Further Findings

Moms are tops in muriquis monkey society. Photo by Carla B. Possamai; provided by K. B. Strier.

If you are a male human, nothing puts a damper on romantic success like having your mother in tow. If you are a male northern muriqui monkey, however, mom’s presence may be your best bet to find and successfully mate with just the right girl at the right time.

In a study of wild primates, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy
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Chris Kirk, an associate professor of physical anthropology, talks about how he and colleagues set the record straight on the Darwinius masillae fossil. The fossil, they said, is part of the loris-lemur lineage, not the monkey-ape-human lineage.

Team Lucy CT: From the left, Ron Harvey, conservator; Alemu Admassu, curator; John Kappelman, anthropologist; and Richard Ketcham, geologist and CT Lab director.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Ethiopian government, have completed the first high-resolution CT scan of the world’s most famous fossil, Lucy, an ancient human ancestor who lived 3.2 million years ago.

Video on the CT Lab from NPR's Science Friday

John Kappelman, professor of anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, led the
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Liza Shapiro

Scientists arrive at their careers in different ways. Some follow a childhood interest, others are inspired by a teacher or discover a passion in a class they took on a lark and others find they have a talent in a field they hadn’t considered.
Further Findings will highlight the paths that some researchers at The University of Texas at Austin took to the laboratory, the library, the field—wherever they do their work.

First up is Liza Shapiro, a professor of physical
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