Leslie Aiello

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Leslie Crum Aiello (born May 26, 1946 in Pasadena , California ) is an American paleoanthropologist and professor emeritus from University College London . Since April 2005 she has been the President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research , founded by Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren .

Life

From 1964 to 1967 Leslie Aiello studied anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and during this time (1965/66) also spent a year as a visiting student at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . The Bachelor's degree was followed by a Master's degree - also at the University of California, Los Angeles - which was completed in 1970 with a study on A Critical Examination of the Structural Remains from the Northern German Upper Palaeolithic . After that, she was at a different California college as a lecturer worked until 1976 to London , went where she in 1981 at the University of London the doctoral degree in the subject anatomy with a study of An Analysis of Shape and Strength in the Long Bones of Higher Primates acquired. This was followed by teaching activities at the University of Cambridge , the University of Sussex and Yale University, and from 1987 to 2005 a professorship at University College London.

Aiello is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Zoological Society of London and has been a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina since 2011 , of the American Philosophical Society since 2014 and of the British Academy since 2018 .

research

Since her doctoral thesis, Leslie Aiello has been researching the evolutionary adaptations that modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) have acquired in the course of hominization . These included, in particular, changes in the stages of life - such as childhood , adolescence or the period after menopause - and in the brain and the associated cognitive performance. Furthermore, she dealt with the biological basis of speech and the relationship between food intake, energy balance and human locomotion.

In collaboration with Peter Wheeler , she developed the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis , according to which there is a direct connection between the enlargement of the brain in the course of human tribal history and the parallel reduction in the size of the digestive tract as a result of protein-rich animal food.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis: co ‐ evolution of the brain and the digestive system in humans and other primates. In: International Journal of Anthropology , Volume 9, No. 3, 1994, p. 166, doi: 10.1007 / BF02575406
  • with Peter Wheeler: The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: The Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution. In: Current Anthropology , Volume 36, No. 2, 1995, pp. 199-221, doi: 10.1086 / 204350
  • Brains and Guts in Human Evolution: The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis. In: Brazilian Journal of Genetics , Volume 20, No. 1,1997, pp. 141–148, doi: 10.1590 / S0100-84551997000100023 (full text freely accessible)
  • The expensive tissue hypothesis and the evolution of the human adaptive niche: a study in comparative anatomy. In: Justine Bayley (Ed.): Science in Archeology: an Agenda for the Future. English Heritage, London 1998, pp. 25-36, ISBN 1-85074-693-1
  • with N. Bates and T. Joffe: The expensive tissue hypothesis revisited. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology , Volume 104, Supplement 24, 1997, p. 62
  • with N. Bates and T. Joffe: In defense of the expensive tissue hypothesis: ontogeny, maternal care and organ size. In: Dean Falk, Kathleen R. Gibson (Eds.): Evolutionary Anatomy of the Primate Cerebral Cortex. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, pp. 57-78, ISBN 0-521-64271-X
  • with Cathy Key: The energetic consequences of being a Homo erectus female. In: American Journal of Human Biology , Volume 14, No. 5, 2002, pp. 551-565, doi: 10.1002 / ajhb.10069
  • with Jonathan CK Wells: Energetics and the evolution of the genus Homo. In: Annual Review of Anthropology , Volume 31, 2002, pp. 323-338, doi: 10.1146 / annurev.anthro.31.040402.085403
  • with WEH Harcourt-Smith: Fossils, feet and the evolution of human bipedal locomotion. In: Journal of Anatomy , Volume 204, No. 5, 2004, pp. 403-416, doi : 10.1111 / j.0021-8782.2004.00296.x , PMC 1571304 (free full text)
  • Five years of Homo floresiensis. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology , Volume 142, No. 2, 2010, pp. 167-179, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.21255

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Leslie Aiello (with picture) at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on May 21, 2016.
  2. ^ Leslie Aiello, Peter Wheeler, The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: The Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution. In: Current Anthropology , Volume 36, No. 2, 1995, pp. 199-221, doi: 10.1086 / 204350


personal data
SURNAME Aiello, Leslie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aiello, Leslie Crum (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Pasadena