There's been quite a lot of conjecture, over the years, about what our early ancestors ate. Much of the evidence has been indirect: size of teeth, size of chewing muscles (which can be estimated from measurements of the places where muscles attach to the skull), ridges & crests on the skull, & so on. Teeth […]
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how to lie with statistics
I've just finished reading a wonderful book on statistics – How to lie with statistics (Huff, 1954). An absolutely brilliant book – and not an equation in sight!
Continue readingneandertals in siberia
We know from fossil evidence that Neanderthals evolved in Europe around 400,000 years ago, and later (~150,000 years ago) spread into western Asia, before disappearing from all areas in their range about 30,000 years ago. However, it can sometimes be quite hard to be certain whether or not a fossil is from a Neanderthal, which […]
Continue readingback to the oxygen pseudoscience
Time, I think, to return to that pseudoscience on oxygen that I introduced to you a while ago. Have you worked out what it was promoting?
Continue readinghosting the biology olympiad
This is a busy week for me – as well as all the 'normal' stuff, we're hosting the NZ Biology Olympiad training camp. An Olympiad – what's that, you ask?
Continue readingevolution: shaping both life and the environment
One of the books I’m reading at the moment is about teaching evolution (NAS, 1998). I’ve come across an excellent and thought-provoking quote that I thought I’d share with you – for you to think about..
Continue readingdo you google?
I'll bet you do – I use Google a lot myself. It's a great tool for finding images or information quickly. But – what about when you are looking for material for a biology assignment, or to broaden your knowledge on a particular topic?
Continue reading“lucy’s child” – an answer to a question
Last month I asked the following question: In 2006 scientists announced the discovery of a new hominin fossil: a juvenile Australopithecus afarensis. The media quickly dubbed it "Lucy's child" (well, it was a catchy name, even though the underlying implied relationship had no evidence to support it!). So, tell me, how could scientists be sure that this individual […]
Continue readingmore forensic genetics – and the origins of multicellular animals
When I'm lecturing about animal diversity and the origins of the multicellular animals (aka metazoans), I point out the similarity between the single-celled protozoans called choanoflagellates and the choanocytes (or 'feeding cells') of sponges. The textbook interpretation is that choanoflagellates may have shared a common ancestor with metazoans, and there's an increasing amount of genetic […]
Continue readingpolio & evolution
I read quite a few science blogs & just stumbled across this excellent post about polio virus: the vaccines we use against it, the virus's evolutionary responses – oh heaps of stuff. And a chilling photo of a ward full of polio patients in iron lungs: in extreme cases the patients lost the ability to breathe […]
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