A scientist solves the mystery of the only known chimpanzee civil war...thus far. In 1960, Louis Leakey sent Jane Goodall to start her study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her first decade of research led her to think that chimpanzees were like nicer versions of humans. But in the early 1970s, the Gombe chimp community split in two and deadly violence erupted. The cause has remained a mystery until now. A new study by Leakey Foundation grantee Joseph Feldblum reveals similarities between the ways chimpanzee and human societies break down. Thanks: Thanks to Joseph Feldblum for sharing his work. Visit his website to learn more about his research. Thanks to Jane Goodall for everything. Visit her website to learn more about her work and the Gombe chimpanzees. The archival audio used in this episode is from The Leakey Foundation Archive. The narration in the first part of our story was recorded in 1970 for a Leakey Foundation filmstrip. The lecture audio is from a 1978 Leakey Foundation lecture entitled "Cannibalism and Warfare in Chimpanzee Societies." The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled! Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today! Credits Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari Sound Design: Katie McMurran Theme Music: Henry Nagle Additional Music: Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"  Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Origin Stories returns November 15th with more stories about how we became human.

The stories and songs of prehistoric people are lost. Their art and artifacts are all that remain of their culture. The painted caves of Ice Age Europe are the world's most famous examples of prehistoric art. What does this art reveal about the people who made it? Why did they paint those images on cave walls? What do the images mean? Jean Clottes is one of the world's preeminent prehistorians and a leading expert on prehistoric art. He has devoted his life to asking these big questions, and his insights have challenged popular assumptions about prehistoric art and how it evolved. In this episode, producer Neil Sandell visits Clottes at his home in the foothills of the Pyrénées in France, and they journey deep into a painted cave called Niaux to see the famous Salon Noir. This episode was awarded the grand prize in the Prix Marulić International Audio Festival in the documentary category. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org   Credits Producer: Neil Sandell Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Sound Design: Neil Sandell Theme Music: Henry Nagle Intern: Yuka Oiwa Additional Music: Kai Engel "Denouement" and "Difference" Parvus Decree "The Eternal Wheel" and "Gau" Alex Mason "Other" Scott Holmes "Still Missing"  Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.  The Leakey Foundation thanks the following people for their generous support of this episode:  Jean and Ray Auel, Sharal Camisa, Dennis Fenwick and Martha Lewis, Victoria and Barry Fong, Jeanne Newman, Sharon Metzler-Dow, and Lisa and Bill Wirthlin. Additional Support We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

Three true tales about what it's like to do field research. Kelly Stewart, Dorothy Cheney, and Robert Seyfarth share stories of gun smuggling, pet leeches, close encounters with hippos, and fan mail from one of the world's most infamous mass murderers. This bonus episode was recorded live at a Leakey Foundation Fellows event in 2016. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! If you donate before midnight on December 31, 2017, your donation will be quadrupled! Links Baboon Metaphysics Being a Nice Animal   Survey   Tell us what you think of the show! We'd love to know! Click here to take our short survey. Thank you!   Leakey Foundation Fellows Program   Leakey Foundation Fellows are an exclusive group of science supporters. Benefits of becoming a Fellow include unique travel opportunities and an invitation to be our guest to the annual Leakey Foundation Fellows' dinner with some of the world's leading human origins researchers. Credits Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Theme Music: Henry Nagle Additional Music: Podington Bear "Stars Are Out" Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"   Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.  Additional Support We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.     

For a long time, scientists have been searching for the first Homo sapiens in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The story we've been telling about the origin of our species has gone something like this: Around 200,000 years ago in East Africa, the first Homo sapiens emerged, splitting off from an ancestral species, possibly Homo erectus. We had big brains and a knack for tool making. We spread out across the world from there. We adapted, and we alone survived. Now a scientific discovery made by Leakey Foundation grantee Jean-Jacques Hublin and colleagues has challenged the story we tell about ourselves and pushed the date of the origin of our species back by 100,000 years. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org   Survey   Tell us what you think of the show! We'd love to know! Click here to take our short survey. Thank you!   Credits Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari Sound Design: Katie McMurran Theme Music: Henry Nagle Additional Music: Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"   Special thanks to Sarah Geledi and Sylvio Tupke Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.    Additional Support We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

The stories and songs of prehistoric people are lost. Their art and artifacts are all that remain of their culture. The painted caves of Ice Age Europe are the world's most famous examples of prehistoric art. What does this art reveal about the people who made it? Why did they paint those images on cave walls? What do the images mean? Jean Clottes is one of the world's preeminent prehistorians and a leading expert on prehistoric art. He has devoted his life to asking these big questions, and his insights have challenged popular assumptions about prehistoric art and how it evolved. In this episode, producer Neil Sandell visits Clottes at his home in the foothills of the Pyrénées in France, and they journey deep into a painted cave called Niaux to see the famous Salon Noir.   The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org   Credits Producer: Neil Sandell Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Sound Design: Neil Sandell Theme Music: Henry Nagle Intern: Yuka Oiwa Additional Music: Kai Engel "Denouement" and "Difference" Parvus Decree "The Eternal Wheel" and "Gau" Alex Mason "Other" Scott Holmes "Still Missing"  Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.  The Leakey Foundation thanks the following people for their generous support of this episode:  Jean and Ray Auel, Sharal Camisa, Dennis Fenwick and Martha Lewis, Victoria and Barry Fong, Jeanne Newman, Sharon Metzler-Dow, and Lisa and Bill Wirthlin. Additional Support We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

One of the big questions in the study of human evolution is the question of how our ancestors spread across the world. Our species evolved in Africa and migrated around the world from there. Most people on earth today are mixed descendants of multiple migrations to different places. Somewhere in almost everyone’s family history, whether it was last year or thousands of years ago, there was someone who left the place they were born and set out into the unknown, looking for a new life somewhere else. For most of humankind’s time on this planet, we all did it the same way. We walked. Paul Salopek is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Explorer who is on an epic ten-year journey around the world on foot, tracing the path of early human migration out of Africa. Along the way he is talking with people and sharing their stories through his writing, and through educational programs for students. His project is called the Out of Eden Walk. You can learn more at leakeyfoundation.org. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about how and when humans spread around the world. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org Out of Eden Walk Out of Eden Learn Articles by Paul Salopek: The Glorious Boneyard: A Report From Our Starting Line Gona: First Kitchen Borders Matter No Reply The Natural History of Compassion Articles about early human migration: Were modern humans in Indonesia 73,000 years ago? Clues to Africa's Mysterious Past Found in Ancient Skeletons Credits Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari Sound Design: Katie McMurran Theme Music: Henry Nagle Intern: Yuka Oiwa Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.  We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

It's not every day you see a Facebook post that changes your life, but that's exactly what happened to Leakey Foundation grantee Alia Gurtov. Gurtov was checking her Facebook feed one morning and saw a post from paleoanthropologist Lee Berger. He was looking for archaeologists who were "...skinny and preferably small. They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience, climbing experience would be a bonus. They must be willing to work in cramped quarters, have a good attitude and be a team player." Gurtov had never seen a job description that fit her more perfectly. A few weeks later she was in South Africa, inside a cave chamber strewn with ancient bones. The fossils she helped recover have changed the story of human evolution and added a strange new relative to our family tree. Thanks to Leakey Foundation grantees Alia Gurtov and Will Harcourt-Smith for sharing their stories. You can learn more at leakeyfoundation.org. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation had 12 grantees who participated in the Homo naledi research. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org   Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa 3D models of the Homo naledi fossils "This Face Changes the Human Story. But, How?" National Geographic. "The Dawn of Humanity." NOVA/National Geographic.  Credits Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari Sound Design: Katie McMurran Theme Music: Henry Nagle Intern: Yuka Oiwa Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long.  We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

The paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey described stone tools as “fossilized human behavior.” These rocks, shaped by our human ancestors and found in archaeological sites around the world, can give us clues about how ancient people lived. Archaeologist and Leakey Foundation grantee John Shea of Stony Brook University says you can learn even more by making and using stone tools yourself.   Thanks to John Shea of Stony Brook University for sharing his work. His new book is Stone Tools in Human Evolution: Behavioral Differences among Technological Primates.   Learn more about Dr. Shea's work on his website.   The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled! Links Check out the complete show notes at leakeyfoundation.org   Videos  How to make a stone tool Making a Neanderthal flint tool Making Stone Tools - Nicholas Toth of the Stone Age Institute John Shea and Alan Alda on The Human Spark   Articles Modern People Making Stone Age Tools by Leakey Foundation grantee Shelby Putt Chimpanzees and Monkeys Have Entered the Stone Age by Colin Barras Credits Produced by: Audrey Quinn Editor: Julia Barton Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson Sound Design: Katie McMurran Theme Music: Henry Nagle Intern: Yuka Oiwa Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. Additional support for this episode comes from Bill Richards. We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

Just recently, the news media announced the discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil ape called Alesi. This remarkable fossil was found in Kenya, and it’s 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 very early evolution of apes and even shows what the common ancestor of humans and all the other living apes might have looked like. In this episode, Isaiah Nengo tells the story behind the discovery. Special thanks to Isaiah Nengo of the Stony Brook University affiliated Turkana Basin Institute and De Anza College. And Ellen Miller of Wake Forest University. The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. 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 Sponsors This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show, and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs. Get Social We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show! If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.