May 2012

Posted May 8, 2012

“The Pleistocene Meets Middle Earth: The Significance of the Indonesian Hobbits”

For Immediate Release
May 8, 2012
Media Contact: Kimberly Allen, Director of Development
816-926-8792

“The Pleistocene Meets Middle Earth: The Significance of the Indonesian Hobbits”

(Kansas City, MO) An amazing discovery in 2003 rattled the scientific community. A tiny 18,000-year-old hominin skeleton was found on the island of Flores, Indonesia. The skeletal evidence suggests that adults of this species had extremely small brains, stood only about 3'6" tall, and weighed around 66 pounds. Even more surprising is that they lived until 12,000 to 20,000 years ago, thus overlapping with modern humans. Are the hobbits, as they came to be known, a new species previously unrecognized on the human family tree? Or are they modern humans who suffered from a genetic disease? Those and other questions regarding these intriguing skeletal remains will be answered when the Linda Hall Library presents “The Pleistocene Meets Middle Earth: The Significance of the Indonesian Hobbits” by Dr. Matt Tocheri on May 10 at 7:00 p.m. The lecture will be held in the Main Reading Room of the Library at 5109 Cherry, Kansas City, Missouri.

This event is free and open to the public; however, the lecture has reached seating capacity. To add your name to the wait list, please visit www.lindahall.org or call 816-926-8772.

Dr. Tocheri, a paleoanthropologist in the Human Origins Program of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, believes the answers to the questions about the hobbits can be found in their wrist bones.

In his presentation, he will undertake a fascinating journey from the caves of Flores, Indonesia, to his laboratory where 3D laser scans of hobbit wrist bones showed that they were nothing at all like wrist bones found in modern humans or Neanderthals. More importantly, the findings supported the conclusion that hobbits are indeed a distinct branch of early human development and not deformed modern humans.

Dr. Tocheri will discuss the on-going excavations on Flores that are aimed at learning more about this enigmatic member of the human family tree and its relationship to our own species, Homo sapiens.

This is the final lecture in the Relatively Human Lecture series made possible by support from Tuck and Susan Spaulding, Dr. Richard J. Gentile, Bob and Sally West, and the Linda Hall Library Annual Fund.

The Linda Hall Library, the world’s largest privately funded library of science, engineering and technology, is located at 5109 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri. The Library, exhibition galleries, and William N. Deramus III Cosmology Theater are open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The exhibition galleries and William N. Deramus III Cosmology Theater are also open the second Saturday of each month 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology — Information for the World
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Posted May 3, 2012

“Neanderthal Genome Project: New Insights into Human Evolution”

For Immediate Release
May 3, 2012
Media Contact: Kimberly Allen, Director of Development
816-926-8792


“Neanderthal Genome Project: New Insights into Human Evolution”

(Kansas City, MO) DNA samples have been used to solve crimes, exonerate persons falsely imprisoned, or to determine paternity in various cases. But what could DNA taken from 38,000-year-old-bones of Neanderthals reveal to us today? Surprisingly, the answer is a lot! Dr. Richard Edward Green will share discoveries and insights from the Neanderthal Genome Project on Thursday, May 3, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. at the Linda Hall Library. This event is free and open to the public; however, the lecture has reached seating capacity. To add your name to the wait list, please visit www.lindahall.org or call 816-926-8772.

Dr. Green, who has coordinated the Neanderthal Genome Project since 2005, will discuss DNA extracted from Neanderthal bones found in Croatia. His research has provided evidence that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals, leaving a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA in our genome. This discovery has yielded important new insights into the evolution of modern humans.

Green is a computational biologist in the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a B.S. in genetics from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley. He has appeared on NPR’s Science Friday and his work has been published in the scientific journal Nature, as well as other publications.

This is the third lecture in the Relatively Human Lecture series made possible by support from Tuck and Susan Spaulding, Dr. Richard J. Gentile, Bob and Sally West, and the Linda Hall Library Annual Fund.

The Linda Hall Library, the world’s largest privately funded library of science, engineering and technology, is located at 5109 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri. The Library, exhibition galleries, and William N. Deramus III Cosmology Theater are open Monday through Friday
9 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. The exhibition galleries and William N. Deramus III Cosmology Theater are also open the second Saturday of each month 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology — Information for the World.

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