Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59776
The longevity of human life and its evolution has captivated Rachel Caspari throughout her career as a researcher and educator. Investigating and analyzing fossil teeth in the modern humans of the Upper Paleolithic, a period that began about 30,000 years ago, led the CMU anthropology faculty member to make some profound conclusions about the evolution of older adults. Rachel Caspari's article spans six pages in the August 2011 issue of Scientific American. Such work captured the attention of Scientific American – the leading source and authority for science, technology information and policy for a general audience that won the 2011 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Now the magazine's 3.5 million worldwide consumers know all about Caspari's research. The August 2011 issue of the publication features "The Evolution of Grandparents," a six-page article the magazine invited Caspari to write about her research into Neanderthals, modern human origins and the evolution of longevity. "It's really nice to know that people are paying attention and that people think that your work is of interest to the general public," says Caspari, an expert in human evolution and physical anthropology. "Hopefully this will attract more people to this kind of study." Cultural activities are key Through her analysis of the teeth of Neanderthals who lived nearly 130,000 years ago in Croatia, Caspari concluded that few ever lived past 30 years of age. In fact, the new micro-CT methods they are developing to better assess age at death in fossils are corroborating their earlier findings and supporting their observations that few early humans survived to become grandparents until quite recently, in evolutionary time. Moving forward, she says a large increase in the number of older people occurs in the Upper Paleolithic period. Hallmarks of this period include a burgeoning of cultural activity, including cave art, body decorations and jewelry. While smatterings of art appear earlier in the archeological record, Caspari says it never persists until the Upper Paleolithic period and that the increase in older people is likely linked to this cultural explosion. 10 centralight spring '12