On Sunday, January 29, Anna Ragni, a Ph.D. student in anthropology, led 26 participants on a tour of the Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History. Ragni took us on a journey through the course of human evolution. She discussed morphological changes, particularly in bone and tooth structure, that occurred during this time and explained the significance of recent anthropological discoveries.
Anna Ragni is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History. As a master’s student at the University of Arkansas, she worked on the evolution of diet in Brazilian monkeys and South African fossil hominins. For her Ph.D., Ragni is studying how development plays a role in the evolution of bipedal locomotion using CT scanning of modern primates.
To view more photos from this event, check out our gallery. Photo credit to Maurice Chen.
For additional resources related to the tour (and recommended by Ragni), please see:
Smithsonian Institution Human Origins Program - Digital skulls to compare, timelines, family trees, information on genetics.
Sapiens.org - A website curated by anthropologists for a public audience (check out the evolution section).
Annaragni.com - Ragni's personal website that contains her contact information.
Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are? by Frans de Waal - A book that was brought up at the end of the tour.