Becoming Human

A paleoanthropologist at the University of Texas in Austin hypothesizes Lucy died 3.2 million years ago  from injuries sustained after falling from a tree. In a paper published in the journal Nature this week, John Kappelman PhD and his team say CT scans of the original fossils indicate fractures consistent with a fall from a great height.

The existence of human ancestors on the island of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago has been pushed back to approximately 700,000 years ago, it was announced in two papers appearing in Nature’s June 9th edition. The formal name of this species uncovered in 2004 is Homo floresiensis.

Broken stalagmites forming two circles within a deep cave in France are reported in the journal Nature this week and dated to 176,000 years ago. Stalagmites are limestone objects on the floors of caves, formed as limestone bearing water drips from the cave ceiling.

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A paper in the journal Nature and commentary in Science shows humans are more energetic, burn more calories and have greater stores of fat than our primate cousins. Read commentary in Science

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Human anatomy and behavior appear to have changed significantly around two million years ago with the emergence of a new hominin species, Homo erectus.  Brains were larger, legs were longer, the ability to range greater distances expanded. What caused these changes?

The  Nature Podcast this week has two items of more than passing interest: a new board game called Evolution and a discussion of the psychological and cultural references in the new Star Wars, The Force Awakens.

Give a listen at the Nature Podcast.

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A few years ago in South Africa spelunkers were exploring a cave near Johannesburg. Working their way through a series of smaller and larger spaces, they found themselves in a small chamber with a scattering of bones on the surface.  Thus began an intriguing search to discover the nature and significance of these bones.