"Conservation of the Laetoli Footprints: What Went Wrong?"

Charles Musiba, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado-Denver, works on hominins in Tanzania and South Africa. A native of Tanzania, his focus is at Laetoli (northern Tanzania), where bipedal footprints were first found in 1976. His research explores the link between human evolution and climate change in ancient times (paleoecology), the process of fossilization (taphonomy), and the categorization of the various hominin discoveries in Laetoli, Ethiopia, and Kenya (taxonomy). In order to do this work, he must also navigate modern questions of conservation and sustainable use of ancient cultural heritage.

At Dartmouth he will speak to classes in the anthropology department, and students will meet and speak with him in classes and in house communities.