Incoming professor of anthropology Jeremy DeSilva, who joined the College faculty this year, describes himself as a “New Englander” attracted to “a campus in the mountains.” But to students of anthropology, he is perhaps better known as a member of a global team of 60 scientists that recently found evidence of a new human ancestor, Homo naledi, in the form of over 1,600 fossils in South Africa’s Rising Star Cave.
“Every once in a while, our field hits the jackpot and we find a skeleton,” DeSilva said. “The shocking thing about [this discovery] is the volume of the material.”
According to DeSilva, team leader Lee Berger, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, first identified Rising Star Cave as a potential location for excavation after using Google Earth to survey an area called “the crater of humankind.” Since there were hundreds of caves in the area, DeSilva said, Berger gave his business card to groups of spelunkers and asked them to contact him if they found fossils in the area.
In October of 2013, Berger told DeSilva that he had received an email with an attached image of a skeleton. But in order to reach the skeleton, researchers would have to squeeze through a gap that was only about eight inches wide in some places. After a social media search for experienced scientists who were small enough to squeeze through the gap, Berger found six female scientists who found and excavated the fossils.
“They were absolute heroes — there’s been a lot of credit given to them but not enough as far as I’m concerned,” DeSilva said. “I had a chance to work on these fossils because they were brave enough and skilled enough to go into that chamber.”
Following the excavation, DeSilva’s said his role has been to work with the leg and foot bones in the fossil collection, analyzing how Homo naledi moved. DeSilva said that there are an estimated 15 individual skeletons in the find.
“We have never had a site with so many fossils before,” DeSilva said. “We can ask questions about variation, questions about growth and development, and [questions] about a population rather than just an individual representing a species.”
Raised in Massachusetts, DeSilva did not take an anthropology class as an undergraduate. Instead, he was introduced to anthropology when his supervisor at the Boston Museum of Science, where he worked following graduation, asked him to create a new exhibit on human evolution. In preparation, DeSilva went to the bookstore and bought the book “Extinct Humans” and “became hooked.” Seeing his enthusiasm, his boss then convinced him to go to graduate school to pursue his passion. After completing his graduate work at the University of Michigan, DeSilva taught at Worcester State College and Boston University before accepting a position at the College.
“A lot of my teaching is inspired by my research and lot of my research is inspired by my teaching, and that’s because of the students,” DeSilva said. “So often I’ll be teaching and a student will ask a question that I don’t know the answer to. I love those questions.”
Already, DeSilva has been well received by his colleagues. Anthropology department chair and associate professor Sienna Craig said that DeSilva aligns well with the College’s commitment to its students.
“He’s not only a top-notch researcher, but he fits so well in Dartmouth’s model of the scholar-teacher,” Craig said. “He’s an outstanding teacher and someone who is really committed to bringing his research into the classroom and bringing students into his research.”
This fall, DeSilva will teach “Introduction to Biological Anthropology.” He will also teach “Primate Biomechanics” and “Human Evolution” this winter.
“He seems to be a magnet for students,” anthropology professor Nathaniel Dominy said. “It’s a testament to his personality, his approachability and his accessibility.”
At the College, DeSilva said he hopes his students will become familiar enough with their subject to “see what we don’t know.”
“It’s just this unveiling of this curtain, and as a student that can be incredibly inspiring.” DeSilva said. “That’s what I want in my time at Dartmouth, to get students to that point.”
