Neanderthal and Human Brain Growth

I was hoping to have a more in depth post on this for the upcoming edition of the Four Stone Hearth but I am not going to get it finished in time. Here is the short version.

The Khvalynsk Neanderthal Humerus

I meant to write about this yesterday but got sidetracked and Hawks beat me to it. Except –

Two Million Year Old Artifacts on Sulawesi: The Return of Hominid Catastrophism

That is what this article in the Guardian claims!

An Open Letter to Rep. Alan Grayson in Defense of Neanderthals

Dear Rep. Grayson, Although I applaud your stand on health care and you efforts to take the offensive against the Republicans, I do have to take exception to your characterization of Republicans as “…foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals…” This is a gross mischaracterization of Neanderthals on several levels. First, Neanderthals did not drag their feet or knuckles. [...]

Charles Darwin and The Gibraltar Skull

Science has an interesting entry in its Origins: A History of Beginnings series. The entry concerns Charles Darwin and the Gibraltar Neanderthal skull

I Love The Internet Archive

Been looking for a copy of The Stone Age of Mt. Carmel for a long, long time. Also Phillip Tobias’ The Brain in Hominid Evolution…

Begging for PNAS Neanderthal Articles

Can someone send me these two articles: Human origins: Out of Africa and The meaning of Neandertal skeletal morphology? Thanks in advance!

The (PTC) Bitter Taste Test: Does it Apply To Neanderthals?

The PTC test is well known to the point of annoyance. Practically, every biological anthropology class I ever had mentioned it, as did a number of the cultural anthropology. A new article in Biology Letters – requires a subscription puts a new spin on the question.

Were Neandertals Cannibalized By Anatomically Modern Humans?

And can you really call it cannibalism if they are not Homo sapiens neanderthalensis? The lemur/adapid/anthropoid paper is not the only anthropology paper out this week, nor is it the only one that has been the subject of over exuberant reporting. The gist of the story is that the jaw below contains cutmarks: The jaw [...]

Neanderthals and Marine Resources

As both Kambiz and Hawks have mentioned, a new paper is out in PNAS on the subject of Neanderthal exploitation of marine resources (something I touch on here).

Neanderthals, Brain Size, and Maturation

There is a new paper coming out in PNAS called Neanderthal brain size at birth provides insights into the evolution of human life history (wouldn’t you know it is not open access, so if anybody out there has access can you mail me a copy) that argues Neanderthals grew quickly but reached maturity later. The [...]

Skull Fragments: A Frontal From Mongolia

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

Neanderthal Children And Flintknapping

Julien Riel-Salvatore over at A Very Remote Period Indeed has a thoughtful and thought provoking follow up to my recent post on Neanderthal children and flintknapping. Here is a small taste to tide you over till you get there:

Finding Neanderthal Children In the Archaeological Record: Is There A Subconcious Bias?

PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Northwest Europe has an interesting article on toolmaking by Neanderthal children (see here for my previous post on the subject of children in the archaeological record). The article makes extensive use of research by Phillip Shelley, especially this article (if someone out there has access I would appreciate it if [...]

Neanderthal Teeth: How Did They Grow?

The above is a human tooth. If you look closely you can see faint grooves running horizontally across it’s surface. These grooves are called perikymata and represent growth. More specifically they represent growth cycles of about 6-14 days. Below is a high magnification detail from a thin section. High magnification detail from the same thin [...]