Quote of the day
Erik Trinkaus, quoted by the BBC on the Tianyuan skeleton:
Sex happens. I find this neither disturbing nor surprising.
quotes
Quote of the day
G. H. R. von Koenigswald, in "Early Man: Facts and Fantasy", p. 67:
When I say 'our science' I mean what is called the science of Early Man or Palaeoanthropology, of which one quarter is anthropology, another palaeontology, another archaeology, and the last quarter is composed of fantasy, intuition, hard work and good luck, because our early ancestors really are elusive. What in more than a hundred years has been discovered of Neanderthal Man, fills but a small churchyard. What is known of pre-Neanderthal Man can be placed on two middle-sized tables, and what might belong to our Tertiary ancestors I can put on the palm of my hand. You can expect traces of Early Man practically everywhere, in caves, sand pits, and Chinese drugstores, but the hunt is still difficult, you have to be hunter and dog in one person.
References:
von Koenigswald GHR. 1964. Early man: facts and fantasy. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 94:67-79.
Quote of the day
Ann Miller in On the Town:
Yes, you see there are not too many modern males who can measure up to the prehistoric.
Quote of the day
"Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds, contrasting the idea of trans-fat bans with the infamous fast food rat problem in NYC:
Before they start with their bureaucrat-empowering agenda of 21st-century health initiatives, maybe they should get a handle on the 19th-century health problems first.
Quote of the day
Local personality Bill Wineke, on the channel 3 news, commenting on the Jesus tomb documentary:
My first reaction, I thought they should take the bones, put them back in the box, pop in Anna Nicole Smith, and put them back in the tomb.
Quote of the day
Zen priest Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi:
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
Quote of the day
Last words of the real-life Bat Masterson, found "in his typewriter in the column he had been writing":
There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way.
Quote of the day
J. B. S. Haldane, first line of "A mathematical theory of natural and artificial selection" (1924, Trans Camb Phil Soc 23:19-41):
A satisfactory theory of natural selection must be quantitative.
Quote of the day
Gretchen, on the real estate listings for the tiny tax haven, Principality of Sealand, and Romania's Bran Castle, linked to Vlad the Impaler.
If I were Bill Gates, I could buy both and move Dracula's castle to my own island!
Quote of the day
Ann Althouse, deep in the comments wrapping a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest metaphor:
Academia is, apparently, a mad house, and this blog is my bus ride and fishing expedition.
Pages
Neandertals
For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.
Denisova
From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.
Acceleration
The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.
Malapa
Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.