Last week the story of a hybrid hominin was in the news: the discovery that remains found in Denisova Cave were those of a 13-year-old girl whose parents were a female Neandertal and a Denisovan male. This was exciting stuff: we already know, from genomic analysis, that interspecies matings involving Neanderthals, Denisovans, and H.sapiens happened […]
Continue readingCategory: human evolution
attitudes and antibiotics
A recent FB post from Stuff discussed the rising concerns around the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (This is something that Siouxsie Wiles has often written about: here and here, for example; her excellent book on the subject is reviewed here.) Fairly predictably, it didn't take long for the proponents of essential oils to turn up, soon to be joined by the usual […]
Continue readinghuman evolution – new discoveries, & how do we accommodate them in our teaching?
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 ie a rather long time ago), […]
Continue readingthe ‘fishing’ chimps of bakoun
I'm currently supervising a graduate student who's writing a review of the literature on tool use in wild chimpanzees. This has become a most enjoyable interaction: it's a topic I've been interested in for quite a while now, so the supervision role is an excuse to extend my own knowledge, and it's great helping the […]
Continue readingparts of our genome are actually viral
I've just come across a most excellent article by the Genetic Literacy Project. In it, Nicholas Staropoli notes that a proportion of the human genome actually has viral origins. This might sound a bit strange – after all, we tend to think of viruses as our enemies (smallpox, measles, and the human papilloma virus come […]
Continue readingthey wander our faces at night – and procreate in our eyelashes
Demodex mites are tiny little creatures that live in mammals’ hair follicles. I first heard about them years ago, when I watched a documentary with my science class back at PN Girls’ High. It was about animals that are parasitic on humans, and after the segment on eyelash mites, I don’t know about the girls […]
Continue readingdid Ötzi have a tummy bug?
Well, probably not1, in the sense that most would place on the term 'tummy bug' (where a close proximity to the toilet is a Good Thing), but it turns out that he did have some rather interesting intestinal bacteria. Ötzi is perhaps better known as the 'Iceman', who died around 5,300 years ago in the […]
Continue readingengraving by homo erectus – art? or doodling?
Why is it that practically every time there's a new discovery relating to the evolution of our own species, there is a headline saying that this finding 'could rewrite human history'? Because, bingo! At least one newspaper report1, of a paper published last week in Nature, carried the header: "Homo erectus engraving could re-write human history, […]
Continue reading‘paleo’ diet? or paleofantasy?
The 'paleo' diet story on Campbell Live tonight spurred me to finish my review of one of the most entertaining popular books on genetics that I have read for some time. Entertaining, and informative, in equal measure. I wonder what author Marlene Zuk would have made of the TV story. Marlene Zuk (2013) Paleofantasy: what […]
Continue readinghuman facial features the result of being used as a punching bag? somehow I don’t think so
I saw this story in the newspaper yesterday, & again today on one of the science feeds: Researchers in the US have studied the skulls of ancient human ancestors and concluded that fist-fighting may have played a role in shaping the male face. You can read the paper itself here (Carrier & Morgan, 2014). I’m sorry, […]
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