Charting a new path for paleoanthropology in a rapidly changing world

Erik R. Seiffert
Division of Integrative Anatomical Sciences
Keck School of Medicine of USC

The field of paleoanthropology is at a crossroads. On one hand, the discipline has never been so dynamic and exciting, as new methods are allowing us to extract more and more information from the fossil record, and are improving our inferences about the evolutionary history of humans and their relatives. On the other hand, the institutions that have historically supported this work are under mounting pressure from economic, political, and environmental instability. These changes are forcing us to re-envision the future of the field, and to reconsider how paleoanthropological research will be done moving forward. In this talk, I draw on my experiences searching for early anthropoid fossils in the Fayum Depression of Egypt, the Turkana Basin of Kenya, and Peruvian Amazonia to argue both for the importance of the work, and for a path that emphasizes training and empowering local researchers to ensure a more resilient, inclusive, and productive future for paleoantrhopology.