The Institute of Human Origins (IHO) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, multidisciplinary research organization dedicated to the recovery and analysis of the fossil evidence for

human evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...

. It was founded by the team of

paleoanthropologists Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and biological anthropology, anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as wikt:hominization, hominization, throug ...

that discovered

Lucy Lucy is an English language, English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings ar ...

, and became affiliated with

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

in 1997. In 2014, IHO received the single largest grant dedicated to the research of human origins.

Origins

After finding

during the "surge of discoveries" in the 1970s, Donald Johanson returned to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

and founded the Institute of Human Origins with the mission of bridging social, earth, and life science approaches to the most important questions concerning the course, causes, and timing of events in the human career over deep time.

Research and discoveries

Fossil record of the earliest human evolution

Ledi-Geraru is one of IHO's fieldwork sites in the fossil-rich

Afar Region The Afar Region (; ; ), formerly known as Region 2, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved Awash, Ethiopia, Awash� ...

of Ethiopia. In 2013, graduate student Chalachew Seyoum discovered the lower mandible known as

LD 350-1 LD 350-1 is the earliest known specimen of the genus ''Homo'', dating to 2.75–2.8 million years ago (mya), found in the Ledi-Geraru site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. The specimen was discovered in silts above the Gurumaha Tuff section of the ...

, the oldest fossil from the human genus, ''

Homo ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called ...

''. The discovery pushed back evidence of the human genus, ''

'', to 2.8 million years, ago, nearly a half-million years earlier than previously known. Ongoing IHO field work in Hadar, Ethiopia, where

was found in 1974, addresses the evolution and ecology of ''

Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; or (, ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans), ''Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus'' evolved from some ''Aus ...

'' (3.0–3.4 million years ago) and the origin of ''Homo'' and stone-tool making (2.3 million years ago). In 2007, the field project opened ASU's Hadar Field School, which educates American study abroad students in field methods in human origins research.

Emergence of modern humans in Africa

Since joining IHO in 2001, Curtis Marean has directed the organization's

Pinnacle Point Pinnacle Point is a small promontory immediately south of Mossel Bay, a town on the southern coast of South Africa. Excavations since the year 2000 of a series of caves at Pinnacle Point, first recognized and documented in 1997 by South Africa ...

fieldwork, which is working to produce and integrate a climate, environment, and paleoanthropological sequence for the final stage in human evolution. The focus of the Pinnacle Point excavations has been at Cave 13B (PP13B), where the fieldwork team has discovered early evidence of symbolic behavior. In 2009, the examination of worked silcrete stone from

indicated that it was heat-treated, and is the oldest known example of such technology. Pinnacle Point also represents the oldest known occurrence of human consumption of

shellfish Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...

, as well as an early use of

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

. These features indicate a sophisticated level of modern behaviors that had previously been associated with Upper Paleolithic of Europe. The discoveries here are key pieces of evidence supporting the early florescence of modern human behaviors in Africa.

Evolutionary foundations of human uniqueness

The IHO Templeton Research Program is a collaborative inquiry into the evolutionary foundations of human uniqueness. The $4.9 million, three-year grant from the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...

is the largest of its type for human origins research, and will support 11 linked investigations of where, when, and how unique human capacities for complex cognition, cumulative culture, and large-scale cooperation emerged.

Current Faculty

Source: *

Yohannes Haile-Selassie Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye (born 23 February 1961) is an Ethiopian Paleoanthropology, paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-''Homo sapiens'' hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys. ...

(Director) * Donald Johanson (Founding Director) * Robert Boyd * Christopher Campisano * Helen Elizabeth Davis * Ian Gilby * Kim Hill * Kevin Langergraber * Curtis Marean * Sarah Mathew * Thomas Morgan * Charles Perreault * Kathryn Ranhorn * Kaye Reed * Gary Schwartz *

Joan Silk Joan B. Silk (born December 16, 1953) is an American primatologist, Regents Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESC) at Arizona State University . Her research interests include evolutionary anthropology, animal be ...

* Anne Stone * Denise Su Two IHO faculty are members of the National Academy of Sciences: Joan Silk and Anne Stone

Institute of Human Origins Research Council

Alexander Barbanell , Charles Brickman , Colleen Cookson , Robert Cookson , David Deniger , Martin Dobelle , Molly Dobelle , John Ellerman , Alejandra Escandon , Jay Greene , Thomas F. Hill , Donald Johanson , Thomas P. Jones III , Patrick Kenney , Bobby Ellen Kimbel , William Kimbel , David Koch , Ross Leventhal , Curtis Marean , Carolyn Lee (Susie) Marston , Rand Morimoto , Harry A. Papp , Arthur L. Pearce II , Herb Roskind , Laura Rosskind , Janet D. Sands , Edgar L. Sands , Peter Saucier , Carol Saucier , Bruce W. Schnitzer , Ridge Smidt , Ian Tattersall , Joan Travis , Sander van der Leeuw

References

{{authority control Archaeological organizations based in the United States Biological anthropology organizations Research institutes in Arizona Arizona State University Paleoanthropology Research institutes established in 1997 1997 establishments in Arizona