From investigating the dark side of the global art market, to launching rockets into space, to discovering new fossil species previously unknown to science, University of Iowa students are engaged in diverse and ground-breaking research and scholarly activities. Fifty-two of these student researchers are featured in the Dare to Discover downtown banner campaign starting Jan. 1.

An international research team co-led by the University of Iowa has dated the last known appearance of Homo erectus, one of modern humans’ direct ancestors. Researchers examined animal fragments from a fossil bed where homo erectus remains had been found and dated the surrounding landscape to determine homo erectus last appeared at a site called Ngandong, on the Indonesian island of Java, between 108,000 and 117,000 years ago.