Alesi: The Life, Death, and Discovery of an Ancester
Dec 19, 2017
Dr. Isaiah Nengo
Alesi: The Life, Death, and Discovery of an Ancester

The recent discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil infant ape skull has offered a rare glimpse of what the common ancestor of all living apes and humans may have looked like. The fossil, nick- named “Alesi,” belongs to a newly named species called Nyanzapithecus alesi. Alesi was discovered in a place called Napudet in Turkana, Kenya, by John Ekusi, a member of Dr. Isaiah Nengo’s research team. Alesi was scanned with high powered x-rays at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, revealing the skull’s internal structures in stunning detail. In this talk, Dr. Nengo will share the story of finding this rare fossil and discuss the secrets that cutting-edge technology has uncovered about the life of this ancient infant.

Dr. Isaiah Nengo was born in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an associate director and research professor at the Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University. He holds a BS in zoology and botany from the University of Nairobi and a PhD in biological anthropology from Harvard University. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the National Museums of Kenya and the University of Nairobi in 2012/13. Dr. Nengo’s research focuses on the search for the ancestors of apes and humans in Africa. He is the recipient of five Leakey Foundation Research Grants.