Bipedal Locomotion and Semicircular Canals

I am currently working on a post for Transitions involving the molecular evidence for the common ancestry of apes and humans (Note: this is slow going because I am having trouble finding websites with age appropriate discussions of this material – if you know of any let me know as I hate doing posts without […]

Know Your Hominin: A.L. 666-1

A.L. 666-1 was discovered in 1994 in Hadar, Ethiopia. It dates to ~2·33 MYA and has been attributed to Homo habilis. A number of Oldowan flakes and choppers were found as well. (From Kimbel et al 1996) Literature Kimbel et al 1996 Late Pliocene Homo and Oldowan Tools from the Hadar Formation (Kada Hadar Member), […]

Dinosaur Embryos: Lufengosaurus

I’m currently working my way through the Australopithecus sediba articles mentioned in the previous post. In the meantime, in wandering around the internet there are a number of things make a science story jump out and say “write about me!” First, if it uses a methodology that answers the question “how do we know?” Second, […]

Interesting Science In The News

Some interesting news items that caught my eye. First, the American Association for the Advancement of Science had a session based on Wilton Krogman’s The Scars of Human Evolution. Krogman, for those unfamiliar with him, was a pioneer in the Field of Forensice Anthropology. He also did some interesting research on primates. You can find […]

Book Review: Science and Human Origins – Chapter One: Part One

This little book is one of a class that was more common twenty years ago, when any acute literary critic thought he could demolish Darwin. Mr. Syme has, however, the advantage of having read some of the best works both for and against Darwinism, and is thus able to support his views by quoting writers […]

Luskin On Neanderthals And A Johanson Redux

In Memoriam: Phillip Tobias – A Giant Passes

Phillip Tobias passed away today according to the University of the Witwatersrand. He was 86. Tobias was a giant in the field of paleoanthropology having studied both the East African fossil material- his monographs on Zinjanthropous and Homo habilis were masterpieces – and the South African fossil material – most notably at Sterkfontein. He was […]

Ancestral Hominin Or Stem Hominid: Part One

I meant to write something about Wood and Harrison’s article, The evolutionary context of the first hominins when it first came out, but have been a bad, lazy blogger and am just now getting around to it.

Interesting Science News

A number of items, ranging from paleontology and developmental genetics to osteology and primatology caught my attention this week.

The Return of Darwinius masillae

The Four Stone Hearth is in need of hosts for 12/22/10 and beyond. Please consider hosting. The team that brought us Darwinius masillae has a new paper out defending the haplorhine status Darwinius masillae. The paper is a response to Williams et al (you can read about that paper here). The paper raises an issue […]