Conservation Genetics and the Search for a New Species | Todd Disotell | TEDxNYU

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Todd Disotell, a biological anthropologist, investigates primate and human evolution. In this talk, Disotell discusses how standard and newly emerging techniques of molecular analyses are dramatically improving our ability to identify new species. These same techniques, says Disotell, can be used to characterize their numbers, behavior, diet, and to scan whole ecosystems' biodiversity.

Disotell, a biological anthropologist, investigates primate and human evolution. He has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. He runs New York University's Molecular Primatology Laboratory. His research group has contributed to clarifying the primate evolutionary tree. He has worked extensively on Old World monkeys and apes (including humans) as well as New World monkeys, lemurs, and lorises. He has participated in research that has led to the identification of new species and subspecies of primates. He is interested in the coevolution of primates and various diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria. He and his research group have also helped to develop new techniques of molecular analyses that can be applied to the primates and a wide variety of other species.

In recent months, Disotell has appeared on both Spike-TV's "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" and SyFy's "Joe Rogan Questions Everything"--shows seeking his expertise in testing potential DNA evidence demonstrating the existence of Bigfoot. In his laboratory and in the field, Disotell identifies DNA from a variety of sources--hair, saliva, blood (including that found in biting insects), and feces--in order to identify a range of creatures...real or imagined.

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