Tag Archives: early Homo

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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More on the porotic hyperostosis at Olduvai Gorge

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

John Crandall and Deb Martin write a reply to Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (which I commented on last week) that seems to broaden some of the points I raised. They like the diagnosis of porotic hyperostosis, but are skeptical of the … Continue reading →

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Meat-eating, porotic hyperostosis and early Homo

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

A large group of researchers working at Olduvai Gorge, including Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo (IDEA, Madrid), Charles Musiba (UC-Denver) and Henry Bunn (U. Wisconsin), have a paper out in PLOS One this week on evidence of porotic hyperostosis in a 1.5 million … Continue reading →

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The Dmanisi mandibles

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

My latest paper examining metric variation in the Lower Paleolithic Dmanisi mandibular sample, co-authored with David Lordkipanidze, is available today via Paleoanthropology’s website (open access). Synopsis: The Dmanisi mandibular sample is a well-preserved, age-stratified set of remains, that poses interesting … Continue reading →

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Neandertal-human admixture and early Homo

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Last week’s pre-publication of a paper addressing the alternative hypotheses of Neandertal-human admixture vs. ancient African population structure, with respect explaining the signal of Neandertal DNA in living humans, has generated a lot of great posts. First, John Hawks has … Continue reading →

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The importance of dates in the Plio-Pleistocene

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

This week’s discussion of the new fossils from Northern Kenya once again raises the issue of the critical role played by precise geological dating at this time period. This is hardly a new issue, but one that perhaps gets too … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Quotes for the day – Expansion and speciation

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Continuous expansion to new environments is the most general overriding feature of all adaptive radiation. The pattern of this divergence between populations and species is partly predictable from principles of quantitative genetic covariation. The initials stages of divergence between populations … Continue reading →

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Linearity and simplicity in the fossil record

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Spend time reading about human evolution and it will not be long until you come across a discussion of “bushy” vs. “linear” evolutionary scenarios or arguments between taxonomic “splitters” (favoring more species) and “lumpers” (favoring fewer species). I will, up … Continue reading →

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