Category Archives: Fossils

Neandertal demographic collapse

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Love Dalén, Anders Götherström and colleagues have an interesting short article available in advance view in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The article argues, on the basis of Neandertal mtDNA data, for a distinction between Western and Eastern Neandertals, with the … Continue reading →

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The missing fossils of Zhoukoudian

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

The site of Zhoukoudian, located SW of Beijing, is one of the most productive fossil localities in the history of the human fossil record. During the 1920s and 1930s excavations at several localities of the site yielded thousands of artifacts … Continue reading →

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Quote of the day

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

“Comparing Nariokotome only to humans and only to relative scales, while instructive, involves us in an endless series of “if thens” (e.g., Smith, 1993; S.L. Smith, 2004). Only by adding a comparison to our closest relatives (Table 10.1) do we … Continue reading →

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Longlin fossils

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I said in a post the other day that I am largely unsympathetic to arguments for excessive speciation throughout the Pleistocene. The news this week from “Red Deer Cave” or Longlin Cave in SW China does not change that. These … Continue reading →

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Lines not written about paleoanthropology

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Scientists bicker as vigorously as any other group, but rarely about the right to share and publish the data on which their research depends – Michael Specter, “The Deadliest Virus” The New Yorker, 3/12/12 The article, like most writing I’ve … Continue reading →

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Cannibalism, not just for Neandertals anymore

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

Everyone’s favorite topic, cannibalism, is in the news today because of a a report in the journal Arctic of cannibalism in polar bears. The abstract, from I. Stirling & J.E. Ross, says this: We report three instances of intraspecific killing … Continue reading →

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Skeletons in the (digital) closet

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

Every once in a while google scholar leads me to something intriguingly bizarre. Attempting to find literature on some mandibular anatomical minutia, I came across this 1924 paper from the Journal of Anatomy on “an abnormal skull from New Guinea.” … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Svante Pääbo at the Society of Neuroscience Meetings

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

Carl Zimmer, writing at Discover, has a great piece on Svante Pääbo talking about Neandertals at a major neuroscience conference. Although I don’t agree with all of Zimmer’s characterizations, the piece is a nice primer on what we have learned … Continue reading →

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Finding fossils online

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Adam Van Arsdale

The blog Hominid Hunting, a project courtesy of the Smithsonian, provides a list of places to find fossils online. They have a nice start. To their list I would add a few other handy fossil/bone sites: The eSkeletons project from … Continue reading →

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