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ARIZONA ARCHAEOLOGY
AWARENESS MONTH
MARCH 2009

Presented in observance of Arizona Archaeology Awareness Month

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Thursday, March 5, 2009
Lucy's Smile: How Teeth and Diet Evolve Together
Jim Watson, ASM assistant curator of bioarchaeology and UA asst. professor of anthropology

Teeth are often some of the best preserved evidence of our oldest fossil ancestors. Lucy's jaw was found mostly complete and it can tell us a lot about what foods she ate during her lifetime. As Lucy's descendants began to evolve, through several species, and eventually into who we are today our diets changed, and so did our teeth. Our modern human dentition is the result of up to five million years of changes in diet and physical form that led to our pearly whites. But our modern diet is in discord with this evolutionary history and as a result, we suffer today from tooth crowding, cavities, tooth loss, and even corrective surgery.

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March 7, 1–4 p.m., free
Culture Craft Saturday: Evolutionary Fun!
Discover how your bones help you run fast. Activities to explore the evolution of our species.See and compare replicasof Lucy's skeleton, a chimpanzee's, and a modern human's. Talk with archaeologists. Join our friends from Pima County Public Library for JIGGY WRITING on FUNNYBONES.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Lucy's Locomotion: Are Two Legs Better than Four?
David Raichlen, professor of anthropology, UA Department of Anthropology

Humans are unique among mammals in that we habitually walk on two limbs. In fact, since Darwin, evolutionary biologists suggested that bipedalism was one of the first uniquely human traits, and therefore defines the hominid lineage. Most other mammals walk in a seemingly more stable and efficient manner, using multiple limbs to form large bases of support. Humans posses several anatomical peculiarities that make our bipedal gait more economical and more stable.  These features come with a price, however, since they put new and unusual forces along the axial skeleton that our primate ancestors did not experience.  There is a great deal of fossil evidence that shows many of these traits were present millions of years ago, including material from several members of the genus Australopithecus.  The discovery of the most famous Australopithecus fossil, Lucy, fueled a major debate in paleoanthropology over how and why bipedalism evolved in the first place.  Lucy’s skeleton shows many of the adaptations that are hallmarks of the human body, suggesting she was most certainly bipedal.  However, other aspects of her anatomy suggest that she may not have walked exactly like us, and in fact, she may have been at home climbing trees.  In this talk, I will explore what Lucy’s skeleton tells us about the form of bipedalism used by our early ancestors and I will discuss reasons why our unique form of locomotion evolved in the first place.  If Lucy did not walk exactly like us, why did her form of bipedalism evolve, and how long did it take for evolution to generate more modern-like forms?  Because the evolution of bipedalism likely led to the success of the hominid lineage, understanding how and why it evolved is a key element of understanding our own origins.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009
Lucy's Nature: Animal or Human?
John McClelland, ASM osteology lab manager and UA asst. professor of anthropology Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, ASM asst. curator of zooarchaeology and UA professor of anthropology

Lucy’s skeleton is remarkable not only because it is more than three million years old and relatively well preserved, but because of the mixture of apelike and human characteristics. She had a very small brain, but her limbs, pelvis, and teeth are not very far outside the range of human variation. In osteological terms, Lucy was clearly not yet human, but her species had already diverged from that of other mammals and was on a path that would lead to humanity. After a brief discussion of the characteristics which are associated with being human, participants will have an opportunity to examine replica human, hominid, and primate skeletal materials with the guidance of ASM osteologists.

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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Lucy's Luggage - Should an Ancient Fossil Travel?
Nancy Odegaard, conservator, head of ASM Preservation Division and UA professor of anthropology and materials science

The study human evolution involves three sources of information: DNA evidence, primatology or the comparative study of primates, and the fossil record. Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, the exhibition currently traveling the United States, has made the actual fossil bones available to an informed and excited community. Even in Ethiopia the remains have only been briefly displayed twice before. However, traveling Lucy has also drawn sharp criticism from prominent paleontologists. As part of the conservation team who advised the Ethiopian government on the preservation and shipping of Lucy's bones, Nancy Odegaard will share various insights on the practical and political pitfalls of packing fossils for international travel.