#645 Steven Churchill: Homo naledi, Australopithecus sediba, and Human Evolution

<p>------------------Support the channel------------</p> <p>Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter">https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter</a></p> <p>PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter</p> <p>PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy">https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy</a></p> <p>PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l">https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l</a></p> <p>PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz">https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz</a></p> <p>PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m">https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m</a></p> <p>PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao">https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao</a></p> <p><br></p> <p>This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning &amp; Development done differently. Check the website here: <a href="http://enlites.com/">http://enlites.com/</a></p> <p><br></p> <p>Dr. Steven Churchill is a Professor and past Chair of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. He is also an Honorary Reader in the Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a paleontologist who studies the fossil record of human evolution, especially that of early members of our genus (Homo) that lived between about two million to ten thousand years ago.</p> <p>In this episode, we talk about aspects of human evolution. We start by asking where it starts. We talk about anatomical features anthropologists use to classify fossils, the classification of species, and determining the sex of a specimen. We get deep into Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba, two new species discovered by Dr. Churchill and his collaborators. We go through the timeline of our evolution since H. erectus. We discuss the oldest hominin species, and how to compare hominins behaviorally with other apes, primates and other animal groups. We talk about behavioral modernity, and the role of self-domestication in our evo