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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: 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 •
Category: Paleontology
The picture below is of a frog larva dating to the Oligocene. It comes from Larval development in Oligocene palaeobatrachid frogs....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:36 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Octopi
The journal Paleontology has an interesting paper describing three new species of fossil octopi. The new fossils date to the Upper Cenomanian (the Cenomanian is part of the Cretaceous and dates to ~99-93 MYA). The paper can be found here....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 11:46 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: Sharks
But, it doesn't link Great Whites and Megalodon. Longtime readers may remember this three part series on the subject. An interesting new fossil has been discovered that sheds some more light on the subject....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 8:36 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Interesting Science News
There are three interesting science news items the popped up today....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:14 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Blogs of Note
PhysOrg.Com has an interesting story on Project 23. From PhysOrg.Com: Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer. The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks,...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 8:23 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Paleontology
From here which apparently covers a session on imaging techniques....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:00 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Sharks
That is the name of his blog anyway. Apparently, though, Martin also studies fossils. National Geographic has the story - and this is the clever part - apparently he didn't even have to go out into the field: But Brazeau...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 7:53 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Paleontology
National Geographic is reporting on the discovery of a new species of prehistoric cheetah discovered in China. The find dates to about 2.15-2.5 MYA. From National Geographic:...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 1:23 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Paleoanthropology
I seem to be acquiring papers quicker than I can read them. It doesn't help the my printer is out of ink and I hate reading pdfs on the computer...a problem which should be remedied later this week....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 6:14 PM • 3 Comments •
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
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Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
