john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

"The bottom end of a muu muu has just been stolen by that macaque"

Fri, 2007-07-06 23:42 -- John Hawks

I'm watching mid-day kid-friendly animal programming, when I realize a central fact of television reality: Jeff Corwin is a freak. Not just any kind of freak. A climbing-up-on-Indian-rooftops-with-urban-monkeys kind of freak. A "Hey lady, that monkey just stole your jogging shorts!" kind of freak.

LUCY: "I don't want this kind of show. I don't want it! I don't want it! I don't want this kind! I don't want this kind!"

DADDY: "Really, you don't want this show?"

LUCY: "I want a cartoon."

DADDY: "Believe me, that's what you're watching."

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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.