Nature 101: Rock Hyrax and Prehistoric Pee: Windows Into Ancient Environments

In this installment of the Nature 101 lecture series we will explore caves, learn about Earth's more recent geologic history, and delve into what one species of mammal can teach us about our planet. 

Tyler Faith, Ph.D is the Chief Curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah. He is a paleoecologist who studies the relationships between climate change, terrestrial ecosystems, and people, with an emphasis on the time and place relevant to understanding the drivers and consequences of human evolution: Africa over the past 7,000,000 years. To examine these relationships, Faith conducts fieldwork in southern and eastern Africa, generating new paleontological, archaeological, and environmental records. This includes rappelling 100s of feet into vertical cave systems in search of new fossil sites and scaling cliffs to recover hyrax middens that document long-term environmental change.