Tag Archives: speciation

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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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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