In 2017, Dr. Isaiah Nengo announced the discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil ape found in Kenya. This remarkable fossil, nicknamed Alesi, was from a time period where there’s a big blank spot in the fossil record of our family tree. Alesi tells us something new about the early evolution of apes and shows what the common ancestor of humans and all the other living apes might have looked like. In this episode, Dr. Nengo tells the story behind the discovery.
This episode was originally released in 2017. We're revisiting it now because Isaiah Nengo will be featured on our new web series, Lunch Break Science, on December 3 at 11 am Pacific. He will share updates on his research and exclusive footage of his recent field work in the Turkana Basin.
Visit leakeyfoundation.org/live and sign up to receive event reminders.
Special thanks to Isaiah Nengo of Stony Brook University and the Turkana Basin Institute, and Ellen Miller of Wake Forest University.
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Links
Click here to see photos of the discovery, along with a 3D animation of the inside of the fossil.
New 13 million-year-old infant fossil ape skull sheds light on ape evolution
Questions and answers about Alesi
Skull secrets of an ancient ape
Research article in Nature: New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution
Credits
Produced by: Meredith Johnson and Shuka Kalantari
Editor: Julia Barton
Sound Design: Katie McMurran
Theme Music: Henry Nagle
Intern: Yuka Oiwa
Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere
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