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Anthropology, Evolution and Science
Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..."
Mark Twain
"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..."
Afarensis
"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity"
Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!"
Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind
"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..."
Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..."
The Simpsons
"This is between me and the vegetable..."
Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors
"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..."
Thea, Isle of the Dead
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views."
Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man
"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny."
George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Unknown
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Frederich Nietzsche
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The Declaration of Independence
May 7, 2009
Category: Administrative
Due to circumstances beyond my control I will no longer be blogging for ScienceBlogs. I would like to thank all those people who have read my blog, commented on my posts, and sent me articles. Without you I would not have made it as long as I have. I will be returning to my old blog here
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 2:59 PM • &bull View blog reactions
April 30, 2009
Category: Creationism • Insanity
Brian has an excellent post about the discussion of the fossil record at BioLogos. Brian does a great job pointing how just how bad the discussion of the fossil record is at BioLogos. Long story short, they briefly discuss the early evolution of tetrapods, the reptile/mammal transition, and then move on to whales - and do an inadequate job on all three. I bring this up because BioLogos is, apparently, going to be discussing human evolution. Based on their discussion of the fossil record I don't expect much in the way of a competent discussion of the subject. I will post on it when it becomes available, until then, here is what they have to say:
Current scientific evidence suggests that all organisms, including humans, are related to each other by their descent from common ancestral species. This response will look at recent findings from the genome, which supports this claim. The fossil records of humans and human-like creatures also helps to sketch the story of human evolution.
I can hardly wait...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 11:38 PM • 6 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 25, 2009
Category: Biological Anthropology
In discussing human sex roles one usually starts thus:
...because a single egg is more costly to produce than a single sperm, the number of offspring produced by female animals is limited by the number of eggs that she can produce, while the number of offspring produced by male animals is limited by the number of mating partners.
And then usually this is thrown in as well:
...male animals are competitive and promiscuous while female animals are non-competitive and choosy.
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 12:07 PM • 1 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 23, 2009
Category: Poetry
Awhile back I wrote a post about a picture that was claimed to be one of the few paintings of Shakespeare painted while he was still alive.
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:02 AM • 5 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 22, 2009
Category: Current Events • Insanity
Words can not describe the mind-boggling nature of the video below (an exception to my no YouTube rule). Call me gobsmacked...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 7:47 PM • 7 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 20, 2009
Category: Archaeology • Paleoanthropology • Primatology
Science is reporting on interesting research on the Ling Bua stone tools:
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:37 AM • 1 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 17, 2009
Category: Paleontology
PhysOrg.com has a story on new research on Ichthyostega and Acanthostega. The new research was prompted by the discovery of new fossils:
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:59 PM • 2 Comments &bull View blog reactions
Category: Biology • Evolution • Interesting Science News
There are a number of interesting pieces of evolutionary research in the news. Some are a little on the old side...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 12:01 AM • &bull View blog reactions
April 16, 2009
Category: Atheism • Current Events • Sports
Not content with inflicting that detestable "Gob Bless America" on their fans, they have to chain the exits so folks can't leave while the dreck is being sung:
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 7:51 PM • 5 Comments &bull View blog reactions
April 15, 2009
Category: Primatology
According to National Geographic a new, and large, population of orangutangs has been discovered in the Indonesian sector of Borneo:
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 8:30 AM • 7 Comments &bull View blog reactions
