AnthroQuest
no. 37 Spring/Summer 2018
The Newsletter of The Leakey Foundation
Well-Timed Pebbles Make Big Ripples
NINA JABLONSKI LEAKEY FOUNDATION GRANTEE, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY I received my first Leakey Foundation grant in 1978, at age 25. I was a graduate student at the University of Washington and needed money to travel to Hong Kong to study rare cadaver specimens of Ethiopian gelada baboons held in the collections of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Hong Kong. I won’t go into the long story of how dead geladas got to Hong Kong, but the fact remained that I needed to dissect this extraordinary collection so that I could better understand the chewing abilities and evolutionary history of all Theropithecus baboons. I applied to The Leakey Foundation and received a then generous grant of $1,615, enough to get me to Hong Kong and change my world. While in Hong Kong, I completed the collection of data for my dissertation and graduated with my Ph.D. in 1981. Much of my dissertation research and the results of wonderful studies by numerous distinguished colleagues were eventually included in what most people know simply as “the Theropithecus book,” published in 1993. That 1978 trip to Hong Kong turned out to be important in other
Celebrating 50 years of exploration, discovery, and sharing our human story.
Nina Jablonski examines fossils in the Yunnan Province, China.
ways because – as a small treat to myself after completing my research work – I made my first trip to China. I was smitten. In 1981, I was offered and accepted a job at the University of Hong Kong in the same department as my precious geladas. After beginning the study of Mandarin Chinese, I settled down in Hong Kong for what were to be nine eventful years of life and research. My research in China was focused primarily on understanding the evolution of Old World monkeys there, including what was then the virtually unknown snub-nosed
INSIDE Awarded Grants: Fall 2017
pages 4 & 5
monkeys of China, some of which live at high altitude under extreme cold. This research opened new vistas into the study of the living “odd-nosed” colobine monkeys. It also led me to highly productive paleontological fieldwork at many sites throughout Yunnan Province, conducted primarily in collaboration with Ji Xueping of the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. This work uncovered many primate and other fossils and shed light on how Asian primates adapted to rapid and dramatic environmental change over the last seven million years. [continued on page 3]
Director’s Diary: Austin, Texas pages 6 & 7
New Programs and Partnerships pages 8 & 9