Category Archives: Fossils

Running for Science:Science for Running – Episode 3, Hips Don’t Lie (Anna Warrener)

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Adam Van Arsdale

No part of human skeletal anatomy is more central to our understanding of human bipedal locomotion-and it’s distinction from ape patterns of locomotion-than the pelvis. On this week’s episode I talk with Dr. Anna Warrener (CU-Denver), who has done amazing … Continue reading →

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Running for Science: Science for Running – Episode 2, From Our Feet Up (Cody Prang)

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Adam Van Arsdale

Episode 2 of “Running for Science:Science for Running” is live! This episode, “From Our Feet Up,” features Cody Prang, a doctoral student at NYU. Cody’s doctoral research focuses on the evolution of the human foot, lower limb, and biomechanics of … Continue reading →

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Running for Science: Science for Running – Episode 1, You Have to Walk Before You Can Run (Jeremy DeSilva)

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Adam Van Arsdale

Happy to release episode 1 of “Running for Science: Science for Running.” This episode – You have to walk before you can run – features Dartmouth anthropologist, Jeremy DeSilva. Jerry is a good friend I have known since graduate school, … Continue reading →

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Three papers: January 13-19, 2019

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Adam Van Arsdale

Three papers that caught my attention this week in the world of human evolution: * “Limits of long-term selection against Neandertal introgression.” Petr Martin, Svante Pääbo, Janet Kelso, and Benjamin Vernot It is now well-established the early “modern” humans (that … Continue reading →

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A Tale of Two Maps: Ancient DNA and Ancient Hominins

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Adam Van Arsdale

A while back Chris Stringer linked to a wonderful interactive map on twitter. Still being updated, a great resource by ⁦@nickyrozenblatt⁩ mapping published ancient genomes + sources https://t.co/WFCZRNOw8O — Chris Stringer (@ChrisStringer65) December 12, 2018 The map, put together by … Continue reading →

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Moving Beyond Trees: Metaphors for Evolution

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Adam Van Arsdale

…for there is some one entity (or more than one) which always persists and from which all other things are generated. All are not agreed, however, as to the number and character of these principles. Thales, the founder of this … Continue reading →

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Homo naledi, part 1

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Adam Van Arsdale

Paleoanthropology got front-page (above the fold!) coverage last week with the announcement and initial publication of Homo naledi, a new species of Homo, based on the large assemblage of hominin fossils recovered from the Rising Star Cave, South Africa, in … Continue reading →

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Our paper: The evolution of early Homo

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Adam Van Arsdale

This past Spring I published a paper, together with Milford Wolpoff, on the early evolution of our genus, Homo. The paper had several inspirations, independent of my own research in this arena associated with my work at the Lower Paleolithic … Continue reading →

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Laetoli, Boston-style

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Adam Van Arsdale

How do you film a class segment about the Laetoli footprint trail without going to Tanzania to film? By going to the beach, of course! Laetoli, if you are not aware, is the ~3.5-3.6 million year old site in Tanzania, … Continue reading →

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The importance of 300,000 year old cave bear mtDNA

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Adam Van Arsdale

A just released paper in PNAS that reconstructs the mitochondrial DNA of a >300,000 year old cave bear lineage is getting some attention…and for good reason (Dabney, et al., 2013). You might wonder who cares about ancient cave bear lineages … Continue reading →

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