Becoming Human

In a paper appearing on September 20 in Science, analysis of the wrist bones of Homo floresiensis demonstrates this skeleton could not be a dwarf human, as has been argued. The paper also adds to the accumulating evidence the specimen is a strange mix of nearly modern and very primitive characteristics.

The suggestion interbreeding occurred between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens nearly 40,000 years ago, announced in papers published last November in both Science and Nature, has now been called into question.

Fossils from Kenya, with implications on the relationship between Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and uncovered in the year 2000, wee announced in a letter appearing in the August 9. 2007 issue of Nature. The authors, F. E. Spoor, M. G. Leakey et al.

The Child from Dikika

"The Origin of Species" is almost 150 — a fit survivor of the science canon even if not everyone has seen fit to jump from the Ark to the Beagle on the matter of evolution (three Republican presidential candidates, for example). But Darwin himself was slow to come to his ideas, and slower still to disclose them to a skeptical public.

teaser: By Alan Walker and Pat Shipman

This book, written for the general public, details the history of one of the lesser known branches in our family tree. The subject is the genus Proconsul, a primate that lived in Africa some 18 million years ago during the Miocene epoch.

Teaser: By Alan Walker and Pat Shipman

Noted leader in the field of human origins research dies Dr. Howell led or participated in fossil-hunting excavations around the world, in Turkey, Spain and China, as well as Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.

The new science of the brain and DNA is rewriting the history of human origins is the somewhat grand claim appearing in the March 19 issue of Newsweek, now in the hands of subscribers and on newstands.

Teaser: Recommended reading for students seeking a survey of the discipline and also for the general reader interested in obtaining a thorough overview of the study of human origins.

Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins (Zimmer);

The Complete World of Human Evolution (Stringer & Andrews)

Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Wood)