Science has another entry in their Origins: A History of Beginnings series. This time the entry concerns Kenyanthropus platyops. The fossil was the subject of a presentation at a meeting of the Royal Society in London . Continue reading →
The journal Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres has an interesting paper on Darwin’s views on the origin of life. The paper can be found here. The short version is that Darwin felt that the origin of life could be explained by natural mechanisms and that such an explanation was beyond the scope of scientific methodology of the time. For the long version read the paper.
Forty years ago excavations began at one of the more important sites in mid-western archaeology sites. The excavations started as test excavations based on some Late Woodland debris. The excavations at Koster would end up revealing a history that dated back to the Early Archaic and uncover a total of 26 different occupations. I bring this up because The Telegraph has an interesting article on the site. Continue reading →
Filed under: Archaeology | Comments Off on Happy Anniversary Koster
Although I am quite excited about Ardipithecus (more about the actual substance of the papers later) finally being published, there are a couple of things that really annoy the living daylights out of me. Continue reading →
I have the first, of several, posts up on Ardipithecus ramidus at The Panda’s Thumb. It covers the geological, enivonmental, and taphonomic background. I hope you like it, it is my first contribution to PT – other than the links page (I am in charge of the links page at PT so if you know of any good sites not listed let me know).
This video has an interesting glimpse into how the environment was reconstructed:
Also, early in the video you can see one of the “crawls” in progress…
"You may not be willing to admit that you resemble an ape; if your thousandth ancestor is more like an ape than you are, you may, if you wish, call it a coincidence. But if that thousandth ancestor's forebears become progressively more simian as you trace back the geneological lines, you will have to admit that somewhere in your family tree there squats an ape." Earnest Hooten
"But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian." Charles Darwin: The Autobiography