LIVING LINKS CENTER FOR STUDY OF APE & HUMAN EVOLUTION

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The Living Links Center is a research and educational center for the study of ape and human evolution, using behavioral, cognitive, anatomic, and molecular approaches. The LLC was formed in response to three developments. The first was the intellectual convergence of the fields of evolutionary psychology, comparative cognition, and field primatology around the importance of using extant species to understand extinct hominid ancestors. Second, technical developments in brain imaging and genomic sequencing provided new non-invasive approaches to study similarities and differences between great apes and humans. The LLC utilizs an ape colony in non-invasive comparative research and provides a base for philanthropic fund raising for both scientific and colony support. Major activities over the past years have been 1) organization of a hugely successful symposium on human origins that drew nearly 2,000 people from Emory and beyond, and 2) an international conference with the Chicago Academy of Sciences, in Chicago that has just been turned into a published volume. Currently, we are exploring a joint operation with St. Andrews University, in Scotland, where a center with the same name is being opened at the Edinburgh Zoo.