Lee Berger (paleoanthropologist)

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Lee Berger
Lee Berger and the Cranium of Australopithecus sediba MH1.JPG
Born
Lee Rogers Berger

(1965-12-22) December 22, 1965 (age 58)
Shawnee Mission, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater
SpouseJacqueline Berger
Children2
Awards Time 100, 2016 - most influential people in the American world
Scientific career
Fields Paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
Institutions University of the Witwatersrand
Thesis Functional morphology of the hominoid shoulder, past and present.  (1994)
Doctoral advisor Phillip V. Tobias
Website www.profleeberger.com

Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. [1] [2] [3] He is best known for his discovery of the Australopithecus sediba type site, Malapa; [4] his leadership of Rising Star Expedition in the excavation of Homo naledi at Rising Star Cave; [5] and the Taung Bird of Prey Hypothesis. [6] [7]

Contents

Berger is known not only for his discoveries, but also for his unusually public persona in paleoanthropology, and for making his most notable discoveries open-access projects. He gives hundreds of talks per year, and has had a close relationship with National Geographic for many years, appearing in several of their shows and documentaries. [8]

Early life and education

Berger was born in Shawnee Mission, Kansas in 1965, but was raised outside of Sylvania, Georgia in the United States. [9] [10] As a youth, Berger was active in the Boy Scouts, Future Farmers of America, and president of Georgia 4-H. In 1984, Berger was named Georgia's Youth Conservationist of the Year for his work in conserving the threatened gopher tortoise. He is a Distinguished Eagle Scout, and received the Boy Scouts of America Honor Medal for saving a life in 1987. [11] [12]

He graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1989 with a degree in anthropology/archaeology and a minor in geology.

He undertook doctoral studies in palaeoanthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa under Professor Phillip Tobias, focusing his research on the shoulder girdle of early hominins; he graduated in 1994. In 1991, he began his long term work at the Gladysvale site. This marked the same year that his team discovered the first early hominin remains from the site, making Gladysvale the first new early hominin site to be discovered in South Africa since 1948. [13] In 1993, he was appointed to the position of research officer in the Paleo-Anthropology Research Unit (PARU) (now the Evolutionary Sciences Institute; ESI) at Wits.

Research career

He became a postdoctoral research fellow and research officer at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1995. He has been the leader of the Palaeoanthropology Research Group and has taken charge of fossil hominin excavations, including Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Gladysvale. In 2004, he was promoted to Reader in Human Evolution and the Public Understanding of Science. He is presently a research professor in the same topic at the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) and the Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE Pal) at Wits.

Research and other activities

Organizational offices

Berger served as Executive Officer of the Palaeo-Anthropological Scientific Trust (PAST) (now the Palaeontological Scientific Trust; PAST) from 1994 to 2001. [14] [15] Berger served on the committee for successful application for World Heritage Site Status for the UNESCO Sterkfontein, Swartkans, Kromdraai, and Environs site. He also served on the Makapansgat site development committee, as well as the committee for both Makapansgat and Taung's application for World Heritage site status. [16] He was also a founding Trustee of the Jane Goodall Trust South Africa. [17]

Berger served with the Royal Society of South Africa, Northern Branch, between 1996 and 1998, and served as Secretary in 1996 and 1997. He also served on the Fulbright Commission, South Africa, chairing it in 2005, and chairing its Program Review Committee from 2002 to 2004. [17]

Berger is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and serves on the Senior Advisory Board of the Global Young Academy. In 1997 he was appointed to an adjunct professorial position in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University in Durham North Carolina and the following year as an honorary assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas.

Specific study results

Palau fossils

Berger was lead author of a controversial report of the discovery in 2006 of what he and colleagues claimed were small-bodied humans in Palau, Micronesia. [18] [ non-primary source needed ] [19] [20] Scholars have disputed the argument that these individuals are pygmoid in stature, or that they were the result of insular dwarfism; [19] [21] in an article titled "Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make", anthropologists Scott M. Fitzpatrick (NC State), Greg C. Nelson (University of Oregon), and Geoffrey Clark (Australian National University) conclude that "[p]rehistoric Palauan populations were normal-sized and exhibit traits that fall within the normal variation for Homo sapiens," hence, concluding that their evidence did "not support the claims by Berger et al. (2008) that there were smaller-bodied populations living in Palau or that insular dwarfism took place" [22] Berger and co-authors Churchill and De Klerk replied to the study, saying "the logical flaws and misrepresentations in Fitzpatrick and coworker's paper are too numerous to discuss in detail" and that their restudy report "amounts to a vacuous argument from authority... and ad hominem assault, and brings little new data to bear on the question of body size and skeletal morphology in early Palauans". [23] John Hawks, the paleoanthropologist who edited the original Palau article for PLoS ONE , has replied in part to some of the dissenting researchers' claims (in his personal web blog). [24]

Discovery of Australopithecus sediba

Berger displays the fossilized bones of Australopithecus sediba he discovered at the Malapa Fossil Site Lee Berger and Australopithecus sediba.JPG
Berger displays the fossilized bones of Australopithecus sediba he discovered at the Malapa Fossil Site

In August 2008, Berger's 9-year-old son Matthew found a clavicle and a jawbone embedded in a rock near Malapa Cave in South Africa. [25] Subsequent excavation, headed by Berger, led to the discovery of numerous bones nearby that dated back nearly two million years. Along with various co-authors, Berger published a series of articles between 2010 and 2013 in the journal Science that describe what they call a new species, Australopithecus sediba , which had a mixture of primitive and modern characteristics. The finding was particularly promising because it potentially revealed a previously unknown transitional species between the more ape-like australopithecines and the more human-like Homo habilis . [26] [27] Berger claimed that this new finding represented "the most probable ancestor" of modern-day Homo sapiens . [8]

His work at the Malapa site was significant not only because of the discovery itself, but also because of the way he and his collaborators shared information about their findings. While most paleoanthropological investigations are known for a high level of secrecy, he worked to make the sediba site an open access project. In addition to sharing digital data, he made the fossils found available on request to researchers wanting to study them themselves. [28]

Discovery of Homo naledi

On September 13, 2013, two recreational cavers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, discovered a previously unknown, remote chamber within the well known Rising Star cave system. Discovering the floor of this chamber (now known as the Dinaledi Chamber or UW-101) littered with human-like bones, the pair reported their finds to a colleague, who in turn brought them to the attention of Berger. Recognizing their importance, and unable to access the chamber himself due to his size, Berger organized an expedition over social media that brought six qualified researchers in from around the world to commence an excavation of the remains in November 2013. [29] An early career workshop was organized in May 2014 that brought together 54 local and international scientists to describe and study the more than 1,550 fossils recovered. In September 2015, the team announced Homo naledi as a new hominin species, citing its unique mosaic of more ancestral and human-like traits. [30] Other fossil bearing localities in the system were given the site numbers 102 to 104, though research regarding them has not yet been published. [31]

On June 4, 2023, an article discussing the Dinaledi subchamber excavations and definitively citing "rock engravings made by Homo naledi…" was uploaded to the open-access preprint repository bioRxiv, with Berger cited as lead author. [32] The next day, he publicly announced new findings and two further publications regarding the excavations, during a memorial conference hosted by Stony Brook University in honor of Kenyan paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, who died in January 2022. [33] Berger stated that he and his colleagues had established the existence of intentional burials, the controlled use of fire, and the carving of primitive rock art by Homo naledi in the subchamber. The two papers were made available on bioRxiv later that day. [34] [35] Over the next few weeks, Berger appeared on numerous talk show interviews, podcasts, YouTube channels, and other popular media formats, again stating conclusively that the Homo naledi had engaged in the aforementioned behaviors, despite no peer-reviewed evidence having been made public yet. He also discussed his team's decision to publish in the controversial open-access journal eLife, which announced in late 2022 that it would no longer engage in traditional accept/reject peer review starting in 2023, instead pursuing its own "public review", in which articles are accepted after an initial and unspecified "eLife assessment", all peer reviews are publicly accessible on the main article page, and all articles are published as "versions of record" regardless of the actual input from reviewers. [36] All three papers were made available on eLife as "reviewed preprints" on July 11, 2023. [37] [38] [39] 8 reviewers provided a total of 11 reviews on the three papers, all of which were severely critical. The reviews noted myriad issues such as extensive lack of relevant citation and evidence, misleading and prematurely conclusive language, and a widespread pattern of trying to prove a preconceived hypothesis (e.g. intentional burials as opposed to natural deposition) rather than following objective scientific process, with one reviewer describing the paper as "storytelling for a popular news article instead of a scientific paper", and another describing the overall perspective as “HARKing”. [40] The reviews concluded that there was virtually no evidence to support the papers' narrative speculations about the observations in the cave to the exclusion of natural formation processes, and recommended against publication in the articles' current state without extensive revision and supplementary evidence. No revisions have yet been made to any of the papers, and it has not been made public whether this will affect eLife's decision to publish the articles. Berger et al. published a single response to all 11 reviews, visible on all three reviewed preprints alongside the peer reviews, briefly noting some of the received criticisms but ignoring others, and not specifying what (if any) revisions would be made to the papers, as is typical in the peer review and revision process.

During both the events of 2023 and the first public announcements of Dinaledi excavation findings in 2013, Berger has been widely criticized for rushing through the normal scientific review process and pursuing media blitz rather than responsible and skeptical public science communication. [41] [42] [43] Six days after the initial 2023 publications in eLife, a documentary about Berger and the Rising Star excavation entitled Unknown: Cave of Bones was released for streaming on Netflix. [44] On August 8, 2023, Penguin Random House published an autobiographical account about the excavations, written by Berger and University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks.

In October 2023, Berger received extensive criticism from other scientists for taking specimens of A. sediba and H. naledi into space aboard a Virgin Galactic craft, which was described as reckless, particularly as the specimen of A. sediba was part of the type specimen. [45]

Awards

Lee Berger receiving the 1st National Geographic Prize for Research and Exploration in Washington, D.C. in 1997. He is flanked by family members. Pictured Left to Right: Vernita Berger (mother in law), Arthur B. Berger (grandfather), Lee Berger, Arthur L. Berger (father), Jacqueline Berger (wife) Lee Berger Nat Geo Prize.jpg
Lee Berger receiving the 1st National Geographic Prize for Research and Exploration in Washington, D.C. in 1997. He is flanked by family members. Pictured Left to Right: Vernita Berger (mother in law), Arthur B. Berger (grandfather), Lee Berger, Arthur L. Berger (father), Jacqueline Berger (wife)

Collaborative research papers by Berger have been recognized four times as being among the top 100 Science stories of the year by Discover Magazine,[ citation needed ] an international periodical focusing on popular scientific issues. The first recognition came in 1995 for his co-authored work with Ron Clarke of Wits on the taphonomy of the Taung site and in 1998 for his co-authored work with Henry McHenry of the University of California, Davis on limb lengths in Australopithecus africanus.

He is a National Press Photographers Association Humanitarian Award winner in 1987 for throwing his camera down while working as a news photographer for television station WTOC and jumping into the Savannah River to save a drowning woman. [26] He is a Golden Plate Awardee of the Academy of Achievement. In 1997, the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. awarded him the first National Geographic Society Prize for Research and Exploration given for his research into human evolution. [27] In April 2016, Berger was selected by Time as one of its "100 most influential people". [46]

In 2023 he received the Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) according to the executive director Ann Reid for having “tirelessly promoted the cause of evolution education”. [47]

Personal life

Berger has resided in South Africa since 1989. His wife Jacqueline is a radiologist in the medical school at the University of the Witwatersrand, the same university where he works. [48] They have a son, Matthew, [48] and a daughter.

Selected publications

Over one hundred scientific and popular articles including several books:

Articles

Books

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Australopithecus</i> Genus of hominin ancestral to modern humans

Australopithecus is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera Homo, Paranthropus, and Kenyanthropus evolved from some Australopithecus species. Australopithecus is a member of the subtribe Australopithecina, which sometimes also includes Ardipithecus, though the term "australopithecine" is sometimes used to refer only to members of Australopithecus. Species include A. garhi, A. africanus, A. sediba, A. afarensis, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali and A. deyiremeda. Debate exists as to whether some Australopithecus species should be reclassified into new genera, or if Paranthropus and Kenyanthropus are synonymous with Australopithecus, in part because of the taxonomic inconsistency.

<i>Homo</i> Genus of hominins that includes humans and their closest extinct relatives

Homo is a genus of great ape that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens and a number of extinct species classified as either ancestral or closely related to modern humans. These include Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with records of just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably most closely related to the species Australopithecus africanus within Australopithecus. The closest living relatives of Homo are of the genus Pan, with the ancestors of Pan and Homo estimated to have diverged around 5.7-11 million years ago during the Late Miocene.

Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence and cultural evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cradle of Humankind</span> Paleoanthropological site near Johannesburg, South Africa

The Cradle of Humankind is a paleoanthropological site that is located about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, in the Gauteng province. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, the site is home to the largest known concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. The site currently occupies 47,000 hectares (180 sq mi) and contains a complex system of limestone caves. The registered name of the site in the list of World Heritage Sites is Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterkfontein</span> Archaeological site in Gauteng, South Africa

Sterkfontein is a set of limestone caves of special interest in paleoanthropology located in Gauteng province, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of Krugersdorp. The archaeological sites of Swartkrans and Kromdraai are in the same area. Sterkfontein is a South African National Heritage Site and was also declared a World Heritage Site in 2000. The area in which it is situated is known as the Cradle of Humankind. The Sterkfontein Caves are also home to numerous wild African species including Belonogaster petiolata, a wasp species of which there is a large nesting presence.

<i>Australopithecus africanus</i> Extinct hominid from South Africa

Australopithecus africanus is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfontein, Makapansgat, and Gladysvale. The first specimen, the Taung child, was described by anatomist Raymond Dart in 1924, and was the first early hominin found. However, its closer relations to humans than to other apes would not become widely accepted until the middle of the century because most had believed humans evolved outside of Africa. It is unclear how A. africanus relates to other hominins, being variously placed as ancestral to Homo and Paranthropus, to just Paranthropus, or to just P. robustus. The specimen "Little Foot" is the most completely preserved early hominin, with 90% of the skeleton intact, and the oldest South African australopith. However, it is controversially suggested that it and similar specimens be split off into "A. prometheus".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australopithecine</span> Extinct subtribe of the Hominini tribe, and members of the human clade

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<i>Australopithecus sediba</i> Two-million-year-old hominin from the Cradle of Humankind

Australopithecus sediba is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a partial adult female skeleton, the paratype MH2. They date to about 1.98 million years ago in the Early Pleistocene, and coexisted with Paranthropus robustus and Homo ergaster / Homo erectus. Malapa is interpreted as having been a natural death trap, the base of a long vertical shaft which creatures could accidentally fall into. A. sediba was initially described as being a potential human ancestor, and perhaps the progenitor of Homo, but this is contested and it could also represent a late-surviving population or sister species of A. africanus which had earlier inhabited the area.

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<i>Homo naledi</i> South African archaic human species

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References

  1. ↑ "Biography: Lee Berger". University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Lee R. Berger, Ph.D. Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  3. ↑ "Lee Berger". National Geographic. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ Lloyd, Julia. "Malapa Cave: Australopithecus Sediba's Place of Discovery". Maropeng. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  5. ↑ mmagnan1 (January 22, 2014). "News on South Africa's Hominins: Berger's Rising Star Expedition". Anthropology.net. Retrieved May 16, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Berger, LR; Clarke, RJ (1995). "Eagle involvement in accumulation of the Taung child fauna" (PDF). Journal of Human Evolution. 29 (3): 275; 299. doi:10.1006/jhev.1995.1060. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2015.
  7. ↑ Davie, Lucille. "Who killed the Taung child?". SouthAfrica.info. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Williams, Paige. "The Big Fight Over Fossils". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Lee Berger | South African paleoanthropologist". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  10. 1 2 Bascomb, Bobby (September 10, 2015). "Archaeology's Disputed Genius". Nova Next.
  11. ↑ "Lee Berger, headline-making scientist, is an Eagle Scout". Bryan on Scouting. September 10, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ Berger, Lee R.; Aronson, Marc (2012). The Skull in the Rock: How a Scientist, a Boy, and Google Earth Opened a New Window on Human Origins. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. pp. 13–19. ISBN   978-1-4263-1010-2.
  13. ↑ Berger, Lee R.; Keyser, André W.; Tobias, Phillip V. (September 1, 1993). "Gladysvale: First early hominid site discovered in South Africa since 1948". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 92 (1): 107–111. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330920109. ISSN   1096-8644. PMID   8238287.
  14. ↑ Brain, CK (2003). "A perspective on the PAST". South African Journal of Science. 99: 235–236.
  15. ↑ Blumenschine, RJ; Leenen, A (2016). "What's new from the PAST?" (PDF). South African Journal of Science. 112: 7–9. doi: 10.17159/sajs.2016/a0139 . Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa". UNESCO. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  17. 1 2 "Rising star". University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. October 26, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  18. ↑ Berger, Lee R.; Steven E. Churchill; Bonita De Klerk; Rhonda L. Quinn (March 2008). "Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia". PLoS ONE . 3 (3): e1780. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.1780B. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001780 . PMC   2268239 . PMID   18347737.
  19. 1 2 "Ancient Small People on Palau Not Dwarfs, Study Says". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on September 1, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  20. ↑ John Noble Wilford (March 11, 2008). "Discovery Challenges Finding of a Separate Human Species". The New York Times . Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  21. ↑ Dalton, Rex (April 16, 2008). "Archaeology: Bones, isles and videotape". News Feature. Nature . 452 (7189): 806–808. Bibcode:2008Natur.452.....D. doi:10.1038/452806a. PMID   18431826. Subtitle: Old human remains found on the Pacific islands of Palau are caught in the crossfire between entertainment and science. Rex Dalton reports.
  22. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Scott M.; Greg C. Nelson; Geoffrey Clark (August 27, 2008). "Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make: Biological and Archaeological Data Indicate that Prehistoric Inhabitants of Palau Were Normal Sized". PLoS ONE . 3 (8): e3015. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.3015F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003015 . PMC   2516174 . PMID   18728774.
  23. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Scott M.; Greg C. Nelson; Geoffrey Clark (December 11, 2008). "Reader Comments: The Small-Bodied Early Inhabitants of Palau, comment in response to Small Scattered Fragments Do Not a Dwarf Make: Biological and Archaeological Data Indicate that Prehistoric Inhabitants of Palau Were Normal Sized". PLoS ONE . 3 (12): e3015. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.3015F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003015 . PMC   2516174 . PMID   18728774.
  24. ↑ Hawks, John (March 13, 2008). "john hawks weblog: What about Palau?". Homo erectus, Flores. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  25. ↑ Maugh II, Thomas H. (April 9, 2010). "2-Million-Year-Old Fossils Offer Look at Human Evolution". News. Los Angeles Times . Retrieved September 10, 2015. Subtitle: Scientists say the skeletons of a woman and boy could be one of the most important finds of recent times. A discovery by a 9-year-old led to finding the pair, dubbed Australopithecus sediba.
  26. 1 2 Walston, Charles (1986). "TV cameraman on story rescues woman in river". State News. The Atlanta Journal (September 19). Atlanta, GA, USA. p. B/1. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
  27. 1 2 Room, National Geographic Press (August 14, 2013). "Lee Berger, Sarah Parcak Join National Geographic's Explorer Ranks – National Geographic Society Press Room". Archived from the original on August 23, 2013. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  28. ↑ Wong, Kate. "Could a Renewed Push for Access to Fossil Data Finally Topple Paleoanthropology s Culture of Secrecy?" . Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  29. ↑ "This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?". National Geographic News. September 10, 2015. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  30. ↑ Berger, Lee R.; Hawks, John; Ruiter, Darryl J. de; Churchill, Steven E.; Schmid, Peter; Delezene, Lucas K.; Kivell, Tracy L.; Garvin, Heather M.; Williams, Scott A. (September 10, 2015). "Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa". eLife. 4: e09560. doi: 10.7554/eLife.09560 . ISSN   2050-084X. PMC   4559886 . PMID   26354291.
  31. ↑ Berger, Lee R. (January 24, 2015). "Annual Report 2014 for the Rising Star Cave and Empire Cave systems" (PDF). SAHRA. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
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  35. ↑ Fuentes, Agustin; Kissel, Marc; Spikins, Penny; Molopyane, Keneiloe; Hawks, John; Berger, Lee R. (June 5, 2023). Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi , from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications (Report). Evolutionary Biology. doi:10.1101/2023.06.01.543135.
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  44. ↑ "Watch a Major Discovery About Our Ancient Human Relatives from 240,000 Years Ago". Netflix Tudum. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  45. ↑ McKie, Robin (October 22, 2023). "'Callous, reckless, unethical': scientists in row over rare fossils flown into space". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  46. ↑ Homo naledi scientist cracks Time's 100 most influential people list. April 21, 2016. The South African.
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