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Lawn Chair Anthropology
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- October 11, 2011
- 12:05 AM
- 328 views
Variation: a blessing and a curse
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Trying to start on finishing my dissertation, I'm thinking about the issue dental development and how it relates to skeletal growth. Specifically I'm trying to decide whether I want to analyze my human and Australopithecus robustus samples based on estimates of "dental age," or if I want to be a bit more cavalier and divide the sample into rougher age categories.To avoid copyright issues, here's a crappy picture I drew a few years ago, of the youngest A. robustus jaws. The youngest, "S........ Read more »
Bogin, B. (1999) Evolutionary perspective on human growth. Annual Review of Anthropology, 28(1), 109-153. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.28.1.109
- September 25, 2011
- 07:07 PM
- 370 views
Pictures worth thousands of words and dollars
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Looking into subdural empyema, which is a meningeal infection you don't want, I stumbled upon a study from the roaring 1970s - the glorious Nixon-Ford-Carter years - using computerized axial tomography (hence, CAT scan) to visualize lesions within the skull (Claveria et al. 1976). Nowadays people refer to various similar scanning techniques simply as "CT" (for computed tomography, though this is not exactly the same as magnetic resonance imaging, MRI).It's pretty amazing how medical imaging has ........ Read more »
Carlson KJ, Stout D, Jashashvili T, de Ruiter DJ, Tafforeau P, Carlson K, & Berger LR. (2011) The endocast of MH1, Australopithecus sediba. Science (New York, N.Y.), 333(6048), 1402-7. PMID: 21903804
Claveria, L., Boulay, G., & Moseley, I. (1976) Intracranial infections: Investigation by computerized axial tomography. Neuroradiology, 12(2), 59-71. DOI: 10.1007/BF00333121
Cooper, D., Erickson, B., Peele, A., Hannah, K., Thomas, C., & Clement, J. (2011) Visualization of 3D osteon morphology by synchrotron radiation micro-CT. Journal of Anatomy, 219(4), 481-489. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2011.01398.x
McCollum, M. (1999) The Robust Australopithecine Face: A Morphogenetic Perspective. Science, 284(5412), 301-305. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5412.301
- September 18, 2011
- 09:06 PM
- 866 views
[insert clever quip about australopithecus hips]
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
A week and a half ago, Kibii and colleagues (2011) published reconstructions and re-analyses of two hips belonging to the 1.98 million-year old Australopithecus sediba. As with many fossil discoveries, these additions to the fossil record raise more questions than they answer. Unless the question was, "did A. sediba have a pelvis?" It did. Here's a good summary from the paper itself:Thus, Au. sediba is australopith-like in having a long superior pubic ramus and an anteriorly posit........ Read more »
Gommery, D. (2002) Description d'un bassin fragmentaire de Paranthropus robustus du site Plio-Pléistocène de Drimolen (Afrique du Sud)A fragmentary pelvis of Paranthropus robustus of the Plio-Pleistocene site of Drimolen (Republic of South Africa). Geobios, 35(2), 265-281. DOI: 10.1016/S0016-6995(02)00022-0
Haile-Selassie Y, Latimer BM, Alene M, Deino AL, Gibert L, Melillo SM, Saylor BZ, Scott GR, & Lovejoy CO. (2010) An early Australopithecus afarensis postcranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(27), 12121-6. PMID: 20566837
Kibii, J., Churchill, S., Schmid, P., Carlson, K., Reed, N., de Ruiter, D., & Berger, L. (2011) A Partial Pelvis of Australopithecus sediba. Science, 333(6048), 1407-1411. DOI: 10.1126/science.1202521
Ruff, C. (2010) Body size and body shape in early hominins – implications of the Gona Pelvis. Journal of Human Evolution, 58(2), 166-178. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.10.003
Simpson, S., Quade, J., Levin, N., Butler, R., Dupont-Nivet, G., Everett, M., & Semaw, S. (2008) A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia. Science, 322(5904), 1089-1092. DOI: 10.1126/science.1163592
Zipfel, B., DeSilva, J., Kidd, R., Carlson, K., Churchill, S., & Berger, L. (2011) The Foot and Ankle of Australopithecus sediba. Science, 333(6048), 1417-1420. DOI: 10.1126/science.1202703
- September 12, 2011
- 11:24 PM
- 691 views
Test Tossed Tyrone
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
What's the secret to becoming a good father? What would William Cosby do?I for one have no idea BUT! a study published today in PNAS early edition finds an association between studly vs. paternal behavior, and levels of everyone's favorite hormone, testosterone (T).Using longitudinal data, researchers (Gettler et al. in press) found that, in general, a young guy with higher levels of circulating T is more likely than a guy with low T to become a father w/in a few ye........ Read more »
Lovejoy, C. (1981) The Origin of Man. Science, 211(4480), 341-350. DOI: 10.1126/science.211.4480.341
Lovejoy CO. (2009) Reexamining human origins in light of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science (New York, N.Y.), 326(5949), 740-8. PMID: 19810200
- August 31, 2011
- 04:40 PM
- 750 views
How old is the Acheulian tool industry and why does it matter?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Two views of an Acheulian handaxe adorn the cover of this week's Nature (right). Always happy to see paleoanthropology stuff be classy, front-page news. The cover highlights Christopher Lepre's and colleagues' announcement of what may be the oldest Acheulian tools known.
To recap stone tools: The first good evidence of tool use by humans' ancestors are the Oldowan lithics from the 2.6 million year old site of Gona in Ethiopia (Semaw et al. 2003). McPherron and others (2010) reported 2 possibly-c........ Read more »
Ferring, R., Oms, O., Agusti, J., Berna, F., Nioradze, M., Shelia, T., Tappen, M., Vekua, A., Zhvania, D., & Lordkipanidze, D. (2011) From the Cover: Earliest human occupations at Dmanisi (Georgian Caucasus) dated to 1.85-1.78 Ma. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(26), 10432-10436. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1106638108
Kimura, Y. (2002) Examining time trends in the Oldowan technology at Beds I and II, Olduvai Gorge. Journal of Human Evolution, 43(3), 291-321. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2002.0576
Lepre, C., Roche, H., Kent, D., Harmand, S., Quinn, R., Brugal, J., Texier, P., Lenoble, A., & Feibel, C. (2011) An earlier origin for the Acheulian. Nature, 477(7362), 82-85. DOI: 10.1038/nature10372
McPherron, S., Alemseged, Z., Marean, C., Wynn, J., Reed, D., Geraads, D., Bobe, R., & Béarat, H. (2010) Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature, 466(7308), 857-860. DOI: 10.1038/nature09248
Mgeladze, A., Lordkipanidze, D., Moncel, M., Despriee, J., Chagelishvili, R., Nioradze, M., & Nioradze, G. (2011) Hominin occupations at the Dmanisi site, Georgia, Southern Caucasus: Raw materials and technical behaviours of Europe’s first hominins. Journal of Human Evolution, 60(5), 571-596. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.10.008
Rightmire, G., Lordkipanidze, D., & Vekua, A. (2006) Anatomical descriptions, comparative studies and evolutionary significance of the hominin skulls from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia. Journal of Human Evolution, 50(2), 115-141. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.07.009
Semaw, S., Rogers, M., Quade, J., Renne, P., Butler, R., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., Stout, D., Hart, W., Pickering, T., & Simpson, S. (2003) 2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution, 45(2), 169-177. DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00093-9
- August 24, 2011
- 05:13 PM
- 765 views
Back to the backbone of Homo erectus
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Of course the title is referring to all of the back bones. An alternate title may be "The backbone's connected to the - what bone?" but that's also kinda lame. I'll do better next time.
Martin Hausler and colleagues (in press) report on newly identified vertebral fragments of the WT 15000 Homo erectus skeleton, perhaps the most complete of an early hominid (this one ~1.5 million years ago). This skeleton, and other early hominids (i.e. Australopithecus africanus), were described as having six lu........ Read more »
Martin Haeusler, Regula Schiess, Thomas Boeni. (2011) New vertebral and rib material point to modern bauplan of the Nariokotome Homo erectus skeleton. Journal of Human Evolution. info:/10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.07.004
- August 21, 2011
- 07:37 AM
- 380 views
eFfing Fossil Friday (another late edition)
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
I'm sitting at a cafe in Tbilisi, departing at 4:00 am tomorrow for America. Readers will notice that I've been MIA while working with the second annual Dmanisi Paleoanthropology Field School. I hate to say it but I'm glad I was too busy to blog all the goings-on (though sorry if it disappointed anyone). All in all it was another great year, and we found some great fossils (about which I don't think I have permission to say anything at all). Here's this year's class with their certification of b........ Read more »
Raff, R. (2007) Written in stone: fossils, genes and evo–devo. Nature Reviews Genetics, 8(12), 911-920. DOI: 10.1038/nrg2225
Green, R., Krause, J., Briggs, A., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., Patterson, N., Li, H., Zhai, W., Fritz, M.... (2010) A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome. Science, 328(5979), 710-722. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188021
Reich D, Green RE, Kircher M, Krause J, Patterson N, Durand EY, Viola B, Briggs AW, Stenzel U, Johnson PL.... (2010) Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia. Nature, 468(7327), 1053-60. PMID: 21179161
- July 20, 2011
- 12:54 PM
- 345 views
New beef with boisei - maybe the dingo ate their babies?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Unfortunately, the title is not in reference to a study demonstrating that early hominids fell prey to wild dogs. But Elaine Benes would have appreciated it.
As part of my Latitudes Tour, I'm in Nairobi for a couple of days, hoping to spend some quality time with the young Australopithecus boisei kids at the Nairobi National Museum. Recall (that is, if I've mentioned it here?) that my dissertation research is on growth of the lower jaw, in Australopithecus robustus as compared to modern humans. ........ Read more »
Wood, B., & Constantino, P. (2007) Paranthropus boisei: Fifty years of evidence and analysis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134(S45), 106-132. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20732
- June 27, 2011
- 04:08 PM
- 416 views
Bloodsport in Australopithecus africanus?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
A few months ago in a post about the ilium and cannibals, I relayed a quote by Dr. Raymond Dart who was the first to recognize (and name) the hominid genus Australopithecus, back in 1925. I'd also mentioned that he was described [in a reference that escapes me] as "blood-thirsty." This macabre descriptor came to mind again, as I'm reading his (1948) description of the MLD 2 mandible, of a juvenile A. africanus from Makapansgat cave in South Africa (figure is from the paper):"[Individuals represe........ Read more »
Dart, R. (1948) The adolescent mandible of Australopithecus prometheus. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 6(4), 391-412. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330060410
- June 8, 2011
- 02:45 PM
- 406 views
Earliest human migrations
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
One of my favorite paleoanthropological sites is Dmanisi, in the Republic of Georgia. It is the oldest securely dated hominid site outside Africa (just under 1.85 million years ago), and the hominids found there display a neat mix of primitive Homo habilis and derived H. erectus features. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to excavate at Dmanisi last year, and to return to Georgia (lamazi Sakartvelo! [I hope I translated that correctly]) for more fieldwork next month.
Recently, ........ Read more »
Ferring R, Oms O, Agustí J, Berna F, Nioradze M, Shelia T, Tappen M, Vekua A, Zhvania D, & Lordkipanidze D. (2011) Earliest human occupations at Dmanisi (Georgian Caucasus) dated to 1.85-1.78 Ma. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 21646521
- May 27, 2011
- 02:14 PM
- 945 views
Culinary trends in an extinct hominid
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
A few weeks ago I discussed a recent paper that analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotope ratios from Australopithecus boisei molars (Cerling et al. 2011). The major finding here was that an enlarged sample (n=24 more) corroborated earlier isotopic (van der Merwe et al. 2008) and tooth wear evidence (Ungar et al. 2008) that A. boisei probably did not subsist on as much hard foods as previously thought. Although this strange hominid probably ate mostly grass/aquatic tubers, some researchers think it........ Read more »
Cerling, T., Mbua, E., Kirera, F., Manthi, F., Grine, F., Leakey, M., Sponheimer, M., & Uno, K. (2011) Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1104627108
McCollum, M. (1999) The Robust Australopithecine Face: A Morphogenetic Perspective. Science, 284(5412), 301-305. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5412.301
Ungar PS, Grine FE, & Teaford MF. (2008) Dental microwear and diet of the Plio-Pleistocene hominin Paranthropus boisei. PloS one, 3(4). PMID: 18446200
- May 16, 2011
- 08:41 PM
- 798 views
Good olde dentistrie
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
I'm reading up on mandibular rotation, which is the change in orientation of the mandibular corpus relative to the rest of the skull during growth (the corpus is the horizontal part of your jaw that holds up your teeth; check out the shape changes in the mandibles in the blog header). So far as I can tell, the original classic paper on the topic is by Bjork (1955). Growth was studied by implanting metal pins into the jaws, then seeing how they move across ontogeny via X-rays (which were once cal........ Read more »
BJORK A. (1955) Facial growth in man, studied with the aid of metallic implants. Acta odontologica Scandinavica, 13(1), 9-34. PMID: 14398173
- May 9, 2011
- 08:08 PM
- 847 views
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Life as we know it has taken some strange courses. Of all the things an animal could do with its time, pretending to be an ant is apparently pretty popular. According to a review article in the latest Current Biology, there are probably over 2000 abhorrent species of myrmecomorphs (ant impersonators), including spiders, caterpillars, mites, beetles, and other types of arthropod biodiversity I'm not familiar with, that have come to resemble ants in some form or another.
It's interesting how and ........ Read more »
Florian Maderspacher, & Marcus Stensmyr. (2011) Myrmecomorphomania. Current Biology, 21(9). info:/doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.04.006
- May 7, 2011
- 11:15 AM
- 461 views
What the hell was Australopithecus boisei doing?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
A little over 2 million years ago there a major divergence of hominids, leading on the one hand to our earliest ancestors in the genus Homo, and on the other hand to a group of 'robust' australopithecines, the latter group a failed evolutionary experiment in being human. In our ancestors, parts of the skull associated with chewing began to get smaller and more delicate, while the robust australopithecines increased the sizes of their crushin'-teeth and chewin'-muscle attachme........ Read more »
Cerling TE, Mbua E, Kirera FM, Manthi FK, Grine FE, Leakey MG, Sponheimer M, & Uno KT. (2011) Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 21536914
McCollum, M. (1999) The Robust Australopithecine Face: A Morphogenetic Perspective. Science, 284(5412), 301-305. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5412.301
Ungar PS, Grine FE, & Teaford MF. (2008) Dental microwear and diet of the Plio-Pleistocene hominin Paranthropus boisei. PloS one, 3(4). PMID: 18446200
- April 25, 2011
- 10:58 PM
- 862 views
What big teeth you have indeed
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
If our friend Little Red Riding Hood was dumb enough to've thought a wolf in babushka threads was her grandma, well, she probably would have played Bingo with a grandmother-mimicking Australopithecus anamensis.... Read more »
Kunimatsu, Y., Nakatsukasa, M., Sawada, Y., Sakai, T., Hyodo, M., Hyodo, H., Itaya, T., Nakaya, H., Saegusa, H., Mazurier, A.... (2007) A new Late Miocene great ape from Kenya and its implications for the origins of African great apes and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(49), 19220-19225. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706190104
Leakey, M., Feibel, C., McDougall, I., & Walker, A. (1995) New four-million-year-old hominid species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya. Nature, 376(6541), 565-571. DOI: 10.1038/376565a0
Ward, C. (2001) Morphology of Australopithecus anamensis from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 41(4), 255-368. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2001.0507
White, T., Suwa, G., & Asfaw, B. (1994) Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature, 371(6495), 306-312. DOI: 10.1038/371306a0
White, T., WoldeGabriel, G., Asfaw, B., Ambrose, S., Beyene, Y., Bernor, R., Boisserie, J., Currie, B., Gilbert, H., Haile-Selassie, Y.... (2006) Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of Australopithecus. Nature, 440(7086), 883-889. DOI: 10.1038/nature04629
- April 21, 2011
- 11:24 AM
- 463 views
Humans, kinda like rabbits
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Population size and expansion... Read more »
Hawks, J., Wang, E., Cochran, G., Harpending, H., & Moyzis, R. (2007) Recent acceleration of human adaptive evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(52), 20753-20758. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707650104
- March 9, 2011
- 01:35 AM
- 847 views
Have I uncovered an epigenetic conspiracy?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Nope! In an effort to reduce plastic water bottle waste, UM has been installing these badass water fountains around campus that automatically fill a bottle - I suppose it could fill a shoe, too - and tell you how many plastic bottles they've saved you from wasting. I have to say they're pretty convenient...... and repressive? I noticed the contraption is named "EZH2O." Of course, Elkay meant 'easy H2O,' but I just took an epigenetics seminar where we learned about EZH2, a key enzyme in the Polyc........ Read more »
Hansen, K., Bracken, A., Pasini, D., Dietrich, N., Gehani, S., Monrad, A., Rappsilber, J., Lerdrup, M., & Helin, K. (2008) A model for transmission of the H3K27me3 epigenetic mark. Nature Cell Biology, 10(12), 1484-1484. DOI: 10.1038/ncb1208-1484
Tsai MC, Manor O, Wan Y, Mosammaparast N, Wang JK, Lan F, Shi Y, Segal E, & Chang HY. (2010) Long noncoding RNA as modular scaffold of histone modification complexes. Science (New York, N.Y.), 329(5992), 689-93. PMID: 20616235
- February 27, 2011
- 11:27 AM
- 567 views
Got beef with worms?
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
Photo: {http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/09/bilateral}, by Eric Rottinger at kahikai.orgFlipping through the current issue of Current Biology, it sounds like someone has some serious beef with acoelomorph flatworms. Apparently these critters have been used as a model for the 'missing link' between simple-bodied cnidarians (like jellyfish) and bilaterians (bilaterally symmetrical animals like you and me and flies and fish, and really a good deal of animal biodiversity); and this may be pr........ Read more »
Lowe CJ, & Pani AM. (2011) Animal Evolution: A Soap Opera of Unremarkable Worms. Current biology : CB, 21(4). PMID: 21334293
- February 11, 2011
- 01:37 AM
- 667 views
Why Lucy, what sweet kicks you had
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
For decades people have debated whether Australopithecus afarensis was an obligate biped like us, or whether our ancestor was a little less lithe in life on land. They asked, sort of, "Would Lucy have rocked some sweet Air Jordans, or would she have put some flat-foot orthotics in her new kicks?"
Carol Ward and colleagues report on a new fourth metatarsal of Australopithecus afarensis from Hadar in Ethiopia, over 3.2 million years old. The foot bone shows that A. afarensis had the two foot arche........ Read more »
Ward, C., Kimbel, W., & Johanson, D. (2011) Complete Fourth Metatarsal and Arches in the Foot of Australopithecus afarensis. Science, 331(6018), 750-753. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201463
- January 27, 2011
- 11:05 PM
- 520 views
A species by any other name...would leave us with the same problem
by zacharoo in Lawn Chair Anthropology
This is a great big week for anthropology coverage. The sequencing of the orangutan (Pongo species) genome made the cover of Nature. It's grant-writing-dissertation-formulating-prelim-studying time for me so I haven't had a chance to read this one yet. Science has a couple paleoanthropology-related stories, including two by Ann Gibbons. The first is about recent research on ancient DNA, and how this informs the debate about 'modern human' origins. But there's also a short blurb on what the eff "........ Read more »
Gibbons, A. (2011) The Species Problem. Science, 331(6016), 394-394. DOI: 10.1126/science.331.6016.394
Gibbons, A. (2011) A New View Of the Birth of Homo sapiens. Science, 331(6016), 392-394. DOI: 10.1126/science.331.6016.392
Holliday, T. (2003) Species Concepts, Reticulation, and Human Evolution. Current Anthropology, 44(5), 653-673. DOI: 10.1086/377663
Wildman, D. (2003) Implications of natural selection in shaping 99.4% nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: Enlarging genus Homo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(12), 7181-7188. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1232172100
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