Riffing off Elon Musk’s goal of sending humans to Mars by 2024, and NASA’s plans to send astronauts there after they visit the Moon again, Rice University evolutionary biologist Scott Solomon envisions “mutations cascading through the gene pool”: After about two generations, he thinks their bones will strengthen, they’ll need glasses for nearsightedness, their immune […]
Human evolution
Researchers: Tooth studies show that Neanderthals “split” from modern humans 800 kya, not 300-500 kya
If Neanderthals “diverged” from “modern humans” 800,000 years ago but many of us have Neanderthal genes (yeah, 23andMe stuff, for sure), what chance is there that much of the contention is based on the fact that we don’t really know enough to be sure of very many things?
Historian: Evolution means that human equality is a myth
The “evolutionary” view (Darwinism, in fact) is often portrayed as a sort of liberation but people may be rather surprised to discover exactly what that liberation is.
Ancient humans used medicinal plants
Including Neanderthals.
Researchers: Sediba is not a human ancestor after all. Back to Lucy, but…
The anthropologist is right, the fossil record is full of surprises. But the news that Lucy is only “the best candidate” is worth some reflection. It sounds like we have little to go on and Lucy is at best plausible.
Denisovan jawbone from 160 kya starts to talk…
A roundup: Have you noticed how new finds keep leading us back to ourselves, not to the missing link?
Did the Neanderthals have a cult going 130,000 years ago?
About the golden eagle. Okay, “cult” isn’t a designation of praise but it’s way better than how the Neanderthals were thought of in the past. Anyway, we are told that the birds used to snatch Neanderthal children. Maybe it was revenge.?
Did Neanderthals prize golden eagle claws for their symbolic value?
Researchers think that the claws may have had symbolic value. Another way of putting it is, anyone can gather feathers.
Researcher: Running marathons made us human
Add this one into the (by now, surely) thousands of little things that are said to have made us human. All that tinkering sure sounds like a plan.
New film: What if a Neanderthal were alive today?
A critic finds that the show has unexpected depth.
Smithsonian belatedly asks, What do we really know about Neanderthals?
What do we know? Well, we know what the science establishment has told us, that’s what. Previously, the science establishment spent a lot of time looking for the Darwinians’ subhumans. At all times, thin on the ground, it would seem. So they drafted the Neanderthals because, well, they were there. Now it seems, they have discharged them.
Gunter Bechly: New human find in the Philippines = New headache for Darwinism
Bechly also critiques something said here at Uncommon Descent by J.R. Miller of More Than Cake.
Researchers: Human face evolved to enhance social expression
Okay, but social expression is only important if one has something to communicate. How the “something to communicate” came to exist is the tricky part. That’s when the nonsense starts up. And when did the “something to communicate” start to happen? What if evidence of abstract reasoning predates the noted facial changes by tens of thousands of millennia?
Denisovans sure got around; turns out, they are “diverse”
Just what the concept of “speciation” adds to the human picture is unclear. But it makes for news stories.
Shakeup! New human find from over 50,000 years ago shows our ancestors were smarter than once thought
A news roundup. J. R. Miller points out, however, that a lot of the news is face-saving hype