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AndyWhiteAnthropology
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- September 10, 2015
- 01:44 PM
- 155 views
The First Rising Star Results: Totally @#!$&*% Badass
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
This morning's announcement of the first results from the Rising Star Expedition did not disappoint: a 35-page open access paper with 47 authors (Berger et al. 2015) describing fossil remains (Homo naledi) from at least 15 individuals recovered since 2013 from a cave in South Africa, and another paper by Dirks et al. (2015) describing the physical context of the fossils. I'm friends with several of the authors, and I am so happy for them both personally and professionally. And I'm jealous. [...] ... Read more »
Berger, L., Hawks, J., de Ruiter, D., Churchill, S., Schmid, P., Delezene, L., Kivell, T., Garvin, H., Williams, S., DeSilva, J.... (2015) , a new species of the genus from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa . eLife. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560
- June 5, 2015
- 04:21 PM
- 259 views
Lomekwi 3 and the Invention of Technology
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
Last week I wrote a post about the 3.3-million-year-old pre-Oldowan stone tool assemblage reported from the Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) site in Kenya by Harmand et al. (2015). As I was writing that, I remembered a 2004 paper by Sophie A. de Beaune titled "The Invention of Technology" (Current Anthropology 45(2):139-162) that I had read in grad school. That paper takes a long-term view of the evolution of technology focusing on the development and proliferation of different kinds of percussion.& [...] ... Read more »
de Beaune, S. (2004) The Invention of Technology: Prehistory and Cognition. Current Anthropology, 45(2), 139-162. DOI: 10.1086/381045
Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S, Lenoble A, Boës X, Quinn RL, Brenet M, Arroyo A.... (2015) 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310-5. PMID: 25993961
- May 31, 2015
- 12:03 PM
- 234 views
Shots Fired in the Battle Over the Cinmar Biface . . . But Does it Actually Matter to the Solutrean Hypothesis?
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The Cinmar biface featured on the cover of Stanford and Bradley's (2013) book. Image source: http://smithsonianscience.si.edu/2012/01/new-book-across-atlantic-ice-the-origin-of-americas-clovis-culture/This week, Darrin Lowery responded to questions raised about the circumstances of the discovery of the Cinmar biface, a bi-pointed stone tool that resembles, at least superficially, artifacts made and used by the Solutrean peoples of Upper Paleolithic Europe. The point was reportedly dredged [...] ... Read more »
Eren, M., Boulanger, M., & O'Brien, M. (2015) The Cinmar discovery and the proposed pre-Late Glacial Maximum occupation of North America. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.03.001
- May 29, 2015
- 02:12 PM
- 260 views
What's a "Species"?
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The naming of a new species of hominid -- Australopithecus deyiremeda -- made a lot of news this week. The purpose of this post is not to worry over the details of the fossils that were used to construct this new taxon, but to ask for some clarification about what is actually meant by the term "species" as paleoanthropologists use it. I'm going to tell you what I think it means, then I'm going to complain about it a little bit, then I'm going to ask you to tell me what you thin [...] ... Read more »
Haile-Selassie Y, Gibert L, Melillo SM, Ryan TM, Alene M, Deino A, Levin NE, Scott G, & Saylor BZ. (2015) New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity. Nature, 521(7553), 483-8. PMID: 26017448
- May 27, 2015
- 01:25 PM
- 305 views
Human Evolution and the Stone Tool "Problem"
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The recent announcement of the discovery in stone tools in Kenya dating to 3.3 million years ago (MYA) has been greeted with a lot of fanfare. I first heard the story at some point earlier in the academic year, and I know there was a lot of buzz about it at the SAAs and Paleoanthropology meetings in San Francisco in April. The publication of a formal paper in Nature last week (“3.3-Million-Year-Old Stone [...] ... Read more »
Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S, Lenoble A, Boës X, Quinn RL, Brenet M, Arroyo A.... (2015) 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310-5. PMID: 25993961
- May 15, 2015
- 04:02 PM
- 235 views
The Dependency Ratio in Human Evolution
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
As far as I know, humans are unique among animals in having an extended period between weaning and being able to subsist on their own. We call this “childhood.” The long period of post-weaning dependence provides our large brains with a lot of time to mature. It also requires a lot of parental investment (in terms of time, energy, calories, etc.) and means that we would have to wait a long time between offspring if each one had to independent before the mother could have an [...] ... Read more »
Kramer, K., & Otárola-Castillo, E. (2015) When mothers need others: The impact of hominin life history evolution on cooperative breeding. Journal of Human Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.01.009
- May 3, 2015
- 01:13 AM
- 170 views
Australopithecine Sexual Dimorphism: What's Love Got to Do With It?
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
How much sexual dimorphism is there among Australopithecines, and what does it tell us about sexual selection?... Read more »
Reno PL, & Lovejoy CO. (2015) From Lucy to Kadanuumuu: balanced analyses of Australopithecus afarensis assemblages confirm only moderate skeletal dimorphism. PeerJ. PMID: 25945314
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