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
Recently I wrote a review on Cuno's new book Who Owns Antiquity. In that review I expressed my disappointment at the few solutions Cuno proposed. The next day, I returned to the subject with a post discussing the Virtual Vault...
Many of you have heard about the recent paper by Mark Witton and Scibling Darren Naish called A Reappraisal of Azhdarchid Pterosaur Functional Morphology and Paleoecology. The paper has received a large amount of press due, mainly, to the conclusion...
Where have I heard this before?. Apparently a company in Utah wants to increase it's drilling activity in Nine Mile Canyon from 100-110 active wells to approximately 700-800 active wells. According to PhysOrg.Com the impact could be dire:...
Chris of Highly Allochthonous has, what I consider to be, the funniest post ever. Especially this bit: When the editors went through the footage they found it was all about "glacial erratics". I about fell out of my chair I...
PNAS has a couple of interesting articles in the most recent edition. The first, The evolution of imperfect floral mimicry touches on a subject that fascinated Darwin. I don't have access to the paper, but here is the abstract:...
The video below of Fox News contributor Liz Trotta gleefully laughing over the idea of someone assassinating either Obama or Osama seconds after she conflates the two says it all....
Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Pitheciidae Subfamily: Pitheciinae Genus: Cacajao Species: Cacajao calvus rubicundus Common Name: Bald Uakaris There are three subspecies of Cacajao calvus; Cacajao calvus rubicundus, Cacajao calvus ucayali, and Cacajao calvus calvus. Not much is known about...
Is this something we should be worried about? I understand that foot-and-mouth disease is nothing to mess around with, but I find this story somewhat perplexing. For example, the caption to the photo says, in part: The Bush administration relied...
Kambiz and Anthropology.net have successfully negotiated their first year on WordPress. If you are unfamiliar with the site, check it out, it is one of the premier site on the net for anthropology news and discussion. If you are a...
Dear Florida, Between 1996 and 2006 an estimated 99,000 Burmese pythons were imported into the US, of these an estimated 30,000 now live in the Everglades. Worse yet, they, along with released Boas, are now breeding....
Do cells that eventually for the base of the cranium, as well as connective tissue, originate via the neural crest as currently thought? According to an article that is supposed to be published in PNAS, the answer is no. Since...
According to this short article flint tools and the remains of red deer, bear, and buffalo were found in a cave in Galilee. Some may find it surprising that Paleolithic artifacts have been found in Israel, but the country has...
PLoS One has an interesting article called First Dinosaur Tracks from the Arabian Peninsula which discusses a multi-taxon dinosaur trackway discovered in Yemen....
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.