In the early 15th century, Imperial Chinese mariners under the eunuch admiral Zheng He made great voyages of discovery in enormous ships. Then the Hongxi Emperor decided that what they had found on far shores was underwhelming, the whole fleet was... read more
Aardvarchaeology
This is from an article in PaleoAnthropology. The map, of the find locations for the Ngangdong specimens, hasn’t been seen in 75 years. Picture source: Huffman et al (2010) Provenience Reassessment of the 1931–1933 Ngandong Homo erectus (Java), Co... read more
Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution, and Science
On the left is an MDS plot using '45k SNPs. Some explanation on the datasets: CAPS are Swedish; SGENE and MS are Finnish (Helsinki region); Aneurysm is Finnish (Helsinki and Kupio).A striking feature of the plot is the distinctiveness of the diffe... read more
Dienekes' Anthropology Blog
A little life history theory can be a dangerous thing. Case in point: "Die young, live fast: The evolution of an underclass." The article discusses correlations among longevity, health, income, and age at first birth within industrialized societie... read more
John Hawks Anthropology Weblog
There's a recent GWAS review by Teri Manolio in the New England Journal of Medicine that demands a response, even in just our little blog. Dr Manolio reviews the success and (some of) the less positive issues attending to the genetic approach to d... read more
The Mermaid's Tale
The permit arrived on Friday just after breakfast, so we spent a bit of time tidying up the site and finalizing area assignments before the long (Saturday AND Sunday) weekend. On Saturday I realized that I hadn’t had a day off in two weeks, and o... read more
Middle Savagery