Key questions about how humans evolved including why we take so long to grow up and why we age and die are the focus of a free talk at the University on Thursday 13th September.
The lecture, by world leading evolutionary biologist Professor B. Holly Smith, will also discuss how teeth are a linchpin between the past and present that can be used to reconstruct the evolution of life histories of mammals, particularly humans.
Teeth are readily preserved fossils and retain information that researchers would be otherwise unable to access about the life history of their owners, such as mortality and life span.
Professor Smith, of the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University in the USA, has been invited to give the lecture by the Skeletal Biology Research Centre. It is the only place in the UK that focuses on the analysis of bones and teeth and stores an extensive historic collection of both.
The Centre carries out cutting-edge research ranging from analyses of the most important human fossils, histological studies of teeth and bone, isotopic analyses and dietary reconstruction, virtual 3D analyses of the skeleton, and forensic identification that together ultimately aim to better understand humans and our evolutionary history.
The lecture, which is free and open to all, begins at 18.00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 1 at the University’s Canterbury campus.
Professor Smith, who is also an Associate Research Scientist in the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan, USA, will also conduct a question and answer session after the lecture.