The Ancestor’s Trail: USA, Shawangunk Mountains, New Paltz, NY

The Official Ancestor’s Trail USA app with maps

GUIDEBOOK for Opening Day (4/28/2018)

FULL COLOR MAPS WITH PHOTO DEMARCATIONS FOR ALL TRAILS FOR 4/28

Extended Guidebook (To be used as a compendium to the app)

The Ancestor’s Trail USA was made possible by a generous donation from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

On April 28, 2018, in collaboration with the EvoS @ New Paltz hosted the first-ever US offering of the Ancestor’s Trail – a unique educational experience that maps different lineages of life onto real hiking trails – to provide for a first-hand and participatory education regarding the evolution of life.

Interpretive Guide with trails and phylogenetic benchmarks

Get the app here.

This project includes the demarcation of a set of hiking trails that map onto different evolutionary lineages of life – as a one-of-a-kind hands-on evolution education activity that integrates the concepts of evolutionary time scale and natural selection with a great outdoors experience.

This project, based on the highly renowned UK installment of this trail (which has gotten very positive media attention from such entities as Smithsonian Magazine), and ultimately based on Richard Dawkins’ book The Anecstor’s Tale, was implemented by Evolutionary Studies faculty and students at SUNY New.

The opening-ceremony event took place on Saturday, 4/28.

The Ancestor’s Trail USA is now available on a FREE and perennial basis via the Ancestor’s Trail USA app, found here.

US Ancestor’s Trail Directors:

Aron Wiegand (M.S, Visiting Scholar in Psychology, SUNY New Paltz)

Glenn Geher (Founding Director of Evolutionary Studies, SUNY New Paltz)

Olivia G. Jewell (Master’s candidate in Psychology, SUNY New Paltz)

NOTE: The idea for the Ancestor’s Trail came from renowned UK science educator,  Chris Jenord

Sponsors

Trail Information