Thinking About Restarting Blog

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Begging for Articles: Australopithecus sediba

Can someone send me the Australopithecus sediba papers that are published in the current issue of Science? links are below

The Vertebral Column of Australopithecus sediba

The Lower Limb and Mechanics of Walking in Australopithecus sediba

The Upper Limb of Australopithecus sediba

Mosaic Morphology in the Thorax of Australopithecus sediba

Mandibular Remains Support Taxonomic Validity of Australopithecus sediba

Dental Morphology and the Phylogenetic “Place” of Australopithecus sediba
I have them now, thanks!
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My Backyard Today

Voting

In a long line at an understaffed polling place. Been in line for an hour so far…

Update 1: Crap! After standing in line for over two hours we find we are in the wrong place.

Begging For An Article

Can someone send me a copy of the paper below:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6106/514

My email address is on the “About” tab…
I have it now

Bummer…Hip Dysplasia

Thursday my dog started having trouble with his left rear leg and would not put any weight on it. Took him to the vet, turns out he has hip dysplasia. At this point, the prescription is losing 20 lbs (he weighs 91) and short walks. We will also be putting him on antinflammatories. The vet also mentioned Duralactin – which has something to do with hyperimmunized cow’s milk …said it was homeopathic so I doubt we will be using it. I’m thinking ice packs might help, also. Any advice from people dealing with this would be appreciated.

New Divergence Times For Humans, Chimps, And Gorillas

A new paper in PNAS gives new estimates for the gorilla, chimp, and human divergence times. The study looked DNA from 105 gorillas and 226 chimpanzees to estimate divergence times.

Here is the abstract:
Abstract Fossils and molecular data are two independent sources of information that should in principle provide consistent inferences of when evolutionary lineages diverged. Here we use an alternative approach to genetic inference of species split times in recent human and ape evolution that is independent of the fossil record. We first use genetic parentage information on a large number of wild chimpanzees and mountain gorillas to directly infer their average generation times. We then compare these generation time estimates with those of humans and apply recent estimates of the human mutation rate per generation to derive estimates of split times of great apes and humans that are independent of fossil calibration. We date the human–chimpanzee split to at least 7–8 million years and the population split between Neanderthals and modern humans to 400,000–800,000 y ago. This suggests that molecular divergence dates may not be in conflict with the attribution of 6- to 7-million-y-old fossils to the human lineage and 400,000-y-old fossils to the Neanderthal lineage.

At any rate can someone send me a copy?

Generation times in wild chimpanzees and gorillas suggest earlier divergence times in great ape and human evolution, PNAS,  doi: 10.1073/pnas.1211740109

Can someone send me the post below?

Meave G. Leakey, Fred Spoor, M. Christopher Dean, Craig S. Feibel, Susan C. Antón, Christopher Kiarie, Louise N. Leakey. New fossils from Koobi Fora in northern Kenya confirm taxonomic diversity in early Homo. Nature, 2012; 488 (7410): 201 DOI: 10.1038/nature11322
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Begging for an article

Can someone send me a copy of the article below:

Strontium isotope evidence for landscape use by early hominins
Nature Volume: 474, Pages: 76-78 Date published: (02 June 2011) DOI: doi:10.1038/nature10149 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7349/full/nature10149.html

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I will be hosting the next edition of the Four Stone Hearth this evening so send you submissions to me – there is still time! My email address in on the about tab.