Past Presentation

Traditionalism, pathogen avoidance, and competing tradeoffs during a global pandemic Theo Samore University of Otago Individuals vary in the extent to which they embrace their society’s traditions, as well as in the perception of threats as salient and necessitating mitigation. Traditionalism and threat sensitivity may be linked if—over evolutionary time—traditions offered avenues for reliably addressing […]

Hunter-gatherers, evolutionary mismatch and mental disorder Nikhil Chaudhary Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge *Note: This speaker will be remote; However, we will still be meeting in Haines 352 to watch the talk and conduct the Q&A. Humans lived as hunter-gatherers for the vast majority of our evolutionary history, therefore it has […]

Dawn of the Anthropocene: How humans in a warming climate drove Pleistocene mammal extinctions and re-shaped California’s landscapes Emily Lindsey Tar Pits/UCLA The relative roles late-Quaternary climate changes and human actions played in the extinction of most of the world’s large mammals at the end of the Ice Age have been long-debated.  One key challenge […]

Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to understanding climate change Elsa Ordway UCLA The tropics are experiencing dramatic changes as a result of climate change and land-use change. Shifts in carbon flux dynamics, water cycling, and species composition are resulting in feedbacks with globally important consequences. However, tropical forests are not a monolith. […]

How Past Pandemics Shaped the Evolution of Human Immunity – Lessons from Ancient Genomes Eduardo Amorim Cal State Northridge Pathogen exposure has played a pivotal role in shaping human evolution. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reveal that the genetic predisposition to infections arises from the contribution of thousands of loci across the genome, indicating a polygenic […]

The effect of population history on patterns of genetic diversity at the TAS2R bitter taste receptor genes in West Central and Central African populations Michael Campbell USC Bitter taste perception is a highly variable trait in humans, and the ability to detect bitter compounds has been largely attributed to genetic variants in 25 bitter taste […]

On the Number of Genealogical Ancestors: Tracing to the Source Groups of an Admixed Population Jazlyn Mooney Dept. of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California In genetically admixed populations, admixed individuals possess ancestry from multiple source groups. Studies of human genetic admixture frequently estimate ancestry components corresponding to fractions of individual genomes that […]

Surviving the heights: Environmental adaptations and multispecies genetics in the Andes Kelsey Jorgensen Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, UCLA Human populations have thrived in the Peruvian Andes for thousands of years despite extreme environmental stressors of hypoxia, cold temperatures, and times of food scarcity. These evolutionary environmental pressures have shaped unique genetic adaptations and continue […]

Rhythm coordination in animal species, including humans: Entrainment from bushcricket chorusing to the philharmonic orchestra. Michael Greenfield ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, CRNL, University of Saint-Etienne, CNRS Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas Repetitive cycles of an activity or state, generally known as rhythm, are ubiquitous in living organisms, occurring in all branches […]

Motherhood on ice: The mating gap and why women freeze their eggs Marcia Inhorn Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, Yale University Why are women freezing their eggs in record numbers? Contrary to media reports, which suggest that women’s career ambitions are the main determinant of women’s fertility postponement, women themselves offer different explanations for […]