Category Archives: Human evolution
HOW WE GOT WHERE WE ARE
An excellent resource in the latest issue of Current Biology – seven reviews on the global genetic history of Homo sapiens, all available FREE. Not all the articles are easy going for the non-specialist, and lay readers might wish to focus … Continue reading
Filed under Genetics, Human evolution
FLAME-HAIRED NEANDERTHALS
October 2007 Did Neanderthals have red hair? Some recent evidence to be published in Science points that way (you or your institution will need a subscription to get past the abstract). BBC summary.
Filed under Genetics, Human evolution
MORE ON THOSE PESKY HOBBITS
September 2007 An article in Science tries to settle the dispute over whether Homo floresiensis really was a recently-extinct separate Homo species or simply a diseased human. This study looks at the wrist-bones and suggests they are not like H. sapiens, but share … Continue reading
Filed under Human evolution
HOBBIT SLIDESHOW
September 2007 Fascinating 7-minute slideshow with audio commentary from Science magazine about Homo floresiensis, the “hobbit” discovered on the island of Flores, near Indonesia, and the argument that exists over whether it was a separate species of Homo that disappeared around 12,000 years … Continue reading
Filed under Audio files, Human evolution, Images, Videos
MORE HOBBITS
April 2007 Magazine article in Science about evidence supporting the general view that Homo floresiensis is not a diseased modern human. Subscription needed to get past abstract.
Filed under Human evolution
MORE ARGUMENTS ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION
April 2007 Did humans come out of Africa, as most people think, or did we evolve separately in various places round the planet (the “multi-regional hypothesis”)? A new fossil discovered in China seems to add weight to the latter argument. BBC summary, original … Continue reading
Filed under Fossils, Human evolution
WHAT DID WE DO TO THE NEANDERTHALS?
March 2007 An excellent review article on human evolution in TREE. Highly recommended.
Filed under Human evolution
YOU ALL HATE MOLECULAR BIOLOGY BUT – 2
March 2007 Molecular population genetic studies of humans reveal that the ability to consume dairy products is a relatively recent event, telling us something about the development of agriculture and the plasticity of the human genome. Read more here.
Filed under Genetics, Human evolution
NEANDERTHALS AND US
February 2007 An article in PNAS confirms that traces from Homo sapiens and H. sapiens neanderthalis are intermingled at the Chatelperron site in France, strongly suggesting that the two types of human met and interacted at the site. What finally did for the … Continue reading
Filed under Climate change, Human evolution
ZOOLOGY PUB QUIZ QUESTION: DID HUMANS AND TERROR BIRDS MEET?
February 2007 Terror birds were massive 2m tall flightless birds with big beaks that lived in North America. They looked like their name suggests. It was thought that they lived around 10,000 years ago, in which case, we might have met up. … Continue reading
Filed under Birds, Fossils, Human evolution
