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2008-08-20 16:19:47
by moneduloides in Moneduloides
Anthropology
I found this little ditty in this month’s issue of the journal Evolution. It’s entitled Ossification heterochrony in the therian postcranial skeleton and the marsupial-placental dichotomy [1], and does a very good job of exploring the differential rates of bone formation in marsupial (the fetus is nourished by a yolk-like sac) v. placental (the ...more
- Sánchez-Villagra M. (2008) OSSIFICATION HETEROCHRONY IN THE THERIAN POSTCRANIAL SKELETON AND THE MARSUPIAL-PLACENTAL DICHOTOMY. Evolution, 62(8), 2027-2041. DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00424.x
2008-08-20 16:14:45
by kambiz in Anthropology.net
Anthropology
Michelle Glantz, Sheela Athreya, and Terrence Ritzman have taken up yet another a reassessment of Teshik-Tash Neandertal child in the latest issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. They’ve published the paper under the title, “Is Central Asia the Eastern Outpost of the Neandertal Range? A Reassessment of the Teshik-Tash Child.”
The child, Teshik-Tash 1, ...more
2008-08-20 13:01:51
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Anthropology
A typical adult human recognizes that the image one sees in a mirror is oneself. We do not know how much training a mirror-naive adult requires to do this, but we think very little.
When a typical adult macaque (a species of monkey) looks in the mirror, it sees another monkey. Typical adult male macaques stuck in a cage with a mirror will treat the image as a fellow adult male macaque until you take the mirror out of the cage.
(Experiments that attempt to determine if an individual can recognize themselves in the mirror ultimately derive from what is known as the Gallup ...more
- Waal F. d. (2008) Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self-Recognition. PLoS Biology, 6(8), e202. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060202
2008-08-15 22:07:23
by moneduloides in Moneduloides
Anthropology
An interesting article in this month’s issue of the Journal of Human Evolution begs the question of whether great apes prefer cooked, or raw, food. Of course, the answer in and of itself isn’t what these anthropologists are after, no… it’s ALWAYS about the humans… stupid, if you ask me (but you probably didn’t, and ...more
- WRANGHAM R. (2008) Great apes prefer cooked food. Journal of Human Evolution, 55(2), 340-348.
2008-08-14 14:01:43
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Anthropology
A remarkable find in North Africa is reported in PLoS. Information has just been released on this new archaeological site in a formerly much greener Sahara. Here I am passing on the press release and photos without comment, so that you can have the information right away.
TWO SKULLS. (Dark Skull, left) Radiocarbon dated at 9,500 years old, the skull of this mature Kiffian male is stained dark from high lake levels that inundated the cemetery at Gobero. With squared eye sockets set slightly farther apart and other differences, skulls like this one from an early Kiff...more
- Harpending H. (2008) Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change. PLoS ONE, 3(8), e2995. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002995
2008-08-14 14:01:41
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Anthropology
Stephen Jay Gould and David Pilbeam wrote a paper in 1974 that was shown ten years later to be so totally wrong it is conclusions that it has fallen into an obscurity not usually linked to either Gould or Pilbeam. However, they were actually right in ways that they could not have anticipated. And even if they were not right, this paper still has much to contribute, including the opening words of that publication in Science, which are very much worthy of consideration for many reasons:
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post......
more
- Gould S. (1974) Size and Scaling in Human Evolution. Science, 186(4167), 892-901.
2008-08-13 03:06:48
by kambiz in Anthropology.net
Anthropology
The mitochondrial macrohaplogroup M is a descendant of the macrohaplogroup L3, a really old East African haplogroup thought to have originated around 104,000 years ago. Sun et al., explained that within haplogroup M, lie many smaller haplogroups of which the M2 lineage is thought to be the oldest mitochondrial lineage in India. You can check ...more
2008-08-07 10:02:41
by Laelaps in Laelaps
Anthropology
Hadrosaurs are often called the "cows of the Cretaceous." They were common, had few defenses compared to their armored ornithischian kin, and were a favorite prey for predatory dinosaurs. Natural selection appears to have applied sufficient pressure for at least one genus of hadrosaur, Hypacrosaurus, to change, however. It did not develop horns or spikes or a club, but instead ontogenetically outpaced their predators.
The key to determining how theropods and Hypacrosaurus grew can be found inside their bones, and a new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B using histologi...more
- Horner J. R. (2008) Relative growth rates of predator and prey dinosaurs reflect effects of predation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, -1(-1), -1--1. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0912
2008-08-04 20:03:44
by Dungan in Dream Studies Portal
Anthropology
Thinking about thinking is hard, and thinking about dreaming is harder. Believe it or not, there is only one evolutionary theory of dreaming seriously at work these days in academia. Indeed, a...
This a summary only. Visit my site for the real deal....more
- PUNAMAKI R. (2005) The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children. Consciousness and Cognition, 14(1), 188-218. DOI: 10.1016/S1053-8100(03)00019-9
2008-08-01 23:05:09
by moneduloides in Moneduloides
Anthropology
Prayer? Check. God’s love? Check. Low BMD? Che…Huh?
I came across this article and just couldn’t resist. I find that the many studies done on prayer attempt gauge its effectiveness, and from what I can see here they have all been coming from the wrong angle (Although, admittedly with great results [1]); do not search for ...more
- Yucel E. (2008) Effect of prayer on osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Rheumatology International, 28(5), 429-436.