I Love Lucy: New Fossil Discoveries Shed Light on Our Species
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
3:30 p.m. in Jesse Wrench Auditorium, Memorial Union South
Ice cream social to follow
Carol V. Ward
Video of the lecture can be viewed on the university's YouTube site.
This year’s honored 21st Century Corps of Discovery lecturer is Dr. Carol V. Ward, professor of integrative anatomy in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the School of Medicine.
The past decade saw a burst of fossil discoveries. Dr. Ward, an internationally recognized scientist and prolific author, will discuss how these fossils provide a more complete and nuanced picture of our evolutionary past.
“Humans share a suite of characteristics not found in any other species that has ever walked the Earth. Each aspect of our bodies and our minds is the product of a long and diverse evolutionary history,” Dr. Ward says.
Dr. Ward’s research focuses on the evolution of humans and our closest relatives, apes and monkeys, primarily using fossils from East and South Africa that add to knowledge about anatomy.
Most recently, she collaborated with researchers from Arizona State University studying a 3.2 million-year-old foot bone of Australopithecus afarensis, a species commonly referred to as “Lucy,” in Ethiopia. The bone suggested that the hominids had stiff, arched feet similar to those found in humans. This discovery has led scientists to believe that the species was more versatile than previously thought.
“The development of arched feet was a fundamental shift toward the human condition, because it meant giving up the ability to use the big toe for grasping branches, signaling that our ancestors had finally abandoned life in the trees in favor of life on the ground,” Ward says.
Dr. Ward is currently working with orthopedic surgeons and engineers to use 3-D image analysis and finite element modeling to study spinal mechanics of modern patients with particular spinal disorders and femoral fractures. Her lab also studies the effects of exercise on bone and joint form, hip joint functional morphology, the evolution of human intelligence, and the evolution of the wrist.
Dr. Ward received her doctorate in functional anatomy and evolution from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan.
The annual 21st Century Corps of Discovery Lecture features an outstanding MU faculty member to commemorate the contributions of the Lewis and Clark expedition and to inspire and unite the university community at the beginning of each academic year. Reinforcing “discovery,” one of the university’s core values, the lecture is intended to represent MU’s diverse academics in science, art, humanities, law, medicine, engineering, education, journalism and business.
