On Thursday, February 16 at 6:30 PM, Dr. Ian Wallace, Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, will present his lecture Human Metabolism and the Evolution of Hunting and Gathering, for the annual Ancestors Lecture at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.

Human bodies burn an extraordinary amount of energy (calories) for a primate of our size. In this talk, Professor Wallace will discuss the many reasons why our bodies are so energetically costly, including our enormous brains, high fertility rates, and long developmental periods and life spans. He will also describe recent research indicating that the evolution of the hunter-gatherer way of life among our ancient hominin ancestors was critical to humans’ ability to pay for our energetically expensive bodies.