It's that time of the week again. Time for the latest recap all things human evolution. So what did we find out about our ancestors this week?
- For the second week in a row we're opening up with a story on bifaces. These stone tools were the main component of our ancestors toolkits for almost a million years. This long life was because they were very versatile, capable of cutting up just about anything. But new discoveries have found they were even more versatile than we thought. It turns our our ancestors also used them to smack stuff; cracking open leg bones and other soft organic material (source).
- Looking more towards the present, humans have this ability to synchronise their actions with an external rhythm. It's thought that this can help us imitate others, aiding learning and bonding. This ability was thought to be unique to humans, but scientists have found that (some) chimps also have it. They too can groove in time with the beat (read more).
- Whilst chimps might be able to groove with the beat; one distinctly less groovy animal is the saber tooth tiger. These bad boys have just been discovered at Schoningen, Germany. This site is famous for sharpened wooden spears. Might these early Europeans have been using them to defend themselves from sabre tooth cats (sawce)?
- Schizophrenia is (at least partly) genetic. So why hasn't natural selection removed it from the population? It turns out that the genes associated with schizophrenia have undergone some relatively recent evolution, suggesting they form a key part of what makes us human. Might schizophrenia simply be a bi-product of these changes. We can't sacrifice the key genes, so evolution tolerates them going wrong sometimes (read more)
- When our ancestors invented fire they put it to use in a lot of ways. One of the most important - yet often underappreciated - is the use of fire to heat treat tools to make them tougher. Clearly being able to recognise and utilise the benefits of fire like this is a sign of advanced cognition. Well it turns out it was even more advanced than that. Recent discoveries reveal they sometimes coated the tools in something organic beforehand to enhance the process (soruce).
- Meanwhile in Europe humans were making cave art. However, why early humans made this art is unknown. A new review of research suggests that children may have played a large role in it. Evidence of their involvelement was found at several sites. However, that still doesn't bring us much closer to figuring out why this art was made (read more)
And of course the creationists were making some fairly wacky claims this week too. This time they were trying to explain away the "transitional" forms with a new argument! This time they were claiming that when they have a mixture of traits, each trait is either fully in one camp or the other. Not in between. Thus they totally don't count as transitional. Yes, it's a silly as it sounds. Go read more.
