Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

Jun 3, 2024 | zmescience.com | Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

As a university student in the early 2010s, I recall how beautifully simple our origin story was: Homo sapiens evolved in East African savannas around 150,000 years ago. Then, sometime around 70,000 years ago, a mutation occurred that endowed these individuals with the capacity for complex, symbolic behavior. This set them apart from any other species and allowed them to leave Africa and take over the world, replacing all other humans they encountered.

Jun 3, 2024 | zmescience.com | Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias is a Ph.D. candidate in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Zürich. Her research aims to reconstruct the past of contemporary hunting and gathering people from different places in Africa to better understand the processes that shaped the enormous genetic and cultural human diversity on the continent today.

Mar 5, 2024 | qoshe.com | Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

Aa Aa Aa - A + We moved in a line, led by four men who searched the rainforest as they walked, barefoot. At the head of the snake, one of our guides cut narrow tunnels through the foliage with a machete. Two others followed, carrying large containers with the drinking water and food we would need for the week ahead. And at the end of the procession, the last guide made sure another researcher and I did not fall behind or get lost amid the maze of trees. We were exhausted.

Jan 31, 2024 | sapiens.org | Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias |Bridget Alex |Christine Weeber |Ather Zia

✽The morning of my 26th birthday, I woke up to incredible news for my field of evolutionary anthropology: For the first time, the study of human evolution won a Nobel Prize. Geneticist Svante Päabo had, according to the awarding group, made a “seemingly impossible task” possible: extracting DNA from the remains of individuals who lived long ago. Päabo had turned science fiction into science fact, and now the entire field was being rewarded.