#hominid evolution

[zenosanalytic]

Really Excited about this :>

Svante Pääbo: ‘It’s maybe time to rethink our idea of Neanderthals’

I’d rather not link The Guardian given their terfiness, but I really cant find a better article on this.

Paabo’s winning the Nobel this year for his team’s work extracting DNA from neanderthal remains. Most of the article is biographical, but the Big and Exciting take-away for me here is this quote:

One of the first of many surprises in his research was to find out that the genetic differences between Neanderthals and all modern humans(amounting to about 30,000) are far less than the differences between two random human beings alive today – around 3 million. “Our job is to find out which of those 30,000 are most important, because they tell us what makes us uniquely human,” he says.

At least half of the Neanderthal genome – probably as much as 60 to 70% of it, Pääbo believes – is to be found in living humans. “Which means that in effect Neanderthals are not really extinct at all, they are in us.”

I’ve long favored the theory of Contemporary humans being hybrids of “Modern Humans” and other hominid species over the older exterminationist theories -given human sociological patterns, and spcl cognitive tendencies like xenophilia, it just makes more sense- but it’s good to have this confirmation(as well as, from ones like This Newsweek Article, yet more proof of Neanderthal’s engaging in supposedly “Modern Human” behavior)

[keresacheron]

[chrissterry]

Human evolution: secrets of early ancestors could be unlocked by African rainforests : The Conversation 

Think of rainforests and the picture is inevitably one of a dark and forbidding realm where life is abundant, yet alarmingly cryptic. Rather than the sense of space offered by long, iconic grassland vistas, distance is compressed into tangled webs of foliage, veiling both predators and prey. Diffuse and difficult to access proteins, carbohydrates and fats increase the chances of encountering an…

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[thegaitguys]

Hip abductors and pelvis shape.

"The shape of the human pelvis reflects the unique demands placed on the hip abductor muscles (gluteus medius and gluteus minimus), which stabilize the body in the frontal plane during bipedal locomotion. This morphological shift occurred early in hominin evolution, yet important shape differences between hominin species have led to significant disagreement about abductor function and locomotor capability in these extinct taxa." -Warrener

Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2017 May;300(5):932-945. doi: 10.1002/ar.23558.

Hominin Hip Biomechanics: Changing Perspectives.

Warrener AG1,2.

[algeroth]

Neanderthals, an ancient cousin-species to humans, lived for a while at the same time as Homo Sapiens. Could this now-extinct species talk just like you and I do? Trace is here to tell you about a tiny bone found in Neanderthals and modern humans might hold the answer. 

[emperornorton47]

Stone Age humans weren't necessarily more advanced than Neanderthals

A multi-purpose bone tool dating from the Neanderthal era has been discovered by researchers, throwing into question our current understanding of the evolution of human behavior. It was found at an archaeological site in France.

[fuckyeahdarkextropian]

Human facial structure evolved to tolerate punches to the head, according to new research that suggests our ancestors spent a lot of time fighting. Such ancestors likely included the australopiths, which lived 4 to 2 million years ago in Africa. "The australopiths were characterized by a suite of traits that may have improved fighting ability, including hand proportions that allow formation of a fist; effectively turning the delicate musculoskeletal system of the hand into a club effective for striking," David Carrier, lead author of the study, said in a press release. "If indeed the evolution of our hand proportions were associated with selection for fighting behavior you might expect the primary target, the face, to have undergone evolution to better protect it from injury when punched," added Carrier, who is a University of Utah biologist. The researchers found that bones that suffer the highest rates of fractures in fights are the same parts of the skull that exhibited the greatest increase in sturdiness during the evolution of our early human relatives. These bones are also the parts of the skull that show the greatest difference between males and females in both australopiths and humans today. "In other words," Carrier said, "male and female faces are different because the parts of the skull that break in fights are bigger in males. Importantly, these facial features appear in the fossil record at approximately the same time that our ancestors evolved hand proportions that allow the formation of a fist." He continued, "Together, these observations suggest that many of the facial features that characterize early hominins may have evolved to protect the face from injury during fighting with fists." "Our research is about peace," Morgan explained. "We seek to explore, understand, and confront humankind's violent and aggressive tendencies." "Peace begins with ourselves and is ultimately achieved through disciplined self-analysis and an understanding of where we've come from as a species. Through our research we hope to look ourselves in the mirror and begin the difficult work of changing ourselves for the better."

Human Face Evolved to Withstand Punches