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- January 10, 2011
- 06:02 PM
- 740 views
What Killed the Hominins of AL 333?
Over 36 years since its discovery in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression, the 3.2 million year old skeleton of Lucy is still the most famous in all of paleoanthropology. Older fossil humans have been found, as have more complete remains, but none have generated the same swell of interest that has virtually turned these Australopithecus afarensis bones [...]... Read more »
Anna K. Behrensmeyer. (1978) Taphonomic and Ecologic Information from Bone Weathering. Paleobiology, 4(2), 150-162. info:/
Anna K Behrensmeyer. (2008) Paleoenvironmental context of the Pliocene A.L. 333 “First Family” hominin locality, Hadar Formation, Ethiopia. GSA Special Papers, 203-214. info:/10.1130/2008.2446(09)
Kruuk, H. (2009) Surplus killing by carnivores. Journal of Zoology, 166(2), 233-244. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1972.tb04087.x
Marean, C. (1995) Paleoanthropological and paleoecological implications of the taphonomy of a sabertooth's den. Journal of Human Evolution, 29(6), 515-547. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1995.1074
PLAVCAN, J., LOCKWOOD, C., KIMBEL, W., LAGUE, M., & HARMON, E. (2005) Sexual dimorphism in revisited: How strong is the case for a human-like pattern of dimorphism?. Journal of Human Evolution, 48(3), 313-320. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.09.006
Radosevich, S., Retallack, G., & Taieb, M. (1992) Reassessment of the paleoenvironment and preservation of hominid fossils from Hadar, Ethiopia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 87(1), 15-27. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330870103
Reno, P., McCollum, M., Meindl, R., & Lovejoy, C. (2010) An enlarged postcranial sample confirms Australopithecus afarensis dimorphism was similar to modern humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365(1556), 3355-3363. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0086
- January 7, 2011
- 07:36 PM
- 802 views
OpenLab Finalist: Giraffes – Necks for food, or necks for sex?
Author’s note: Today the finalists for the 2010 Open Laboratory anthology were announced, and I am proud to say that – for the fourth year in a row – one of my posts made it onto the list of winning entries. To celebrate, I have reposted it below.
The entire list of finalists is fantastic and [...]... Read more »
BADLANGANA, N., ADAMS, J., & MANGER, P. (2009) The giraffe ( ) cervical vertebral column: a heuristic example in understanding evolutionary processes? . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 155(3), 736-757. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00458.x
Cameron EZ, & du Toit JT. (2007) Winning by a neck: tall giraffes avoid competing with shorter browsers. The American naturalist, 169(1), 130-5. PMID: 17206591
Mitchell, G., van Sittert, S., & Skinner, J. (2009) Sexual selection is not the origin of long necks in giraffes. Journal of Zoology, 278(4), 281-286. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00573.x
Simmons, R., & Altwegg, R. (2010) Necks-for-sex or competing browsers? A critique of ideas on the evolution of giraffe. Journal of Zoology, 282(1), 6-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00711.x
Simmons, R., & Scheepers, L. (1996) Winning by a Neck: Sexual Selection in the Evolution of Giraffe. The American Naturalist, 148(5), 771. DOI: 10.1086/285955
- January 5, 2011
- 08:01 PM
- 621 views
The Fightin’ Ibis: Xenicibis and Evolution’s Arrow
What comes next for evolution? This seems like a simple question. Every day we are learning more about the history of life on earth, and we would expect that, over 150 years since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, the life of the past could be used to extrapolate the trajectory of evolution’s [...]... Read more »
Nicholas R. Longrich, and Storrs L. Olson. (2010) The bizarre wing of the Jamaican flightless ibis Xenicibis xympithecus: a unique vertebrate adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. info:/10.1098/rspb.2010.2117
Osborn, Henry Fairfield; Brown, Barnum. (1906) Tyrannosaurus, Upper Cretaceous carnivorous dinosaur. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 22(16), 281-296. info:/
- January 4, 2011
- 02:17 PM
- 555 views
Legend of the Killer Storks
What makes a monster? Godzilla, Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster, Fáfnir, the ALIEN, – all these fictional fiends have disparate origins, attributes, and motivations, but they are tied together by their disregard for what we perceive as the natural order. Each is an aberrant creation – something from an earlier age, or something corrupted – that disrupts [...]... Read more »
Berger, L. (1995) Eagle involvement in accumulation of the Taung child fauna. Journal of Human Evolution, 29(3), 275-299. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1995.1060
Berger, L. (2006) Brief communication: Predatory bird damage to the Taung type-skull ofAustralopithecus africanus Dart 1925. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 131(2), 166-168. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20415
MEIJER, H., & DUE, R. (2010) A new species of giant marabou stork (Aves: Ciconiiformes) from the Pleistocene of Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 160(4), 707-724. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00616.x
Meijer, H., Van Den Hoek Ostende, L., Van Den Bergh, G., & De Vos, J. (2010) The fellowship of the hobbit: the fauna surrounding Homo floresiensis. Journal of Biogeography, 37(6), 995-1006. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02308.x
- December 28, 2010
- 09:18 PM
- 880 views
A Fistful of Teeth – Do the Qesem Cave Fossils Really Change Our Understanding of Human Evolution?
A handful of fossil teeth found in Israel’s Qesem Cave, described in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and attributed to 400,000 year old members of our own species in multiple news reports, are said to rewrite the story of human evolution. This discovery doubles the antiquity of Homo sapiens, the articles say, and identify [...]... Read more »
Hershkovitz, I., Smith, P., Sarig, R., Quam, R., Rodríguez, L., García, R., Arsuaga, J., Barkai, R., & Gopher, A. (2010) Middle pleistocene dental remains from Qesem Cave (Israel). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21446
- December 20, 2010
- 01:31 PM
- 1,028 views
repost: Megarachne, the giant spider that wasn’t
Author’s Note: A few weeks ago, over at Dinosaur Tracking, I wrote about a revision to a classic story from Australia’s prehistory printed in Cretaceous Research. Large, three-toed tracks at the 100 million-year-old Lark Quarry tracksite were thought to have been made by a rapacious, predatory dinosaur that frightened a gaggle of smaller dinosaurs into [...]... Read more »
Selden, P., Corronca, J., & Hünicken, M. (2005) The true identity of the supposed giant fossil spider Megarachne. Biology Letters, 1(1), 44-48. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2004.0272
- November 23, 2010
- 01:01 PM
- 719 views
The Many Lives of Smilodon
On a superficial level, the predatory habits of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon would not seem to be especially mysterious. Traditionally – and incorrectly – restored as a lion with extra-long upper canines, this felid obviously used its fearsome dentition to dispatch the large prey of its Pleistocene heyday.
Of course, things aren’t as simple as that. [...]... Read more »
McHenry, C., Wroe, S., Clausen, P., Moreno, K., & Cunningham, E. (2007) Supermodeled sabercat, predatory behavior in Smilodon fatalis revealed by high-resolution 3D computer simulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(41), 16010-16015. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706086104
W.D. Matthew. (1901) Fossil Mammals of the Tertiary of Northeastern Colorado. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, I(VII). info:/
Meachen-Samuels, J., & Van Valkenburgh, B. (2010) Radiographs Reveal Exceptional Forelimb Strength in the Sabertooth Cat, Smilodon fatalis. PLoS ONE, 5(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011412
- November 18, 2010
- 10:53 AM
- 827 views
Facing Homotherium
When craftsman Ken Walker decided to reconstruct an Irish elk for the “recreations” category of the 2005 World Taxidermy Championships, he did not rely on bones alone. Skeletons of the extinct Pleistocene mammal – technically called Megaloceros giganteus – were in no short supply as references, but there are some things that bones just can’t [...]... Read more »
ANTÓN, M., GARCÍA-PEREA, R., & TURNER, A. (1998) Reconstructed facial appearance of the sabretoothed felid Smilodon. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 124(4), 369-386. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1998.tb00582.x
Gould, S. (1997) The exaptive excellence of spandrels as a term and prototype. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 94(20), 10750-10755. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.94.20.10750
LISTER, A. (1994) The evolution of the giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 112(1), 65-100. DOI: 10.1006/zjls.1994.1034
REUMER, J., ROOK, L., VAN DER BORG, K., POST, K., MOL, D., & DE VOS, J. (2003) LATE PLEISTOCENE SURVIVAL OF THE SABER-TOOTHED CAT HOMOTHERIUM IN NORTHWESTERN EUROPE. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 23(1), 260-262. DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[260:LPSOTS]2.0.CO;2
- November 16, 2010
- 08:25 PM
- 874 views
Monkeys and Uncles
During the long wind-up to this autumn’s congressional elections, hardly a week went by without a gaffe by Delaware tea partier and Sarah Palin-wannabe Christine O’Donnell. The sharp-tongued political commentator Bill Maher seemed to have an entire stockpile of embarrassing clips from when O’Donnell – then president of the conservative advocacy group the Savior’s Alliance [...]... Read more »
Meikle, W., & Scott, E. (2010) Why Are There Still Monkeys?. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 3(4), 573-575. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-010-0293-2
Zalmout, I., Sanders, W., MacLatchy, L., Gunnell, G., Al-Mufarreh, Y., Ali, M., Nasser, A., Al-Masari, A., Al-Sobhi, S., Nadhra, A.... (2010) New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys. Nature, 466(7304), 360-364. DOI: 10.1038/nature09094
- November 12, 2010
- 01:47 PM
- 863 views
Pass the Twigs, Please – Toothwear Indicates the Variety of Chalicothere Diets
Chalicotheres were just plain weird. With horse-like heads, but bodies which appeared to be equal parts gorilla and giant ground sloth, these herbivorous mammals have stymied paleontologists for well over a century. Did they dig for roots and tubers with their massive claws, or did they use their long arms to bring leafy tree branches [...]... Read more »
Semprebon, G., Sise, P., & Coombs, M. (2010) Potential Bark and Fruit Browsing as Revealed by Stereomicrowear Analysis of the Peculiar Clawed Herbivores Known as Chalicotheres (Perissodactyla, Chalicotherioidea). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10914-010-9149-3
- November 11, 2010
- 01:34 PM
- 814 views
Hitching a Ride on a Trilobite
Fossil skeletons are static things. They no longer grow or respond to the stresses and strains of life. Tucked away on shelves or propped up on intricate armatures, fossil bones and other mineralized hard parts show us the shape of ancient organisms, but we can only perceive whispers of the lives those remains represent.
The way [...]... Read more »
Key, M., Schumacher, G., Babcock, L., Frey, R., Heimbrock, W., Felton, S., Cooper, D., Gibson, W., Scheid, D., & Schumacher, S. (2010) Paleoecology of Commensal Epizoans Fouling Flexicalymene (Trilobita) from the Upper Ordovician, Cincinnati Arch Region, USA. Journal of Paleontology, 84(6), 1121-1134. DOI: 10.1666/10-018.1
- November 2, 2010
- 06:43 PM
- 824 views
From the depths of the North Sea, a new ’spoon-nosed’ dolphin
Paleontology, at least in part, owes its beginnings to fossils turning up where they were not expected. The distribution of shark teeth and fossil shells over the European countryside – vestiges of prehistoric seabeds which had been thrust up to become land over millions of years – were essential clues which naturalists such as the [...]... Read more »
Klaas Post, Erwin J.O. Kompanje. (2010) A new dolphin (Cetacea, Delphinidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the North Sea. Deinsea, 1-14. info:/
- November 1, 2010
- 01:55 PM
- 700 views
Repost: Shark Mystery Solved! – How Thresher Sharks Use Their Tails
Thanks to sensational documentaries and summer blockbusters, we are all familiar with the anatomy of a shark attack. The victim, unaware that they are in peril, is struck from below and behind with such speed and violence that, if they are not actually killed during the first strike, they soon find themselves a few pounds [...]... Read more »
Aalbers, S., Bernal, D., & Sepulveda, C. (2010) The functional role of the caudal fin in the feeding ecology of the common thresher shark Alopias vulpinus. Journal of Fish Biology, 76(7), 1863-1868. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02616.x
- October 28, 2010
- 10:28 AM
- 662 views
Of Fossil Ghosts and Hippos Past
To call hippos “charming” may seem a bit of a stretch, but they are most certainly among the classic charismatic megafauna of the African continent. In the wake of the end-Pleistocene ecological catastrophe – during which waves of extinction denuded the planet of many strange, large-bodied mammals from woolly mammoths to wombats the size of [...]... Read more »
BOISSERIE, J., & LIHOREAU, F. (2006) Emergence of Hippopotamidae: new scenarios. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 5(5), 749-756. DOI: 10.1016/j.crpv.2005.11.004
Orliac, M., Boisserie, J., MacLatchy, L., & Lihoreau, F. (2010) Early Miocene hippopotamids (Cetartiodactyla) constrain the phylogenetic and spatiotemporal settings of hippopotamid origin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(26), 11871-11876. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1001373107
- October 27, 2010
- 02:57 PM
- 816 views
Where did all these primates come from? – Fossil teeth may hint at an Asian origin for anthropoid primates
Where did anthropoid primates come from? This question has not been an easy one to answer. Since the early days of paleontology various experts have proposed a slew of scenarios for the origins of the primate group which today contains monkeys and apes (including us), with different experts favoring various combination of places, times, and [...]... Read more »
Bajpai, S., Kay, R., Williams, B., Das, D., Kapur, V., & Tiwari, B. (2008) The oldest Asian record of Anthropoidea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(32), 11093-11098. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804159105
K. Christopher Beard. (2006) Mammalian Biogeography and Anthropoid Origins . Primate Biogeography, 439-467. info:/10.1007/0-387-31710-4_15
Beard, K., Qi, T., Dawson, M., Wang, B., & Li, C. (1994) A diverse new primate fauna from middle Eocene fissure-fillings in southeastern China. Nature, 368(6472), 604-609. DOI: 10.1038/368604a0
Beard, K., Tong, Y., Dawson, M., Wang, J., & Huang, X. (1996) Earliest Complete Dentition of an Anthropoid Primate from the Late Middle Eocene of Shanxi Province, China. Science, 272(5258), 82-85. DOI: 10.1126/science.272.5258.82
Beard, K., Marivaux, L., Chaimanee, Y., Jaeger, J., Marandat, B., Tafforeau, P., Soe, A., Tun, S., & Kyaw, A. (2009) A new primate from the Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar and the monophyly of Burmese amphipithecids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1671), 3285-3294. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.0836
Gebo DL, Dagosto M, Beard KC, Qi T, & Wang J. (2000) The oldest known anthropoid postcranial fossils and the early evolution of higher primates. Nature, 404(6775), 276-8. PMID: 10749208
Jaeger, J. (1999) A New Primate from the Middle Eocene of Myanmar and the Asian Early Origin of Anthropoids. Science, 286(5439), 528-530. DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5439.528
Jaeger, J., Beard, K., Chaimanee, Y., Salem, M., Benammi, M., Hlal, O., Coster, P., Bilal, A., Duringer, P., Schuster, M.... (2010) Late middle Eocene epoch of Libya yields earliest known radiation of African anthropoids. Nature, 467(7319), 1095-1098. DOI: 10.1038/nature09425
- October 20, 2010
- 09:45 AM
- 808 views
Running With Arenahippus
No matter what you call them – Eohippus, Hyracotherium, or something else – most everyone is familiar with the diminutive “dawn horses” of the Eocene. Sure, dinosaurs get better press, but the connection of these small hoofed mammals to the modern horse (Equus) has turned them into minor paleontological celebrities. In fact, these horses have [...]... Read more »
FROEHLICH, D. (2002) Quo vadis eohippus? The systematics and taxonomy of the early Eocene equids (Perissodactyla). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 134(2), 141-256. DOI: 10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00005.x
Wood, A., Bebej, R., Manz, C., Begun, D., & Gingerich, P. (2010) Postcranial Functional Morphology of Hyracotherium (Equidae, Perissodactyla) and Locomotion in the Earliest Horses. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10914-010-9145-7
- October 18, 2010
- 06:52 PM
- 870 views
The Curious Tale of a Far-Flung Whale
When marine biologists first spotted the humpback whale AHWC no. 1363, there did not appear to be anything remarkable about her at all. Seen with another female on the Abrolhos Bank off the coast of Brazil on August 7th, 1999, the whale simply stuck around long enough for the scientists to snap a few photographs [...]... Read more »
Stevick, P., Neves, M., Johansen, F., Engel, M., Allen, J., Marcondes, M., & Carlson, C. (2010) A quarter of a world away: female humpback whale moves 10 000 km between breeding areas. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0717
Rizzo, L., & Schulte, D. (2009) A review of humpback whales' migration patterns worldwide and their consequences to gene flow. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 89(05), 995. DOI: 10.1017/S0025315409000332
- October 8, 2010
- 08:07 AM
- 712 views
When Pseudo-Crocs Walked Tall
Fossil tracks – the clear imprints of living creatures – have often sparked the imagination of those who have found them. When, in 1802, a young boy found footprints in stone on his family’s South Hadley, Massachusetts farm some of the tracks wound up as a doorstop. Visitors joked that the family must have raised [...]... Read more »
PADIAN, K., LI, C., & PCHELNIKOVA, J. (2010) The trackmaker of (Late Triassic, North America): implications for the evolution of archosaur stance and gait . Palaeontology, 53(1), 175-189. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00924.x
- October 6, 2010
- 04:07 PM
- 702 views
It’s a kangaroo… It’s a llama… No, it’s Palorchestes!
In his 1931 account of fieldwork in Patagonia, Attending Marvels, the 20th century paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson considered the appropriateness of the phrase “fossil hunting” to his profession:
Fossil hunting is far the most fascinating of all sports. I speak for myself, although I do not see how any true sportsman could fail to agree with [...]... Read more »
Mackness, B.S. (2008) Reconstructing Palorchestes (Marsupialia: Palorchestidae) - from Giant Kangaroo to Marsupial ‘Tapir’. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 21-36. info:/
- October 5, 2010
- 02:01 PM
- 698 views
How Bats Get Around the Crowded Skies – “Hey, I’m flyin’ here!”
Driving New Jersey’s highways during rush hour is usually a stressful experience. Speed demons weave in and out of overcrowded lanes, clueless drivers whip across traffic to make exits they have almost missed, and it’s generally best to assume that any other driver might do something extremely stupid at any given moment. Among all this [...]... Read more »
Gillam, E., Hristov, N., Kunz, T., & McCracken, G. (2010) Echolocation behavior of Brazilian free-tailed bats during dense emergence flights. Journal of Mammalogy, 91(4), 967-975. DOI: 10.1644/09-MAMM-A-302.1
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