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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
Category: Cultural Resource Management
Some interesting news from around the internet. Jenifer Neils reviews a couple of books on looting - including one I reviewed - and provides an interesting take on both....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 6:45 PM • •
Category: Invertebrates
According to this BBC News article it has....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 8:00 PM • 10 Comments •
Category: Octopi
National Geographic has an interesting video on the sex lives of octopi - apparently there is a certain amount of mimicry and guile involved.... The video is based on this article:...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 11:41 AM • •
Category: Invertebrates
The question has come up on ScienceBlogs as to which class of invertebrates are the best, coolest, etc. Like PZ I had though about saying Cephalopods (because of those nice octopi that helped the archaeology community find some pottery), but...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 1:30 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Biology
Science Daily has an interesting article up about the evolution of echolocation in toothed whales. The research behind the article was published in Lethaia....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 12:02 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Biology
Science News Daily has an interesting story about the mutualism between the senita moth and the senita cactus. At least that's what the title of the piece proclaims. The article is actually about the struggle of one scientist to make...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 3:20 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Botany
National Geographic has a story about an orchid that has evolved to resemble a female wasp:...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 1:55 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Evolution
Dollo's Law states that evolution is not reversible. Once fins, for example, are lost from an organism they can never be regained. The law was first formulated in 1890 and has survived the test of time, more or less. A...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:24 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: Invertebrates
A better movie of the crawling crinoid can be found here. It comes from Stalked Crinoid Locomotion, And Its Ecological And Evolutionary Implications by Baumiller and Messing....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:31 PM • •
PZ Myers 11.07.2009
PZ Myers 11.07.2009
Orac 11.06.2009
Orac 11.05.2009
revere 11.07.2009
