College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• January 4, 2008

  Discovery by Iowa State anthropologist named one of Wired's top ten of the year

• A study by Jill Pruetz, associate professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, has been included in Wired News' "Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007."

  Pruetz's work with chimpanzees in Senegal placed second on the list.

  "Two anthropologists watched in mixed amazement and horror as several female chimpanzees crafted spears and used them to somewhat brutally hunt smaller mammal," Wired News writes. "Following a troop of the primates in a Senegalese savanna, Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University and Paco Bertolani of Cambridge observed them breaking the branches off of trees, picking leaves from the sides, and sharpening the tips to deadly points."

  Pruetz's study received international attention after the publication of her study In the March edition of Current Biology. In the article, she explained that such sophisticated animal behavior could reveal a great deal about how early humans used primitive tools.

  The top scientific breakthrough of 2007 on Wired's listing was a project that turned skin cells to stem cells.
  
  

Jill Pruetz

Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111. Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu. Copyright © 1995-2004, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

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