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sovay found and posted about a delightful paper about collective behavior in trilobites, 480 million years ago.Tags:
sovay found and posted about a delightful paper about collective behavior in trilobites, 480 million years ago.Thanks to sovay's recent post about a stuffed Tully monster, I've found something I think I want: a stuffed transitional fossil, Tiktaalik. I am also tempted by the trilobite.
sovay's recent post about a stuffed Tully monster, I've found something I think I want: a stuffed transitional fossil, Tiktaalik. I am also tempted by the trilobite.Tags:
What may be the oldest known cave paintings have been found, in Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is definitely the oldest known hand stencil, and a painting of a babirusa may be the oldest known drawing of an animal.
So, art didn't originate only in Western Europe, as people have been assuming. Either it goes back to before our ancestors spread out from Africa, or that shift in thought happened at least twice. (The article I'm linking to assumes it happened once.)
So, art didn't originate only in Western Europe, as people have been assuming. Either it goes back to before our ancestors spread out from Africa, or that shift in thought happened at least twice. (The article I'm linking to assumes it happened once.)
The discovery of 40,000-year-old cave paintings at opposite ends of the globe suggests that the ability to create representational art had its origins further back in time in Africa, before modern humans spread across the rest of the world.
"That's kind of my gut feeling," says Prof Stringer. "The basis for this art was there 60,000 years ago; it may even have been there in Africa before 60,000 years ago and it spread with modern humans".
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Researchers working in the Afar region of Africa have found the foot bones of a new species of bipedal hominid, roughly contemporary with Australopithecus afarensis. The site is about 50 kilometers from where the famous "Lucy" Au. afarensis skeleton was found. So that's two early bipedal hominids. This one could push off, like Lucy, or us, or any Homo species, and unlike other apes, but it still had a somewhat-opposable big toe.
Unfortunately, all we have (so far, at least) is eight bones from the right foot, so we can tell it isn't Au. afarensis or Ardipithecus ramidus—we know what their feet looked like—but the researchers aren't classifying these bones even by genus, let alone naming a new species, with no teeth or skull bones.
Meanwhile (I was reading Science this afternoon) they continue to do genetic sequencing on the Denisovan fossil remnants. Three specimens from a single site, and a fair amount of variation in the mitochondrial DNA. And those specimens aren't being named more formally than "Denisovan," either, at least not yet—yes, they have a tooth, but that's not a lot to work with. The other thing (this is my speculation about reasons) is that if you postpone formal naming, you can skip the "is this a species or a subspecies?" question. (Yes,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rysmiel, I know that's an arbitrary distinction, but people do draw it, sometimes loudly.)
Unfortunately, all we have (so far, at least) is eight bones from the right foot, so we can tell it isn't Au. afarensis or Ardipithecus ramidus—we know what their feet looked like—but the researchers aren't classifying these bones even by genus, let alone naming a new species, with no teeth or skull bones.
Meanwhile (I was reading Science this afternoon) they continue to do genetic sequencing on the Denisovan fossil remnants. Three specimens from a single site, and a fair amount of variation in the mitochondrial DNA. And those specimens aren't being named more formally than "Denisovan," either, at least not yet—yes, they have a tooth, but that's not a lot to work with. The other thing (this is my speculation about reasons) is that if you postpone formal naming, you can skip the "is this a species or a subspecies?" question. (Yes,
rysmiel, I know that's an arbitrary distinction, but people do draw it, sometimes loudly.)Tags:
Almost everyone seems to be linking to the stories about Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "hobbits" for their size. Meter-tall hominids aren't that weird an idea; they'd fit right in with Lucy over in Olduvai Gorge. But the type specimen is 18,000 years old, and was making sophisticated tools despite a chimpanzee-sized brain.
Nature has several connected articles on the discovery (some of why I can't read because they're reserved for paying subscribers), including an overview from an anthropologist who notes that he'd doubted the earlier claims of Homo erectus fossils in the region and an interview with two of the lead scientists on the project.
Nature has several connected articles on the discovery (some of why I can't read because they're reserved for paying subscribers), including an overview from an anthropologist who notes that he'd doubted the earlier claims of Homo erectus fossils in the region and an interview with two of the lead scientists on the project.
Tags:
Almost everyone seems to be linking to the stories about Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "hobbits" for their size. Meter-tall hominids aren't that weird an idea; they'd fit right in with Lucy over in Olduvai Gorge. But the type specimen is 18,000 years old, and was making sophisticated tools despite a chimpanzee-sized brain.
Nature has several connected articles on the discovery (some of why I can't read because they're reserved for paying subscribers), including an overview from an anthropologist who notes that he'd doubted the earlier claims of Homo erectus fossils in the region and an interview with two of the lead scientists on the project.
Nature has several connected articles on the discovery (some of why I can't read because they're reserved for paying subscribers), including an overview from an anthropologist who notes that he'd doubted the earlier claims of Homo erectus fossils in the region and an interview with two of the lead scientists on the project.
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