Recent adaptive evolution to resist the toxic effects of arsenic
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution provides an interesting new example of recent adaptation in a human population. Carina Schlebusch and colleagu...
All posts tagged with adaptation
Notable: Ancestry matters to ecogeography
Notable paper: Roseman, CC, Auerbach BM. 2015. Ecogeography, genetics, and the evolution of human body form. Journal of Human Evolution 78: 80-90. doi:10.101...
Vestigial traits under the microscope
Australian paleoanthropologist Darren Curnoe has been blogging at The Conversation, with some interesting posts. This week, he has written on the topic of ve...
Culture-gene coevolution and language
Simon Fisher and Matt Ridley, in a recent essay in Science, discuss the relationship between the genetic mutations that distinguish humans and other primates...
Group life in primates
Primates form different kinds of groups. While there is variation within every species, each species has its own typical range of group sizes. Primate groups...
Anthropology 105, lecture 5: Hemoglobin
In this lecture, I do a bit of a departure by discussing a body part that is microscopic: the hemoglobin molecule that carries oxygen inside of our red blood...
Why do people differ in skin color?
The color of human skin is determined by the amount of two pigments, eumelanin and pheomelanin. These pigments are the basic ones underlying all kinds of col...
Spatial dispersal, parallel adaptation, and the "Stooge effect"
Peter Ralph and Graham Coop have an interesting paper in the current Genetics, titled, “Parallel Adaptation: One or Many Waves of Advance of an Advantageous ...
Polygenic traits and directional selection
This has been an eventful week for those of us who study the dynamics of recent selection in humans. The most significant event was the publication of a pape...