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Published anthropologist to speak at NIU
A member of the team that worked on the world-famous fossilized human, Lucy, is speaking at NIU.
Biological anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy will deliver a lecture Tuesday titled, “The Chimpanzee has no Clothes: A Deeper Look at Human Origins.”
Lovejoy will speak about his work on Lucy and recent evidence of human fossil records. The lecture will be held at Faraday West, room 201, at 5 p.m.
“I will review some recent evidence that has improved our knowledge of human evolution from both the fossil record and from comparative anatomy,” Lovejoy said.
Lovejoy is a professor at Kent State University in the department of biology and division of biomedical sciences.
During Lucy’s discovery, Lovejoy was working on a knee joint in the previous field season, and then became part of the analysis team that discovered Lucy.
Lovejoy completed his post-doctorate in biomechanics and published a new analysis of the hip joint of Australopithecus, the genus of Lucy.
The analysis and study of comparative materials of fossils can be a lengthy process, especially on the skeletons and the dissections of both humans and other primates, Lovejoy said.
“I worked on her continually for the next five years, but have continued to do so ever since - she is a constant source of important information,” Lovejoy said.
The discovery and the study of Lucy and similar fossils has improved the knowledge of human evolution, Lovejoy said. Lucy was very well adapted to upright walking, but the brain was similar to the brain of a chimpanzee, he added.
“Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives and have therefore been ‘adopted’ as a potential surrogate for early human ancestors,” Lovejoy said. “However, it is the differences between yourselves and apes that are most likely to help explain how human evolution occurred.”