May 22, 2002
Contact: Jo Ann Lloyd
(805) 756-1511
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Recognized Anthropologist To Speak On Discovery
of Million-Year-Old Pre-Human Fossil
The anthropologist whose discovery of a pre-human
fossil in Ethiopia earlier this year attracted worldwide media
attention and helped put a different spin on the theory of human
evolution will discuss his findings at Cal Poly June 3.
William Henry Gilbert, who attended Cal Poly from 1988 to 1992 and is
now affiliated with the Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies at UC
Berkeley, will talk on "Finding African Homo erectus:
Paleoanthropological Fieldwork in Ethiopia" at 7 p.m. in Philips Hall
in the Christopher Cohan Center.
Gilbert's discovery of a million-year-old skull, which helped confirm
the theory that modern man evolved from a single pre-human species,
captured national media attention in March.
Scientists say the finding helps prove that Homo erectus originated in
Africa and remained there for hundreds of thousands of years, while
some members of the species migrated throughout much of the world.
Gilbert was part of a team of scientists led by Tim White, UC Berkeley
anthropologist and co-director of the school's Laboratory for Human
Evolutionary Studies. The team's findings, published in the March 21
issue of the journal Nature, were significant in determining
similarities among fossils also found in Asia and in Europe. Before
Gilbert's discovery, scientists believed that several pre-human species
existed.
"There's been a recent tendency to give a different name to each of the
fossils that comes out of the ground," said White, "and that has led
to
what we think is a very misleading portrayal of the biology of human
evolution. But when you find a fossil like this one so similar to Asian
and European ones, it indicates the same species."
Unlike earlier pre-human species with apelike traits, Homo erectus had
a large brain, walked upright, made stone tools and ate meat.
Some scientists, while calling the discovery important, still say it
does not resolve the debate about separate species.
Gilbert came to Cal Poly as an agricultural engineering major and
switched to social sciences after discovering he had an interest in
human evolution. He earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from UC
Santa Barbara and is completing work on his doctorate at Berkeley.
For more information on Gilbert and his anthropological studies, visit
the Web at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/03/daka.html.
For more information on the free public talk, call Cal Poly's Social
Sciences Department at 756-2260.
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