Where did our genus Homo come from, and how confident are we about its earliest members? In this episode, we explore the fossil evidence for human origins with one of the researchers reshaping how we define our own genus.

Dr Brian Villmoare is a paleoanthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose research focuses on the origins of Homo, hominin craniofacial evolution, and the African fossil record. He is best known for his work at Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia, which has played a key role in redefining what the earliest members of our genus looked like and how, and when, they evolved.

In this interview, Dr Villmoare shares his career journey and reflects on major figures who shaped paleoanthropology. He discusses what his research has found out about the emergence of Homo, how species boundaries are  ...