Category Archives: Evolution

Go, go, Gorilla genome

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Nature published the results from the first full-genome sequencing of Gorilla this week. As with any new genome sequencing project, this initial publication is the result of an immense amount of work (the author list on the paper runs to … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Genetics | Tagged | 2 Comments

Paleoanthropology with 3D glasses

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

I took a break from writing this afternoon to read this new paper from Jonathan Donges and colleagues examining the role that patterns of climatic variability play in human evolution. The paper is the most recent in an increasingly interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution | Tagged | 4 Comments

Cooking, fire and food

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

It is only fitting on the heels of Thanksgiving to have a little discussion of cooking, fire and food. Dennis Sandgathe and colleagues have a paper in Paleoanthropology reviewing the evidence for fire-control in Western European Neandertals. In the article, … Continue reading →

Posted in Energetics, Evolution, Food | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Species longevity, variation and range size

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

There is an interesting article in this month’s edition of Evolution on trilobite diversity. The study, by Melanie Hopkins, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, looks at the relationship between intraspecific variation, species range, and longevity in the fossil … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Fossils | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Species longevity, variation and range size

Energetic or expensive brains?

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

I have not had a chance to go through all the details of this paper, but University of Zurich PhD student, Ana Navarrete (along with Carel van Schaik and Karin Isler), has a paper out in Nature this week that … Continue reading →

Posted in Energetics, Evolution | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Fiona Apple: Evolutionary biologist?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

This is what happens when I take a break from a long day of writing to take the dog for a walk. I find myself listening to the following lyrics from Fiona Apple and imagining she is talking about competing … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution | Tagged | Comments Off on Fiona Apple: Evolutionary biologist?

Quote/Thought of the day

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

“Under conditions of random genetic drift and gene flow, what happens in a few generations may determine the general spatial pattern of gene frequencies for the next few hundred generations. Therefore, an environmental factor which is geographically variable within a … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Quote/Thought of the day