Category Archives: Evolution

The new Koobi Fora early Homo fossils

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

UPDATE: For some additional takes, check out Erin Wayman’s piece at Hominid Hunting (Smithsonian) and Zachary Cofran’s great discussion of these new fossils alongside the material from Malapa, South Africa, at Lawnchair Anthropology. Meave Leakey, Fred Spoor and colleagues have … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Evolution, Fossils | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Interspecies perception

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Having just re-read Michael Tomasello’s great book, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition, on my flights back from Europe, I found this post from Greg Downey and his graduate student, Paul Keil, fascinating. Paul and Greg describe the interaction and … Continue reading →

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Meat and the paleodiet

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I was making lunch for my kids this morning when I happened to hear this NPR piece on the radio. The issue, similar to what I commented on a few weeks ago, is the paleodiet. This time, the story is … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Food | Tagged , | 9 Comments

More on evolutionary approaches to diet

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has gotten a lot of attention with his recent announcement to institute a partial ban on large-size soda options in the city. The initiative, meant in some ways to address the growing problems of … Continue reading →

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Problems with “the” paleo-diet

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

NPR recently picked up a story on “the paleo diet” moving more mainstream. The basic idea behind the paleo diet is that evolution has shaped our metabolic processes to fit a certain kind of diet, and by and large, we … Continue reading →

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In defense of the treatment of race, in part, on biological/scientific grounds

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

One of the first issues I want to unpack from my just completed seminar on race is the treatment of race, in part, as a topic of biological and scientific relevance. The history of scientific racism is the history of … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Evolution, Teaching | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

More Neandertal anti-defamation files

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Randomly found in the grocery store check-out aisle in a cancer research fundraiser used-book pile: Maybe not your mother exactly, but somebody’s mother at some point in time…

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Seasonal signs

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

One issue that constantly intrigues me is the importance of seasonality in the evolution and early dispersal of Homo from Africa ~2 million years ago. Africa does not lack complex seasonality, particularly with respect to humidity and ecological resource availability, … Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day: Hypothesis testing and science

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Hypothesis-driven science is a mechanism for constructing compelling, publishable narratives, most of which are wrong. – Daniel MacArthur, Mass General geneticist, writer and blogger, via Twitter …And as it should be when done correctly. Paleoanthropology, perhaps owing to the special … Continue reading →

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Lineages, species and Michigan, part 2

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I will have to follow up with my own comments later, but I wanted to direct you to Ken Weiss’s follow-up piece to his comments on the single-species hypothesis yesterday. I will make one brief observation, though. Ken writes: But … Continue reading →

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