Gen Suwa (born 1954) is a Japanesepaleoanthropologist. He is known for his contributions to the understanding of the evolution of early hominids, including the discovery of a tooth from a hominid that was more than one million years older than the oldest previously known hominid. The discovery changed scientific opinion regarding the ancestral splits between humans, chimps and gorillas.

A professor atThe University Museum of theUniversity of Tokyo, Suwa is a foreign associate of theNational Academy of Sciences and a recipient of theAsahi Prize.

Suwa completed an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Tokyo, and he earned a master's degree in biological anthropology from the same institution in 1980.^[1] He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. He began to study hominid fossils in Ethiopia during his doctoral studies.^[2] He worked with Berkeley anthropology professorTim D. White and has continued to collaborate with him after graduate school.^[3] Before joining the faculty at the University of Tokyo, Suwa worked at thePrimate Research Institute atKyoto University.^[2]

Since 1990, Suwa has done archaeological work at theMiddle Awash site in Ethiopia'sAfar Triangle.^[4] In 1992, Suwa found a tooth belonging to a primitive hominid. The hominid in question was at first thought to belong to the same species as the 3.2-million-year-oldLucy (Australopithecus).^[5] Within a year, sixteen more fossil specimens were found in the area, and in late 1994, a partial skeleton was located.^[6] Suwa usedmicro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and a3-D stereolithic printer to reconstruct the skeleton.^[7] In 2009, the hominid was determined to belong to its own species (Ardipithecus ramidus) and to be more than a million years older than Lucy. The skeleton became known asArdi.^[5] A special issue of the journalScience was published that year featuring 11 articles on various aspects of the research onArdipithecus.^[8]

In 2007, Suwa was working in the Chorora Formation when he discovered several teeth belonging to an extinct ape. Suwa's group named the newly discovered speciesChororapithecus abyssinicus. The characteristics of the teeth suggested that the species was an ancestral branch in the gorilla lineage. In 2016, Suwa and several associates - including archaeologistYonas Beyene and paleontologistBerhane Asfaw, both from Ethiopia - determined that the teeth were about 8 million years old. The discovery indicated that modern apes originally came from Africa and not Asia. The age of the species showed that thehuman-chimp split and thegorilla-human split occurred several million years earlier than most scientists had thought.^[9][10]

Suwa won the Asahi Prize in 2009 for his work on the science behind early human evolution. The Japanese award is given to people who make outstanding contributions in academics or the arts.^[11] In 2016, Suwa was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.^[12] He is a full professor atThe University Museum, The University of Tokyo.^[13] In 2019, Suwa became a laureate of theAsian Scientist 100 by theAsian Scientist.

• African archaeology

• Living people
• 1954 births
• Japanese anthropologists
• Paleoanthropologists
• Academic staff of the University of Tokyo
• Academic staff of Kyoto University
• University of Tokyo alumni
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

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