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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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"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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Paleontology:

Did Primates Arrive in North America Before They Arrived in Europe?

That is the question raised by the discovery of a new species of Teilhardina (you can go here to learn more about Teilhardina). The new species, Teilhardina magnoliana, was discovered in Mississippi and is written up in PNAS (unfortunately, it...

The Platypus May Be Older Than We Thought

National Geographic has an interesting story on the Platypus. The article talks about recent high-resolution scans of the Teinolophos jawbone. The find dates to 112.5-120 MYA and was considered to be an ancestor to both the platypus and the echidna....

Book Review: Mammoths, Giants of the Ice Age, Rev. Ed.

Adrian Lister and Paul Bahn have come out with a revised edition of Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age and I am happy to report that I have received and avidly read a review copy....

Carnivorous Fungi from Cretaceous

I'm at home today due to a nasty cold. I hadn't planned on writing much, but couldn't resist mentioning this. National Geographic has a story on carnivorous fungi trapped in amber. The find dates to the Cretaceous (~100 MYA)....

Interesting Fossil Pictures

From Acta Paleontologica Polonica. The picture below is of "Sublethal injuries in Early Devonian cephalopod shells"...

Dwarf Hippos

National Geographic has an interesting story up about dwarf hippo fossils found on the island of Cyprus. There are a couple of interesting aspects to the find....

Fossil Velvet Worms

I can't remember if this story has been blogged about elsewhere. Science Daily mentions some 425 MYA fossils....

Book Review: Evolution, What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters

One of the most frequent questions asked by creationists (of any stripe) is "Where are the transitional fossils?" They usually point, somewhat dismissively, at specimens such as Tiktaalik and ask for more. They claim that there should be thousands, if...

Fossils and Food Chains

I don't know how I missed this yesterday. National Geographic has an article on an interesting fossil, dating to about 290 MYA (basically, the beginning of the Permian) , that provides some interesting information on food chains....

330 Million Year Old Amphibian Imprints Discovered

This is cool! Science Daily is reporting on the discovery of 330 million year old fossil imprints discovered in Pennsylvania. The imprints are not actually fossils in the sense of being mineralized bone, rather they seem to be natural molds...

Whale Falls In the Fossil Record

Whales are fascinating creatures. We have a good fossil record for them ranging from their land living ancestors to early baleen species. One species of Delphinidae (cousins to the whales) are even considered to be culture bearing (I am referring,...

Paleontology in the Field: Expedition Mongolia

Ever wonder what it's like doing fieldwork in paleontology? Now's your chance to find out (No, I'm not sending you on a dig). Visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum to get first hand reports on a paleontological dig in Mongolia. The...

Trapped in Amber

Science Daily had two articles up in the last week concerning fossils trapped in amber. The fisrt dealt with orchid pollen trapped in amber it is quite cool becuase:...

Whale Fossil Damaged: An Update

In reading the coverage given to the recent damage done to the whale fossil in Wadi Hitan several things stand out. First, coverage in the mainstream media was negligible to non existent. Second, even in coverage outside the US nobody...

Update: Belgium Diplomats Destroy Priceless Whale Fossil

According to Yahoo News Egypt is accusing Belgium diplomats of damaging the whale fossil. There is an interesting twist to the story. Apparently the incident happened in July and is just now being reported. Belgium denies that the diplomats damaged...

Priceless Egyptian Whale Fossil Destroyed By European Diplomats

This is just pathetic. According to Yahoo a priceless Egyptian whale fossil has been destroyed by European diplomats out four-wheelin':...

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