LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Houston Museum of Natural Science presents an HMNS Special Lecture entitled Times Are A-Changin’: New Methods Tell a New Tale of Primate Evolution, Tuesday, February 9, 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by The Leakey Foundation.  Speaker:  Todd Disotell, Ph.D., (pictured) New York University.

Recent advances in molecular genetics are radically changing ideas about the appearance of primates and the subsequent branching off of the major lineages. Previously, it was thought primates first appeared some 65 million years ago; now experts are proposing dates as far back as 80-90 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The hazy image of our lineage provided by the fossil record is now coming into focus thanks to new molecular analytical techniques; researchers now have whole genome sequences representing at least one member of each major lineages and whole mitochondrial lineages of nearly every genus in the order Primates. It’s an exciting moment in the story of human and primates, as these data along with new analytical techniques suggest many divergences are more recent than traditionally thought.

Dr. Todd Disotell is a professor of anthropology and a molecular primatologist at New York University’s Center for the Study of Human Origins. Disotell, who has appeared on such popular television shows as “The Daily Show” and “MonsterQuest,” will discuss the use of molecular clocks and other contemporary analytical techniques and the exciting conclusions and questions they pose.