Know Your Hominin: Sambungmacan 3

Sambungmacan 3 was discovered in 1977 and spent some time on the antiquities market, eventually ending up in New York, where its importance was realized. It has since been returned to Indonesia. It is attributed to Homo erectus and may be the skull of a female. For Further Reading: Broadfield et al (2001) Endocast of [...]

Interesting Science Pictures: Part XII

This is from an article in PaleoAnthropology. The map, of the find locations for the Ngangdong specimens, hasn’t been seen in 75 years. Picture source: Huffman et al (2010) Provenience Reassessment of the 1931–1933 Ngandong Homo erectus (Java), Confirmation of the Bone-Bed Origin Reported by the Discoverers. PaleoAnthropology 2010:1-60 doi:10.4207/PA.2010.ART34

Some Random Thoughts About Australopithecus sediba

I am going to be very busy today so I won’t get an in depth post up on Australopithecus sediba until tomorrow. In the meantime three items jumped out at me so I thought I would, briefly, mention them.

Know Your Anthropology Literature: Ecobotanical Contexts for African Hominids

Ecobotanical Contexts for African Hominids, by O’Brien and Peters, was published in a book edited by J. Desmond Clark entitled Cultural Beginnings: Approaches to Understanding Early Hominid Life-Ways in the African Savanna. O’Brien and Peters describe the work they are doing on a project called “Survey of the Wild Edible Plants of Africa”. The point [...]

The New Homo erectus Pelvis From Gona

As both Kambiz and Hawks have pointed out, a new Homo erectus pelvis has been discovered in Gona.

New Homo erectus Pelvis

Well, now we know why the publication date of the book on Ethiopian Homo erectus keeps getting pushed back. Kambiz has the story on the new female H. erectus pelvis. Most of the accounts I have seen focus on the birthing babies aspect – a hot research topic at the moment, but for my money [...]

Lost in New York : Sambungmacan 3

File this one in the “learn something new everyday” category, or perhaps, the relearn something new. I was randomly searching the internet yesterday and stumbled across the story of Sambungmacan 3.

Skull Fragments: A Frontal From Mongolia

It was published last month in C. R. Palevol 7 (2008) 51-60.

Ileret Fossils and Primate Sperm Competition

From the Ileret article by Spoor et al: The intraspecific variation of vault size in H. erectus, including KNM-ER 42700, is larger than in extant humans and chimpanzees, but smaller than in gorillas … This degree of variation may well imply that H. erectus showed marked sexual dimorphism, rather than the reduced levels that characterize [...]

The Ileret Skulls: My Two Cents

The internet is buzzing with the news of the two fossils found at Ileret. Hawks has an interesting take on the subject and promises more. Laelaps, Kambiz (who is skeptical of the paper), PZ, The Questionable Authority, Jason and Razib have all weighed in. Various news outlets have done their usual horrible job reporting on [...]

Evolution of Human Limb Proportions: Part Two

As I mentioned in Part One The OH62 femur plays an important role in any discussion of the evolution of human limb proportions. Looking at the above picture, several things should be noticed. First, the head and a small portion of the neck are missing. Second, the shaft extends to a little past the nutrient [...]

Evolution of Human Limb Proportions: Part One

Humans have interesting limbs. Unlike in the apes, the humerus is shorter than the femur but longer than the radius. In chimps and gorillas the humerus is longer than the femur and radius. In orangutans and gibbons the humerus is longer than the femur but shorter than the radius. There are several measures anthropologists use [...]

Homo floresiensis

The April issue of National Geographic has an interesting article on Homo floresiensis. The article is written by Mike Morwood, Thomas Sutikna and Richard Roberts. The basics of the find are covered (who, what, when, where, etc)and brief mention is made of the microsephaly issue, but the find is presented as legitimate. They cover other [...]