#860 Carrie Mongle: Hominin Phylogeny, and Micro and Macroevolution
Dr. Carrie Mongle is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University and the Turkana Basin Institute. She also heads the Mongle Lab. Her research aims to reconstruct the major trends and transitions that characterize hominin diversity and evolution. Her ongoing work towards that goal involves (1) the discovery and description of new hominin fossils from the Turkana Basin in Kenya; (2) quantification of morphological variation; and (3) comprehensive phylogenetic analyses founded on the careful character assessment of both craniodental and postcranial characters. In addition, Dr. Mongle is interested in evaluating the relationship between variation, evolvability, and macroevolution in the primate dentition.
In this episode, we talk about hominin phylogenetics. We first talk about work done in the Turkana Basin in Kenya. We talk about craniodental and postcranial features looked at when studying human phylogenetics, and changes in hominin dentition. We discuss what we know about hominin phylogeny, and the cases of Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus sediba. We talk about studying microevolution and macroevolution, and how they interact. We talk about the example of primate molars. We discuss the relationship between development and evolution. We talk about how we can best model hominin evolution. Finally, we discuss some unanswered questions in human phylogenetics.
Time Links:
Intro
Hominin fossils from the Turkana Basin in Kenya
Craniodental and postcranial features
Changes in hominin dentition
What we know about hominin phylogeny
Ardipithecus ramidus
Australopithecus sediba
Studying microevolution and macroevolution, and how they interact
Primates molars, and the alignment of micro and macroevolution
The relationship between development and evolution
Modelling hominin evolution
Unanswered questions in human phylogenetics
Dr. Mongle’s current work
Follow Dr. Mongle’s work!
Follow Dr. Mongle’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/44JH4KS
Mongle Lab: https://bit.ly/3PUDrNZ
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/46Pra3p
Twitter handle: @CarrieMongle