Of Big Brains and Small Teeth: The Evolution of Humans

Dr. Janet Monge is Adjunct Associate Professor in Anthropology and Keeper of Skeletal Collections at the University Museum.

Working with Alan Mann, Janet Monge developed the traveling exhibition on human evolution, "Surviving: The Body of Evidence," the largest exhibition grant ever awarded to The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: a three year, $1.7 million continuing grant from the National Science Foundation. Less well known is the work of Monge and Mann on forensic anthropology. As scholars who spend most of their time poking around in our distant past, their legal work is not a side-specialty they like to advertise. He and Monge have accepted about a dozen cases over the past 20 years, "losing" in only one of them. In one case, the essential distinguishing mark was a pair of attached earlobes; in others, a duck-like gait or a widow's peak helped secure a defendant's freedom. They have established some ground rules: They work only for the defense, and only when they believe the defendant is innocent.