Australopithecines!
Welcome to the home page for Anthro 604, "Australopithecines!" This page keeps a list of pages within this site that are useful for the course, as well as e...
Recent Posts
Ardipithecus remains from Gona
News story at MSNBC
Whallon's population model
Whallon R. 1989. Elements of cultural change in the later Paleolithic. In: Mellars P, Stringer CB, editors, The human revolution: Behavioural and biological ...
Evolving allometry
Frankino AW, Zwaan BJ, Stern DL, and Brakefield PM. 2005. Natural selection and developmental constraints in the evolution of allometries. Science 307: 718-7...
The Hominid Pelvis
The most dramatic illustration of bipedalism is the pelvis, and the most dramatic specimen demonstrating pelvic morphology is the relatively complete skelet...
Neandertals in NYC
I'm sitting at my gate at LaGuardia, returning from a conference at NYU, titled "Neanderthals revisited: New approaches and perspectives," cosponsored by th...
How much selection does it take?
I was involved in a discussion this weekend that I think reveals much about the current state of evolutionary genomics. The forum was the "Neanderthals Rev...
Why be bipedal?
The skeletal adaptation to bipedalism is well documented in early hominids. What is less clear is what events led to this adaptation and its eventual succes...
Neandertals revisited :: the conference in brief
I have been reading some posts wondering about the content of the recent "Neandertals Revisited" conference. Of course the most pertinent questions have com...
Forelimbs and climbing in early hominids
Compared to their small body mass, the forelimbs of early hominids are both longer and more muscular than those of recent humans. The arms are shorter than ...
Bipeds at Lukeino
The earliest skeletal traces of bipedalism come from the fossils from Lukeino, in the Tugen Hills of western Kenya. A single isolated molar was found here i...
Why anthropologists don’t accept the Aquatic Ape Theory
*This is now an old post—from 2005—see UPDATES below**
"Darwin stuck snails on ducks' feet"
Who'd'a thunk it? This story from LiveScience explains all.
Relationships among the hominoids :: overview
Evolutionary relationships among the living apes and humans were difficult to determine when paleontologists had only their morphology to compare them. Darw...
Proconsul :: overview
Perhaps the largest sample of Miocene ape fossils, dated over the longest time period, is Proconsul. Extending from over 22 million years ago to around 10 m...
Oreopithecus :: overview
Oreopithecus bambolii is known from a series of well-preserved fossils, including some relatively complete skeletons, from the north of Italy dated to betwee...
Morotopithecus :: overview
The site of Moroto, in Uganda, has produced a few ape fossils dating to around 20 million years ago, including a large palate and partial face. The palate i...
Lufengpithecus :: overview
Lufengpithecus lufengensis is a fossil ape from China, dating to the latest Miocene and Pliocene. A single mandible from the site of Longgupo argues that Luf...
Gigantopithecus :: overview
Gigantopithecus blacki was, as its name implies, a gigantic ape from the Pleistocene of China. Its remains consist only of teeth and jaws, but these are of a...