Penghu 1 is a mandible with an interesting discovery; Taiwanese fishermen dredged up the jawbone off the coast of Penghu Channel. The fishermen sold it to a local antique shop, where collector Kun-Yu Tsai purchased and donated it to his collection to the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan. Tentative dates on this specimen...

The 4.4-Million-Year-Old Ardipithecus ramidus

I want to be the first to break news to you that Science has published White's contentious 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus! I caught news of the release on the internet. The link is not live yet, but when it is I'll fill you in. Owen Lovejoy is one of the authors of the paper, and he...

Can I See Your Fingers Please?

That is what University of Liverpool's Emma Nelson probably would have said if she were to meet our hominan ancestors in person. Known to hold true in anthropoids (humans, apes and monkeys), the index (second digit) to ring (fourth digit) fingers ratio or 2D:4D is an indication of how much an individual were exposed to...

Hobbit in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution – Watch it Online!

Speaking of the Johansons and fossils ... Earlier this year, I've blogged about the 2009 Human Evolution Leakey Symposium at Stony Brook that I went to. For more about that blog post, click here. The symposium, entitled "Hobbit in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution" can now be streamed live through the Stony Brook...

3,000 year old small body humans in Palau, Micronesia

PLoS One completely surprised me today by releasing this paper, "Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia." The research comes from South African and American researchers, and the paper was edited by John Hawks, who apparently can really keep a secret it seems. I had no idea about this study and find it a really remarkable find...

New Radiochronological Dates for Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Australopithecus bahrelghazali

Whoever manages the PNAS web servers should thank Afarensis because he found that paper prior to the March 4th date I threatened to bring down their site on. He's written up an educational overview of the findings, so has Jason of Hominin Dental Anthropology. I eluted to the significance of this study earlier, but I'll...

The March 4th Issue of PNAS will confirm a radiochronological date for Toumaï

I remember reading the announcement of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (a.k.a. Toumaï) in 2002. It was an exciting time. A cranium is hard to find and is a quite noteworthy for any early hominid. So, it wasn't surprising that Nature published the findings, "A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa." But they did...

500,000 year old Homo erectus from Turkey, and with Tuberculosis

EurekAlert is running a very interesting press release on the discovery of a 500,000 year old Homo erectus fossil recovered from Turkey. Apparently the fossil, a fragment of skull bone, shows lesions that the individual had tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a deadly infectious disease caused by multiple strains of mycobacteria. Because the mycobacteria have lost numerous...

Introducing Nakalipithecus nakayamai

I'm really behind on the anthropology news. There is just too much news floating around, and I feel like I don't have enough time to catch up with it all. From studies on tool wielding chimps, chocolate brewing, a 4,000 year old temple in Peru, to how prehistoric Vinca women dressed in Europe, and yes......