Tim White (anthropologist)
Encyclopedia
Tim D. White is an American Paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

. He is most famous for his work on Lucy
Lucy (Australopithecus)
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...

 as Australopithecus afarensis with discoverer Donald Johanson
Donald Johanson
Donald Carl Johanson is an American paleoanthropologist. Along with Maurice Taieb, and Yves Coppens he is known for the discovery of the skeleton of the female hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy", in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia.-Early years:Johanson was born in Chicago,...

.

Career

White was born in Los Angeles County, California. He majored in biology and anthropology at the University of California, Riverside
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...

. He received his Ph.D. in physical anthropology
Physical anthropology
Biological anthropology is that branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in paleoanthropology and in forensic anthropology...

 from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. White took a position in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1977 later migrating to the university's Department of Integrative Biology. At present, White teaches courses on human paleontology and human osteology. Generally, each spring semester he teaches one of the two in alternation.

He is director of the Human Evolution Research Center and co-director, with Berhane Asfaw
Berhane Asfaw
Berhane Asfaw is an Ethiopian paleontologist of Rift Valley Research Service, who co-discovered human skeletal remains at Herto Bouri, Ethiopia that revealed a transition into modern humans . The specimen was called Homo sapiens idaltu .He graduated from Addis Ababa University in 1980.-References:...

, Yonas Beyene, and Giday WoldeGabriel
Giday WoldeGabriel
Giday WoldeGabriel is an Ethiopian geologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who co-discovered human skeletal remains at Herto Bouri, Ethiopia that revealed a transition into modern humans . The specimen was called Homo sapiens idaltu.-References:...

, of the Middle Awash Research Project.

White has mentored a number of prominent paleoanthropologists, such as Susan Antón
Susan Anton
-Youth:Anton attended Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, California, and graduated in 1968. After high school, Anton attended San Bernardino Valley College...

, Berhane Asfaw, Henry Gilbert, David h DeGusta, Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-Homo sapiens hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the Great Rift Valley and Middle Awash Valleys of East Africa....

, and Gen Suwa.

Collaborations

In 1974 White worked with Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey is a politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey...

's team at Koobi Fora, Kenya. Richard Leakey was so impressed with White's work he recommended White to his mother, Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge,...

, to help her with hominid
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....

 fossils she had found at Laetoli, Tanzania.

White took a job at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1977 and collaborated with J. Desmond Clark
J. Desmond Clark
John Desmond Clark was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa.Educated at Monkton Combe School near Bath, J. Desmond Clark graduated with a B.A...

 and F. Clark Howell
Francis Clark Howell
Francis Clark Howell, generally known as F. Clark Howell was an American anthropologist. He altered the landscape of his discipline irrevocably by adding a broad spectrum of modern sciences to the traditional "stones and bones" approach of the past and is considered the father of modern...

. In 1994, White discovered what was then the oldest known human ancestor: 4.4 million-year-old Ar. ramidus. Found near the Awash River in Ethiopia, an almost complete fossilized female skeleton named "Ardi
Ardi
Ardi is the designation of the fossilized skeletal remains of a female Ardipithecus ramidus, an early human-like species 4.4 million years old...

" took nearly 15 years to prepare publication of the description.

In 1996, White, along with paleontologist Berhane Asfaw
Berhane Asfaw
Berhane Asfaw is an Ethiopian paleontologist of Rift Valley Research Service, who co-discovered human skeletal remains at Herto Bouri, Ethiopia that revealed a transition into modern humans . The specimen was called Homo sapiens idaltu .He graduated from Addis Ababa University in 1980.-References:...

 made yet another discovery that involved fossils of a 2.5 million-year-old species BOU-VP-12/130 Australopithecus garhi
Australopithecus garhi
Australopithecus garhi is a gracile australopithecine species whose fossils were discovered in 1996 by a research team led by Ethiopian paleontologist Berhane Asfaw and Tim White, an American paleontologist. The hominin remains are believed to be a human ancestor species and the final missing link...

, which is thought to predate H. habilis tool use and manufacturing by 100,000 to 600,000 years.

Honors

  • Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences
    California Academy of Sciences
    The California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the twentieth...

  • Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
    American Association for the Advancement of Science
    The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

  • David S. Ingalls Jr. Award from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
    Cleveland Museum of Natural History
    The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions...

  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences
    United States National Academy of Sciences
    The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

  • Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award
    Academy of Achievement
    The Academy of Achievement is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization founded in 1961 by photographer Hy Peskin. He established the Academy of Achievement to bring aspiring young people together with accomplished people...

     (1995)
  • Distinguished Alumnus of the Year (2000) at the University of California, Riverside.

Select publications

  • Haile-Selassie, Y., Suwa, G. and White, T.D. 2004. "Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and Early Hominid Dental Evolution." Science 303:1503-1505.
  • White, T.D., B. Asfaw, D. DeGusta, H. Gilbert, G.D. Richards, G. Suwa, and F.C. Howell. 2003. "Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia." Nature 423:742-747.
  • White, T.D. 2003. "Early hominids—Diversity or distortion" Science 299:1994-1996.
  • Lovejoy, C.O., R.S. Meindl, J.C. Ohman, K.G. Heiple, and T.D. White. 2002. "The Maka femur and its bearing on the antiquity of human walking: Applying contemporary concepts of morphogenesis to the human fossil record." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 119:97-133.
  • Asfaw, B., W.H. Gilbert, Y. Beyene, W.K. Hart, P.R. Renne, G. WoldeGabriel, E.S. Vrba, and T.D. White. 2002. "Remains of Homo erectus from Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia." Nature 416:317-320.
  • WoldeGabriel, G., Y. Haile-Selassie, P.R. Renne, W.K. Hart, S.H. Ambrose, B. Asfaw, G. Heiken, and T.D. White. 2001. "Geology and palaeontology of the Late Miocene Middle Awash valley, Afar rift, Ethiopia." Nature 412:175-178.
  • White, T.D. 2000. "A view on the science: Physical anthropology at the millennium." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 113:287-292.
  • Defleur, A., T.D. White, P. Valensi, L. Slimak, and E. CrŽgut-Bonnoure. 1999. "Neanderthal cannibalism at Moula-Guercy, Ard?che, France." Science 286:128-131.
  • Asfaw, B., T.D. White, C.O. Lovejoy, B. Latimer, S. Simpson, and G. Suwa. 1999. "Australopithecus garhi: A new species of early hominid from Ethiopia." Science 284:629-635.

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK