Blog articles
The so-called Toba bottleneck simply didn't happen
Prompted by a paper by Chad Yost and coworkers, I look at the persistent myth that humans were an endangered species only 74,000 years ago.
What's the deal with the Sahelanthropus femur?
A news story by Ewen Callaway investigates the mysterious case of this purported earliest bipedal hominin.
Lida Ajer, early modern human remains in island Southeast Asia
A site first investigated by Eugene Dubois is rediscovered by Kira Westaway and collaborators.
My photo of the Neo skull is named one of the top science images of the year
I am feeling really honored to have one of my photos of Neo included as one of Cosmos magazine’s “Top 10 science images of 2017” [https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/top-10-science-images-of-2017]. It’s the frontal view of the Neo skull. I’ve always thought that human evolutionary science has some
How many students in paleoanthropology can see casts of Australopithecus afarensis?
The real problem with a lack of data access is that 50 years of the fossil record is invisible to many students in the field.
Scientists doubted the Piltdown hoax from the beginning. What can they teach us?
For nearly forty years between the Piltdown discovery and exposure as a deliberate hoax, many scientists never believed the story.
Lecture: How Homo naledi is changing human origins
A talk with an audience at UW–Madison covers our work on Homo naledi, including the recently-published Lesedi Chamber remains and the age of the fossils.
When anthropologists argue about species, is it evidence, or ego?
For some people who follow human evolution news, recognizing “species” is really just about whether you’re a lumper or a splitter. Many people assume that the names of species are about ego, not evidence. But nature presents us with real challenges, which still cause different scientists to approach the
An unusual rate of dental chipping may give clues about Homo naledi's diet
Research by Ian Towle and coworkers finds that Homo naledi may have been eating foods with lots of grit.
Features of the Grecian ape raise questions about early hominins
A review of work published in 2017 describing fossil material of Graecopithecus freybergi from Greece and Bulgaria.