Beyond bones & stones
Two days ago, Little Foot, Stw 573, the near-complete Australopithecine skeleton dating back 3.67 million years was unveiled at the Hominin Vault at the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. Little Foot was found a bit nontraditional in '94 by Ron Clarke, who was sifting thru some animal bones from South... Continue Reading →
A study published in Nature today announces the 2011 discovery of Australopithecus deyiremeda a hominid that lived between 3.3 and 3.5 million years ago. The species is represented by a maxilla, mandible and dentition found in the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia about 22 miles from the spot where the remains of Australopithecus afarensis were... Continue Reading →
This month in the Journal of Human Evolution, a new study on the teeth of the Dmanisi Homo erectus has been published. A site in the Republic of Georgia, Dmanisi has yielded a vast quantity of hominin fossils dating to approximately 1.8 million years ago—even an elderly individual without teeth. The discovered crania are remarkably... Continue Reading →
The discussion about dimorphism between the sexes in the genus Australopithecus has been an ongoing debate in the world of physical anthropology and paleoanthropology. For many people interested in human evolution, this is an interesting question because sexual dimorphism can explain early mating systems. I won't get into that just yet, but I will overview... Continue Reading →
This week, we saw a short paper in Science on Paranthropus robustus sexual dimorphism and the implications the differences between sexes had on this early hominid social behavior. Here's the title and a link to the original publication, "Extended Male Growth in a Fossil Hominin Species." Sexual dimporphism is what scientists use to define the... Continue Reading →
Recently, Nate Dominy was granted a very generous fellowship to continue his studies on human evolution and diet. David Strait, of the University at Albany, also has been granted a very generous lump of cash to study this same topic. Dominy's scope differs from Strait's in that Dominy takes a molecular approach. Strait will investigate... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, I got sent a video of paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged's talk at this year's TED conference. Last year we all got introduced to Zeresenay Alemseged when he and colleagues published their report on Selam a.k.a. Dikika fossil. Selam is a 3.3 million year old Australopithecus afarensis child.Here's some of the stuff I wrote about that... Continue Reading →
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