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Blog articles

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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.

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Can we build a science of human evolution that people can trust?

A revealing look at people's ideas about neglected questions in human evolution.

Kabwe skull in left lateral view
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New footprints from Laetoli shed light on how the science has changed in 40 years

New trails expand our knowledge of body size and behavior of some of the earliest known bipedal hominins.

Photo of footprints from Laetoli
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Why are humans evolving to lack their wisdom teeth?

The frequency of M3 agenesis varies greatly among human populations. It may have to do with agricultural diets, but anthropologists aren't sure.

Panoramic X-ray image of human teeth in the upper and lower jaws
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Should we be surprised if Neandertals, Denisovans, and modern humans didn’t form stable hybrid zones?

A geneticist asks why we don't see more persisting hybrid populations, and I find an answer in the theory of population source-sink dynamics.

A Neandertal artist's reconstruction at the Neanderthal Museum, wearing a suit and holding a stone tool.
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My article giving an overview of our symposium on Homo naledi

An article written for American Scientist gives the current state of our research into the biology of this species.

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Looking at the hypothesis of deliberate deposition for Homo naledi

An exchange of views in the Journal of Human Evolution includes an examination of evidence about how skeletons ended up in the Dinaledi Chamber.

Homo naledi bones arranged on a dark table.
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An possible ancestor of Homo floresiensis from the Middle Pleistocene of Flores

Gerrit van den Bergh and coworkers describe dental remains and a jaw from Mata Menge, 700,000 years ago.

Images of teeth in multiple views, with arrows pointing into a jaw to show the tooth positions
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Neandertals built a circle out of stalagmites deep underground. What does it mean?

Examining the work of Jacques Joubert and coworkers that describes this mysterious structure and the possible intention behind it.

Structures underground at Bruniquel Cave with caver in background
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A revised chronology for Liang Bua places Homo floresiensis earlier than 60,000 years ago

Further study of the “hobbit” site shows that the stratigraphy was more complicated than assumed back in 2004, with skeletal remains much earlier than originally published.

Liang Bua cave with archaeologists pictured at center and excavation areas visible.
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How much sex did it take for Neandertal DNA to enter modern populations?

Addressing a widespread misconception about what geneticists are really measuring when they look at population mixture.

A painting of the biblical figures Jacob and Esau
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A paleoanthropological Thanksgiving

A holiday greeting with a special image of the family of fossil hominins.

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Did humans approach the southern tip of South America more than 18,000 years ago?

An article by Tom Dillehay and coworkers describes the archaeology of Monte Verde I, preserving artifacts together with burned features.

Basalt artifact from Monte Verde, Chile
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Another Denisovan from Denisova Cave

A review of the 2015 work identifying the Denisova 8 specimen by Susanna Sawyer and coworkers.

Denisova 8 molar
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What is the ‘braided stream’ analogy for human evolution?

A discussion of the way that reticulation has manifested across human evolution, with reference to an essay by Clive Finlayson.

Channels of water draining in sand showing a braided stream network
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A modern look at pollen from Shanidar and the question of "flower burials"

Work by Marta Fiacconi and Chris Hunt provides new knowledge of the ways that pollen may have entered the Neandertal site.

Shanidar cave in the side of a rocky hill
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Two anthropologists float some curious notions about Homo naledi

I look at views expressed by Jeffrey Schwartz and Tim White about the anatomy of Homo naledi and its relationships with other hominins.

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Why do male bonobos have such low body fat?

Work by Adrienne Zihlman and Debra Bolter looks at the interesting tissue proportions and what they may imply about energy and diet.

Bonobo leaning toward the left into the camera frame, with green vegetation background
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How the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship is slowly turning into a dissertation grant

Most winners are already enrolled in graduate programs with well-defined research topics.

A person typing on a computer
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Stephen Jay Gould and the role of provocation in science

An interview with Richard Lewontin brings up Gould's history making ideas more provocative than they probably deserved.

Stephen Jay Gould and the role of provocation in science
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Recent adaptive evolution to resist the toxic effects of arsenic

Examining a study by Carina Schlebusch and coworkers into the peoples of northern Argentina.

Cactus standing on rocky ground in front of mountains and a sunset.
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The Manot 1 skull and how we now look at Neandertal ancestry in early modern humans

The discovery of a 54,000-year-old skull in Israel sheds light on the dispersal of modern humans and their contacts with Neandertals.

Manot Cave with sloping sediment, archaeologists, and lights
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An ancient human pulled from the bottom of the Taiwan Strait

Work by Chun-Hsiang Chang and coworkers describes the partial mandible, which may represent an archaic human related to the Denisovans.

Penghu mandible symmetrically reconstructed, shown in occlusal view in black and white
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A look at the intentional markings of Homo erectus

Looking at a 2014 paper by Josephine Joordens and coworkers, which describes zig-zag markings on a shell from Trinil, Indonesia. This shell may have been intentionally marked by Homo erectus.

Clam shell with zigzag markings in a museum exhibit
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Castmaking and early data dissemination in paleoanthropology

The earliest form of data dissemination was the distribution of high fidelity copies of fossils.

Taung fossil skull viewed from the right side.
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Secrets of the genome from Ust'-Ishim

A discovery from Siberia represents one of the earliest branches of modern humans to disperse into Eurasia.

Secrets of the genome from Ust'-Ishim
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Presentation on species concepts and the hominin fossil record

On a visit to Charles Darwin's home, I share some perspectives on how paleoanthropologists think about species.

John Hawks seen talking in front of a wooded background with a sandy pathway
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Describing the Great Rift Valley

I share some geological and geographical knowledge from the Omo River valley, one part of the African Rift system.

John Hawks in front of a wooded river with badlands in the distance
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Becoming human: Presentation on Mount Carmel sites and cultural origins

A visit to Israel occasions reflections on the cultural evolution of humans and Neandertals.

John Hawks in front of a wadi with a limestone massif and caves in the distance.
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An interview with Clive Finlayson about Neandertal lifeways

This is a part of the course, Human Evolution: Past and Future, which I presented in 2014.

John Hawks and Clive Finlayson inside a cave