In the human evolutionary history, the most important milestone is the evolution of our own genus, Homo, approximately 2.5 million years ago. It marks the appearance of modern human-like body size, a trend towards larger brain size, and the appearance of humans beyond the African continent. However, despite its importance, this transition is not well understood, and has even become more complicated with recent discoveries.

In this lecture Katerina Harvati will give an overview of the fossil record and discuss the questions: how should we define the genus Homo? Who is its ancestor and who its earliest member? And finally, what enabled the geographic expansion of early humans into Eurasia?

Prof. Katerina Harvati is the holder of the Eugène Dubois rotating Chair 2018.