UA Evolution Lectureship Series Continues with Anthropologist Jeffrey Schwartz

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz will speak on “Toward resolving almost 150 years of the Darwinism-Evo-Devo debate: the difference between the emergence and persistence of novelty” at The University of Alabama April 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Biology Building Auditorium (room 127).

Schwartz’s lecture is part of UA’s two-year series on evolution.

Schwartz, professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, has been sought out by the national media for commentary on the “Hobbit” discovery (Homo floresiensis), an early form of human found in Indonesia, and on the forensic reconstruction of George Washington’s physical appearance.

He will speak on his recent writings in evolutionary biology, which are concerned with developing a model of evolution that applies to both plants and animals.

His research focuses on three areas: evolutionary biology and the origin and diversification of extinct and existing primates, human and faunal skeletal analysis of archaeological remains, and dentofacial growth and development in man and other mammals.

He is the author of books on human skeletal biology, What the Bones Tell Us and Skeleton Keys, and on human evolution, Extinct Humans and The Red Ape: Orangutans and Human Origins. His most recent work has involved trips to photograph fossil collections all over the world in support of his co-edited four-volume series, “The Human Fossil Record,” the most complete compendium published on human evolution.

He is also a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution, known as ALLELE, is a two-year series of lectures which will continue in September 2007.

The ALLELE series is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, and UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Education.

The lectures are designed for non-technical audience and are free and open to the public.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 350 faculty and 6,600 students.