Carolyn Dillian, Coastal Carolina University chair and associate professor of the Department of Anthropology and Geography, explores the passage and migration of Homo sapiens in a lecture titled "Out of Africa" on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 10 a.m. in the Myrtle Beach Education Center Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

After the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa, the species quickly dispersed to populate every continent except Antarctica. However, some of these regions were already inhabited by other hominins, and new research suggests our interactions with them were much more complicated than previously thought. Dillain will explore why we became the only species to survive.

"It's fascinating to think that for much of our evolutionary history, we weren't the only hominin species to exist on the landscape," said Dillian. "I wonder what those interactions were like - between our ancestors and other large, bipedal, big-brained creatures that were remarkably similar. Did they have friendly or hostile relationships? Did they trade or communicate? And what caused us to be the only species to survive?"

Dillian earned her master's degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has conducted archaeological excavations throughout the U.S and in Kenya and specializes in the study of stone tools as a proxy to understand past human interaction and migration.

The lecture is part of the "Passages: A Global Perspective" lecture series sponsored by CCU's Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

A coffee social will precede the lecture, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

CCU's Myrtle Beach Education Center is located at 900 79th Ave. N.

For more information on the event, contact Amy Tully at atully@coastal.edu or 843-349-2352.