Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa Newsletter - Winter 2020/21

Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa Newsletter - Winter 2020/21

Welcome to the latest edition of the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa Newsletter, covering updates from Winter 2020/21. We hope this newsletter finds you well as we say goodbye to what has truly been an unprecedented year, bringing with it an array of challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications. After the PPPG team postponed travel to Gorongosa National Park in 2020, with the hope offered by the multiple vaccines now beginning to be administered across the world, we are hopeful that we will be able to return this year with renewed focus on our fieldwork activities and to reconnect in person (as wonderful as it has been to catch up over Zoom!). We thank all of our team members for their continued dedication to the project and look ahead to what we hope will be a much brighter 2021.
News and Updates
PPPG 2019-2020 Field Reports
Some of the Oxford-Gorongosa Paleo-Primate Field School 2019 team photographed at the end of excavations at GPL-12 in Gorongosa National Park

The Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa Field Reports from 2019-2020 are now ready to view and have been distributed to team members through Dropbox (please let us know if you have any issues accessing them). Outside of the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa team, any requests for reports should be made through Marc Stalmans please. We thank all of our team members for their hard work and assistance with this process.

Image: Looking back at the 2019 field season - here's to our next visit to Gorongosa!
João d'Oliveira Coelho wins PSGB best poster prize
João d'Oliveira Coelho's PSGB 2020 poster: 'Using fossil evidence to improve our understanding of divergence estimates for the Panini and Hominini lineages'

Many congratulations to João d'Oliveira Coelho for winning the Best Poster Prize at the Primate Society of Great Britain Winter Meeting 2020 for his poster presentation on 'Using fossil evidence to improve our understanding of divergence estimates for the Panini and Hominini lineages'. Fascinating findings thoughtfully presented to fit the virtual format of the online event - wonderful work João!

Image: João d'Oliveira Coelho's winning poster, presented on 2nd December at the PSGB Winter Meeting 2020
Susana Carvalho appears on BBC Radio 4
Human ingenuity and shared inheritance on BBC Radio 4 show Start the Week, featuring Dr Susana Carvalho

On Monday 30th November, Susana Carvalho appeared as one of the special guests on the BBC Radio 4 show Start the Week, in an episode on 'Human ingenuity and shared inheritance' alongside Simon Baron-Cohen and Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Susana discussed the research of the PPPG within the episode - this can be found around the 32-minute mark, but the full episode is well worth a listen!

Image: Human ingenuity and shared inheritance on BBC Radio 4 show Start the Week
Tina Lüdecke interviewed by Neil deGrasse Tyson
StarTalk Radio: Climate & Diet of Early Humans with Tina Lüdecke & Matt Kirshen, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Congratulations to Tina Lüdecke who was interviewed by Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson for his podcast StarTalk Radio. In the 45-minute episode on 'Climate and Diet of Early Humans' which aired 28th December 2020, Tina discusses carbon and nitrogen isotopes, the paleo diet, meat consumption, the advent of cooking, climate change and much more (the Gorongosa baboons even come up!). Now also available on YouTube.

Image: Climate & Diet of Early Humans with Tina Lüdecke & Matt Kirshen, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Susana's British Academy funding application progresses to stage two
The British Academy

Earlier in the year, Susana Carvalho submitted a major funding application to the British Academy to support primatology and paleoanthropology research activities of the PPPG. The application has now passed to stage two (147 out of 360 made it to this stage) and the final results are due to be announced by the end of March 2021. We are crossing our fingers!

Image: The British Academy, supporting academic research across the humanities and social sciences
Recap of key points from the PPPG research meeting
Virtual team photo of the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa, taken on 31st Oct 2020 during the PPPG research meeting via Zoom

For team members, please find attached a recap of some of the main discussion points arising from the recent PPPG research meeting regarding the philosophy of the project and key areas for pursing further progress. In place of a more lengthy discussion on the day due to time constraints, and following time for reflection, we welcome further comments on the plans outlined.

Image: Virtual team photo - taken on 31st Oct 2020 during the PPPG research meeting
Paleontology and primatology manuscripts in preparation
Paleo-Primate Project, Gorongosa - Baboon, season 2018. Photo by René Bobe

As we look ahead to the new year, just a quick note to say that as a team we are pleased to have a number of paleontology and primatology manuscripts in the final stages of preparation for submission. These manuscripts will be sent around to the team for comments by 31st January 2021. Be sure to keep an eye out for more updates soon.

Image: Baboons in Gorongosa National Park - photograph by René Bobe during the 2018 field season
Gaynor and colleagues publish new Gorongosa research
Waterbuck on the Gorongosa National Park floodplain - photograph by Jen Guyton

In other GNP research news, Gaynor and colleagues have published a new study from their WildCam Gorongosa work exploring Gorongosa's recovering large mammal community. Among other findings, they report a high occupancy for baboons in the absence of an intact apex predator guild - a finding that is particularly striking when compared to other field sites and especially relevant for our primatology researchers.

Image: Waterbuck on the Gorongosa National Park floodplain - photograph by Jen Guyton
Gorongosa National Park's first leopard translocation
The newest member of the Gorongosa carnivore family, the recently translocated leopard photographed in front of a water pan in Gorongosa National Park - photo by Piotr Naskrecki

We're sure many of you will have already have seen the fantastic news that on 25th November 2020 Gorongosa National Park released its first translocated leopard, but it is certainly worth highlighting again just in case! You can discover more about the historic release in an article published earlier this week in The New York Times: How This Spot (in Mozambique) Got Its Leopard.

Image: The newest member of the Gorongosa carnivore family, the recently translocated leopard - photo by Piotr Naskrecki
New 'Pathways into Academia' page
A preview of the new 'Pathways into Academia' page highlighting the profiles of Susana, Alex, Jacinto and Lucy

Over in Oxford, we have been working on initiatives to broaden access to academia, including the creation of a 'Pathways into Academia' page highlighting the routes that our Lab members have taken into research. This project was led by Philippa Hammond, Sophie Berdugo (who many of you will remember from our last field school) and Megan Beardmore-Herd. Please enjoy checking out this resource and feel free to share widely!

Image: A preview of the new 'Pathways into Academia' page highlighting the profiles of Susana, Alex, Jacinto and Lucy
Website
To notify us of anything you would like to be included in the next newsletter, please email Megan at megan.beardmore-herd@anthro.ox.ac.uk.