# Event Details

- **Event Name**: CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History?
- **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 12 Feb, 2026 at 07:00 pm – Thu, 12 Feb, 2026 at 08:00 pm
- **Event Description**: Our archaeology talks are free and open to the public, and co-sponsored by the Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education.


Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History?
Dr. Christopher Kiahtipes


Africa’s rain forests are globally significant environments because of their role in shaping terrestrial biodiversity and regulating major Earth processes. However, this environment is also symbolically important within our narratives about nature, wilderness, and conservation and is often prone to mischaracterizations. In this talk, I describe how these mischaracterizations shape research activities and management policies in Africa’s rain forests before exploring how novel collaborative research in archaeology and paleoecology challenges our models of how people, rain forests, and climates interact. This talk primarily focuses on evaluating the range of Africa’s habitats occupied by Homo sapiens populations during the last 300,000 years and comparing this with our understanding of rain forest responses to major shifts in climate at this time. I close by considering the ecological opportunities and environmental factors influencing the settlement patterns of Pleistocene foragers and how this line of questioning can have a positive impact on conservation policy.


Christopher A. Kiahtipes is Associate Curator of the USF Herbarium and manager of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment’s Archaeobotany and Paleoecology Laboratory. Specializing in the analysis of plant micro-fossils, his projects combine field, laboratory, and collections-based research to address questions about human-environment interactions at evolutionary and historical time scales. With dozens of publications spanning global environments including Africa’s rain forests, Caribbean coastlines, and arid regions of North and South America, Kiahtipes seeks to deepen the integration USF’s world-class collections into novel research applications, education, and public outreach.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/lealman/cgcas-february-lecture-2026-early-homo-sapiens-in-africa’s-rain-forests-an-unnatural-history/200029587727644
- **Event Categories**: workshops, nonprofit
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 7

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Lealman
- **state**: FL
- **country**: United States
- **location**: Roberts Recreation Center
- **lat**: 27.817044041869
- **long**: -82.651706891514
- **full address**: Roberts Recreation Center, 1246 50th Ave N, St Petersburg, FL 33703-3542, United States, Lealman

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History?
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/8ba178077b8bff6d6ba206bb875979cca58b3444bfe9d284baad05d730cc9361-rimg-w1200-h628-dcd1dfed-gmir?v=1770476296

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History? being held?
  - **A:** CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History? takes place on Thu, 12 Feb, 2026 at 07:00 pm to Thu, 12 Feb, 2026 at 08:00 pm at Roberts Recreation Center, 1246 50th Ave N, St Petersburg, FL 33703-3542, United States, Lealman.
- **Q**: Who is organizing CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History??
  - **A:** CGCAS February Lecture 2026: Early Homo sapiens in Africa’s Rain Forests: An Unnatural History? is organized by Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society.

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