Science Connections Lecture: Human Evolution

Speaker: Richard Edward Green, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biomolecular Engineering Baskin School of Engineering University of California, Santa Cruz

Human evolution as revealed by a Neandertal

Neandertals are our closest extinct relatives. They diverged from a common ancestor with humans about 300,000 years ago. Mysteriously, they disappear from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago. Green recently collected genome-scale DNA sequence data from three bones that are about 40,000 years old. Comparison of these data to genome sequence from living humans revealed that Neandertals contributed genes to some currently living humans. Green is currently contrasting genetic variation in humans to that in Neandertals to detect the regions of our genome that underlie human-specific biology.

In conjunction with Dr. Green’s talk at the Museum, Anthropology and Paleontology students will be doing a poster presentation of their relevant work being conducted at area universities.  Come early and speak to the students!

For more information contact: Miranda Wood, miranda.wood@ncdenr.gov, 919.733.7450 x523.