Alison Campbell • Sep 07, 2021 •
Humans are the only living hominid that can throw objects accurately & at speed – while some of the other great apes can throw objects, their speed & accuracy is not the best. (In his musing on human evolution, Darwin noted that adaptations allowing this would be at a selective advantage as they would increase hunting effectiveness.) I found … Read More
Alison Campbell • Sep 25, 2020 •
Yesterday morning I got up (at the rather early and unaccustomed hour of 3.30am) to listen to a webinar by paleoanthropologist Dr Jeremy DeSilva¹. Titled “First Steps”, his presentation was about the origins of bipedalism in the human lineage. It was a fascinating session & I thought I’d turn my notes into this post, to share with students, teachers, and … Read More
Alison Campbell • Feb 03, 2020 •
For the last few years it’s been pretty much received wisdom that African populations shared only a tiny proportion of their genes, if any, with Neanderthals. In contrast, other non-African sapiens populations had a small but significant admixture of Neanderthal genes. The underlying reason for this, it’s been assumed, is that Homo sapiens and neandertalensis only bred with each other in Europe … Read More
Michael Knapp • May 09, 2019 •
Last week the discovery of a lower jaw bone of a Denisovan hit the headlines all over the world. Denisovans are a now-extinct species of humans that were closely related to us as well as to Neanderthals. To an outside observer, the excitement of researchers about this find might have appeared a bit over the top. After all, Denisovans have … Read More
Alison Campbell • Oct 23, 2018 •
One of the key features of science is that its findings aren’t set in stone. Bring forward a new body of evidence, and it’ll be reviewed and considered, and may just result in a particular model or view being changed. I remember, back when I was in the 7th form (year 13), learning about how the human lineage went back … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jan 31, 2018 •
When we think about our ancestry, we think about our grandmothers and grandfathers – and, if we have photo albums nearby, or a family member interested in genealogy, we might know a bit more about our great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers, and so on. I remember traveling around Scotland a few years ago, and chancing upon a small churchyard. Every second gravestone, most … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 29, 2018 •
Bernard Wood, George Washington University and Michael Westaway, Griffith University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The question of where we humans come from is one many people ask, and the answer is getting more complicated as new evidence is emerging all the time. For most of … Read More
Alison Campbell • Jul 31, 2017 •
What follows is loosely based on a workshop I ran at this year’s Biolive/ChemEd secondary science teachers’ conference. (A most excellent conference, by the way – kudos to those organising & presenting.) I’ve added a bunch of hotlinked references. Back when I was in 7th form (or year 13 – i.e. a rather long time ago), the description of … Read More
John Kerr • Sep 22, 2016 •
Where did we come from and when did we leave there? These existential questions are at the heart of several human genetics studies published today in the leading journal Nature, all with links to New Zealand. Tracing our genetic roots The now widely accepted ‘Out of Africa’ hypothesis puts Africa as the origin of all modern humans. However, there is still debate … Read More
Brendan Moyle • Apr 01, 2016 •
The short answer. No. Longer answer: Newspapers are fond of stories that breathlessly announce discoveries as revolutionary. Fossils never add anything to our knowledge incrementally. They will always rewrite the theory of evolution. Cancer is another popular target for revolutionary new treatments or causes. So it was with some skepticism I read that, quote, “Scientists have found vegetarianism can cause a … Read More