Human Evolution
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
Known as the ancient human ancestor was discovered in the Malapa region of South Africa in 2008 and was described for the first time last April. (See "'Key' Human Ancestor Found: Fossils Link Apes, First Humans?" ) Now a suite of five studies, published in this week's issue of the journal is delving deeper into the species' unusual mix of human and apelike traits to help refine s place in the time line of human evolution . After examining s anatomy, for instance, scientists think they may have evidence that the species was capable of making and using tools.
Human Ancestor May Put Twist in Origin Story
Far-flung cousin? This 8000-year-old skeleton of a hunter-gatherer, found in a Spanish cave, is genetically similar to skeletons found in central and Eastern Europe. Credit: Alberto Tapia
Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Kept in Touch
Evolution :: News :: January 20, 2010 :: :: Email :: Print A new approach to probe ancient regions of the genome suggests early human populations were scarce By Carina Storrs ANCIENT DE-POPULATIONS: Genetic study reveals that populations of ancient humans were surprisingly small. Image: FLICKR/JOHNFEDERICO
Endangered Species: Humans Might Have Faced Extinction 1 Million Years Ago
Just what do our emotions look like? It’s a simple question with extremely complex answers. Emotionally Vague , an interesting and extensive project to graphically display how our emotions look and feel in our body, surveyed 35 different countries to get to the bottom of the question . Using a simple survey of 250 participants between the ages of 6 & 75 years of age, the team researched how people experienced the feelings of anger, joy, fear, sadness and love. Given a piece of paper with human silhouettes, each participant was asked to graphically represent each of these emotions in 3 ways – as a point, as directional arrows and with complete expressive freedom.
Emotionally Vague: A Graphical Survey of Feelings
Fontanelle
A fontanelle (or fontanel ) is an anatomical feature on an infant's skull . [ edit ] Anatomy Fontanelles are soft spots on a baby's head which, during birth, enable the bony plates of the skull to flex, allowing the child's head to pass through the birth canal. The ossification of the bones of the skull causes the anterior fontanelle to close over by 18 to 24 months. [ 1 ] The sphenoidal and posterior fontanelles close during the first few months of life.Adam and Eve: Adam's rib count.
Claim CB381: As related in Genesis 2, Eve was created from one of Adam's ribs. As a consequence, men have one fewer set of ribs than women do. Source:
When paleobiologist Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues described a new human ancestor named Ardipithecus ramidus —or “Ardi”—they challenged many evolutionary assumptions. This 4.4-million-year-old fossil female was bipedal but lived in woodlands, debunking the widely accepted hypothesis that we evolved upright walking on the grassy savanna. Other features hinted that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was a quadruped and not a knuckle-walking ape, as was long thought. Then came the backlash. In 2010 geochemist Thure Cerling of the University of Utah and seven other geologists and anthropologists looked at the same evidence and concluded that Ardi’s predominant habitat had been the savanna after all. (In rebuttal , White emphasized that Ardi actually lived in woodland, even if savanna was nearby.)
Ardi Continues to Shake the Human Family Tree
The 5 Strangest Things Evolution Left in Your Body
If you don't believe in evolution, you have to spend a lot of time wondering about the useless shit the creator threw into our bodies. Why don't our wisdom teeth fit in our heads? Why do we need an appendix? The answer is that evolution is a sloppy and haphazard process.
The Ishango bone is a bone tool , dated to the Upper Paleolithic era. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon , [ 1 ] with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving. It was first thought to be a tally stick , as it has a series of what has been interpreted as tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the tool, but some scientists have suggested that the groupings of notches indicate a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting. It has also been suggested that the scratches might have been to create a better grip on the handle or for some other non-mathematical reason. [ 2 ] The Ishango bone was found in 1960 by Belgian Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt while exploring what was then the Belgian Congo . [ 3 ] It was discovered in the African area of Ishango , which was centered near the headwaters of the Nile River at Lake Edward (now on the border between modern-day Uganda and Congo ).
Ishango bone [humans learn to count!]
