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Senckenberg
Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald 1937 in Bandung, Indonesia. In front of him on the table is, among other things, the Sangiran II skull (right next to his left hand).

Palaeoanthropology

20. von Koenigswald-Lecture

Tuesday, 16 August 2022


English talk

“Toward a Metabolic Theory of Paleoecology, Liberating the Unknowable in Paleobiomics”

Prof. Timothy Bromage, New York University, New York, USA

In living organisms, metabolomics provides a systems biology platform for metabolic profiling. However, molecular details of the metabolism of extinct organisms are as little known as physiological responses to environmental conditions. The goal of linking characteristic metabolic profiles of fossil organisms with their respective ecology thus seemed unattainable – until now. For the first time, we can now read the metabolic profiles of early humans and other creatures and their nutritional strategies from samples millions of years old, and precisely reconstruct their environment. This unprecedented knowledge from the past opens up new possibilities for looking at ourselves and improving our lives.   Prof. Timothy G. Bromage is one of the most innovative palaeoanthropologists of our time. With growth analyses of pre-humans and by including the climatic and biogeographical context in the interpretation of the evolution of early humans, he developed the field of palaeobiomics as a cross-sectional science for all life on Earth.  
  • Date: Tuesday, 16 August 2022 at 7:30 PM
  • Place: Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum, Arthur-von-Weinberg-Haus, Green lecturehall, Robert-Mayer-Straße 2, 60325 Frankfurt
  • closing day: 09.08.2022
  • register here: Anmeldung Lecture
  • Talk will be held in English
early Homo Zahnschmelz
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Tim Bromage
Early Homo enamel
Zahnschmelz
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Tim Bromage
Enamel

The german film project “Was macht uns zum Menschen?”, “What makes us human?” Is a visual reflection, a reconciliation of fact-based natural science with the poetic search for the identity of Homo sapiens.

This unusual film visualizes along contemporary film documents, authentic photos, of Koenigswald’s moving correspondence with colleagues in Asia, Europe and America. We embark on an inspiring search for traces of human history: Where do humans come from? How is the rise of Homo sapiens to be explained? What makes us “Higher Order Mammals?”

The film is followed by a discussion with Oliver G. Becker, Frankfurt (Drehbuch & Regie); Mika Puspaningrum (Institut Teknologi, Bandung, Indonesien); Christine Hertler (Forschungsprojekt ROCEEH, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften); Albrecht Graf von Kalnein (Werner Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg); Diskussionsleitung: Michael Stang, Köln. link to film: koenigswald-lecture

 

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The Section Palaeoanthropology closely cooperates with the Research Centre ROCEEH of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and with New York University in the field of Human Paleobiomics.

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The study of biocultural evolution and human diversity has emerged as a core competence of the Palaeoanthropology Division of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt.

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Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald Archive

The archive contains files left by Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald, head of the Paleoanthropology Division at the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg between 1968 and 1982, when he died.

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Since Bárbara Rodriguez Álvarez got a fossil of an ammonite by her dad when she was a kid, she has been studying the traces of the past as an archaeologist.

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