Carol V. Ward, an integrative anatomy professor at MU, will give the eighth annual 21st Century Corps of Discovery Lecture on Sept. 6 at 3:30 p.m. in Jesse Wrench Auditorium.
Ward will discuss how a sudden burst in fossil discoveries has provided a better understanding of humans’ evolutionary past. Her research focuses on the evolution of humans, apes and monkeys using fossils from East and South Africa. Recently, Ward has studied a 3.2 million-year-old foot bone from a species known as “Lucy,” which led to the discovery of the origin of the arch in foot bones today.
Ward’s lecture will be followed by an ice cream social.
Discovery lectures, featuring some of the most innovative minds of this century, commemorate the contributions of the Lewis and Clark expedition and unite the MU community at the beginning of each academic year.