and an explorer at large for the National Geographic Society. He is also the division director of palaeoanthropology in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a in palaeoanthropology and a Doctor of Science in the same Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
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Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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