Human Evolution and Why It Matters: A Conversation with Leakey and Johanson

Celebrating decades of groundbreaking exploration in East Africa, renowned paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey shared the stage at the American Museum of Natural History on May 5 to discuss the overwhelming evidence for evolution in the hominid fossil record and why understanding our evolutionary history is so important. The discussion, before a sold-out crowd in the Museum's LeFrak Theater, was moderated by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN. The event was also live-streamed on amnh.org to a digital audience of several hundred viewers around the country.

Known for such landmark discoveries as "Lucy" (Johanson) and "Turkana Boy" (Leakey), the work of these two scientists has produced much of the fossil evidence that forms our understanding of human evolution.

Looking back over careers spanning 40-plus years, Dr. Johanson and Dr. Leakey shared the stories behind their monumental finds and offered a look at what's ahead in human evolutionary research.

This historic event was made possible through a joint partnership of the American Museum of Natural History, the Arizona State University Institute of Human Origins, and the Turkana Basin Institute, headquartered in the U.S. at Stony Brook University.

This video is a recording of the live stream, which ran at http://www.amnh.org/live

Produced and directed by James Sims. Shot by Jill Bauerle and Manuel Benitez for AMNH.org.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• evolution
• richard leakey
• donald johanson
• lucy
• turkana boy
• humans
• fossils
• hominid
• fossil record
• science
• debate
• education
• amnh
• darwin
• creationism
• intelligent

[MVT44]

It really is wonderful that these two brilliant anthropologists could get over their differences and finally talk together after 30 years of ignoring each other. I am a senior anthropology major at ASU where Johanson teaches and I was lucky enough to meet this brilliant man. I could only imagine what it would be like to meet Leaky.

[AsiaLaurenne]

@theaccousticaddict "And what makes you think anyone will believe your bollocks or even take you seriously?" Because I am supporting my ideas with facts. Science does not have all the answers but it is trying to find them. People like you who say "NO! GOD DID IT!" are just inhibiting scientific progress. Try to understand evolution and whether it can fit with your beliefs if you really must keep them. I think Galileo said where the bible defies common sense it was being allegorical.

[AsiaLaurenne]

@theaccousticaddict Hey! Ain't you that conspiracy theorist who cherry-picks when to care about what scientific academia has to say about available evidence? Dude! I'd love to appeal to your "bastions" of reason, but I'm too busy fornicating.

[theaccousticaddict]

@AsiaLaurenne "because it contradicts your supernatural view of humanity."

The supernatural aspect and view of humanity is an absolute reality, so anything that contradicts it is false. If someone told you that he/she saw a human being fly, you,d know that is impssible.

"If science worked that way, we'd have no computers and the sun would still be orbiting the earth"

Why dont you leave science alone nd just focus on evolution. I am accusing a country, not the whole world, use ur senses

[AsiaLaurenne]

@theaccousticaddict You REALLY think anthropologists, mathematicians, astrophysicists, biochemists, neuroscientists, environmentalists, geophysicists, psychologists, etc (all under the U.S National Academy of Sciences) are in a giant conspiracy to hide creation evidence? They're really secret atheists hiding behind science? Why didn't you say? I could've been fornicating instead of arguing with some conspiracy theorist who wouldn't recognise evidence if it gave him a map of its genome sequence.

[AsiaLaurenne]

@theaccousticaddict You, on your own, do not have all the tools to understand the world. You didn't notice the expanding universe until the atheist scientists told you. The same atheist scientists support evolution. You listen to them on one but not “care what they have to say” for the second only because it contradicts your supernatural view of humanity. If science worked that way, we'd have no computers and the sun would still be orbiting the earth, Galileo being a heretic and all.