Reprieve
A discussion of research, controversy and silliness in the field of human evolution
MY BLOGS
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EvoAnth
http://evoanth.wordpress.com/
A discussion of the latest research into human origins.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 510 )
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Human Brain Evolution is Not as Special as We Thought
The human family split from the other apes about 7 million years ago. At that time our brain was about the size of the chimp. Since then, our thinking organ... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Orangutans Show Socialising Makes You Smarter (over Evolutionary Time)
Humans are one of the most social primates. We're also one of the smartest (although bonobos seem to have a lot of stuff figured out). Could our sociality and... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
New Hypothesis: Women Evolved to Have Affairs
Human romantic relationships are often described as "serial". That is, they happen one after the other. Just like lights in the serial (or series) circuit, you... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Ancient Man Too Ancient for Creationists to Comprehend
Human history goes back almost 10,000 years. Which might seem like a long time, but it's nothing compared to our prehistory. That stretches back to the... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Did Lucy Fall out a Tree? Or Was She (metaphorically) Pushed?
Lucy is our most famous relative. She lived in what is now Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago. There, split her time between tree climbing and walking on the... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Hominin x
Nowadays us humans are the only surviving members of the hominin family. However, roll the clock back a mere 50,000 years and the world looks a lot different. I... Read more
Posted on 25 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
The Human Wrist Evolved to Break
More than half a million Americans break their wrist every year. It's one of the most common fractures out there, accounting for 25% of the broken bones in kids... Read more
Posted on 23 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Socialising Gave Us an Evolutionary Advantage
Modern humans are one of the most social animals. We also have one of the biggest brains. The social brain hypothesis argues this isn't a coincidence. It... Read more
Posted on 18 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Debate Over Oldest Burial Speeds up After Snails Found
In the depths of Rising Star Cave in South Africa palaeoanthropologists discovered more than 1500 fossils. These bones turned out to represent a whole new... Read more
Posted on 16 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Intelligent Designists Criticise Nuanced View of the Evolution of Fire for...
When you're trying to come up with scientific evidence for your position what should you look for? Perhaps you should look for replicated experiments and... Read more
Posted on 15 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Were the First Stone Tools an Accident?
Around 3.3 million years ago our ancestors did something remarkable. Something no other animal has ever done in the wild. They smashed a rock. Whilst that... Read more
Posted on 09 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Monogamy May Be Modern; but Chores Are Ancient
Humans - and our ancestors - have ruddy large brains. This has given us many evolutionary advantages, but also stuck us with some big disadvantages. Some... Read more
Posted on 04 August 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Australopithecus Sediba Had Cancer 2 Million Years Ago
Australopithecus sediba is one of the most significant additions to the human family. They lived around the time our genus - ; hence our name Homo sapiens-... Read more
Posted on 28 July 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Homo Erectus Took the Easy Way out of Africa
Modern humans evolved in Africa, before spreading around the whole world. But we weren't the first member of our family to do so. Nearly 2 million years ago,... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Creationist: Aliens Are Actually Demons
Way back in the early 2000s, creationists tried to get their "science" taught in classrooms. They wanted to redefine science in such a manner they'd be... Read more
Posted on 11 July 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Hairless Humans May Have Evolved Late
Humans have very little hair, compared to our close primate relatives. This obviously raises questions about why, when, and how humans evolved to be hairless.... Read more
Posted on 07 July 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Hobbits Killed off by Humans? Spoiler: No
Back in 2003, the scientific community was shocked by the discovery of the hobbits (technically called Homo floresiensis, but that's a boring name). No, not... Read more
Posted on 05 July 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Creationists Dismiss Only Fact Supporting Them at Bruniquel Cave
In the depths of Bruniquel Cave, France, lie an enigmatic series of circles. They are made from stalagmites, on which a residue accumulated since they were... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Interbreeding with Neanderthals Was Common
2 - 4% of many peoples' DNA comes from the Neanderthals. This is the result of interbreeding between our species before the last ice age; which gave us many... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE -
Footprints Reveal Homo Erectus Loved the Lake
The day to day life of our ancestors can be difficult to reconstruct. A single layer at an archaeological site can represent hundreds of thousands of years of... Read more
Posted on 17 June 2016 BIOLOGY, SCIENCE