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Afarensis

Anthropology, Evolution and Science

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afarcomp3.jpg 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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Aphorisms


"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


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Archives:

A New Method of Determining Age From Teeth: One From The Archives

This is one from my old blog and was originally published on 9/16/05. I am republishing it because it bears on some recently published research, which I will get around to blogging about after I have read the recently published...

Oh Hell, What Next: One from the Archives

I wrote this back in January 2006. Apparently it is still relevent to today's news... Homeland Security opening private mail: In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had...

Friday Know Your Primate: Special Edition

This is one from the archives. Although there are a number of resources that answer the question presented below, I decided to give my own response (the more resources the merrier). Creationism/ID is something of a hobby of mine. I...

Australopithecus afarensis and Apes: One from the Archives

I'm currently trying to get through a rather lengthy book - which I will be reviewing in a later post - so in the meantime here is one from the archives... I wrote it back in April of 2005 and...

Defending Christmas: Dwarf Mistletoe Joins War on Christmas, Attacks Christmas Trees

Some of my Sciblings are reporting on their role in the "War on Christmas". I think this is heinous. So I am reposting this piece I wrote last year detailing my plans to defend Christmas by burning Christmas trees......

Dinosaurs in Hollywood

This is one from May 2005...

My Cousin Vinny, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, and "Bitch-Slapping" Behe: One from the Archives

One from 2/12/05 (which explains the reference to Darwin's birthday)...with typos corrected... I just finished watching "My Cousin Vinny" wherein we learn such anthropological tidbits as what "utes" are (that's an anthropology joke for those of you unacquainted with Native...

Bone Eating Sea Worms: One From the Archives

This is a combination of two posts from the archives......

God Bless America: I am Sick of that Infernal Song

I was idly watching the Mets beat the Dodgers when the seventh inning rolled around and of course they had to sing "God Bless America" so here is one from the archives.......

Mammoth Nuclear DNA says African Elephant, Mitochondrial DNA Says Asian: One From the Archives

One from the archives, in which I think out loud and try to solve a conundrum... Okay, now I'm confused! I have posted on the Mammoth DNA study several times. One of the articles I read stated that Mammoths are...

More on Mammoth DNA: One from the Archives

National Geographic News has a story on mammoth DNA:...

Mammoth Mitochondrial DNA Partially Decoded: One From the Archives

From December of 2005. The first of three posts on the subject... According to BBC News the mitochondrial genome of the mammoth has been partially decoded: It shows that the mammoth was most closely related to the Asian rather than...

How Fossils Are Made: One from the Archives

Via Palaeontologia Electronica...

"Junk" DNA and Fruit Flies: One from the Archives

From October, 2005... Genetics is an interesting, if mind numbingly complicated, subject. As you all know genes are composed of four nucleotides that form pair bonds with each other (to be simplistic). Adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with...

The Intelligent Designer is a Gateway God: A Public Service Announcement.: One from the Archives

One from May, 2005... From The Ayn Rand Institute via Chris Mooney comes the best description of Intelligent design I have heard to date. Their scientifically accessible "designer" is nothing more than a gateway god--metaphysical marijuana intended to draw students...

Zooarchaeology, Pokemon Archaeology and Climate Change

This is one from the archives... The pictures scattered through out this post are pictures of pikas, a small north american species related to rabbits and hares: Pikas breed in March or April and have a litter of three or...

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