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Dr. Ashley Hammond, who recently was appointed Curator of Biological Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, gave a lecture today on the evolution of bipedalism and hip anatomy in humans past and present. Dr. Hammond's research takes her to a number of fossil sites in East Africa, where she and her team are unearthing the remains of human ancestors as well as extinct apes of the Miocene epoch (23 - 5 million years ago). She is also pursuing extremely detailed analyses of hip anatomy using museum specimens. As she made clear in a fascinating lecture, Dr. Hammond's research is shedding much light on that initial innovation that in a sense launched the human lineage about 6 million years ago: walking on two legs.