Darwin’s Worst Nightmare Part III: Conclusion of a Colossal Coincidence
If you've been following along, you know I've been recently detailing the event of "Darwin's Worst Nightmare" as it unfolded in real time in 1858. First, he received a letter that rocked his world (not in a good way), then he asked his friends to spring into action...
Darwin’s Worst Nightmare Part II: I Will Do Anything
Last week, I recounted the story of the time Darwin received a harrowing letter from Alfred Russel Wallace. The date was June 18th, 1858, and Darwin had potentially "lost all [his] originality." His claim to "discovering" evolution through natural selection, an idea...
Darwin’s Worst Nightmare, Part I: An Unexpected Letter
June 18th, 1858 was a rough day for Charles Darwin. On that day, he watched his worst nightmare seemingly unfold right in front of his eyes. "All my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed," he wrote to a friend, fearing that his life's work had...
Conditions the World Cannot Conceive: Studying Taung in 1920s South Africa
The Taung Child—one of the most iconic fossils in paleoanthropology’s history—was initially rejected by the scientific community. Despite claims from the little skull’s discoverer that it was an important “missing link,” the fossil was dismissed. Excluded from the...
The World Was a Much More Interesting Place Not That Long Ago: Best Paleoanthropology of 2018
Everything you thought you knew about human evolution is wrong. I’m kidding of course, but this is often the impression given by news headlines. While this is far from the truth (scientists have made huge leaps in understanding human origins in recent decades), there...
Best Paleoanthropology of 2018 So Far
It's hard to believe it's already August. The year has sped by at an unprecedented rate, so much so that I missed the halfway point of the year (by a couple of months--oops). But, I've decided I need to do a roundup of my favorite finds this year anyway, there's too...
Nightfall in the Hobbit Cave
“This is what Homo floresiensis must have felt like,” a paleoanthropologist mused through the darkness. It is almost 8pm on a Thursday and I am sitting on the floor of the cave known as Liang Bua. Other researchers stand only a meter from me, but I cannot see them, my...
Seeing as a Child Sees: Science, Wonder, and Excitement
"We have a healthy spacecraft," Alice Bowman announced on the evening of July 14, 2015. Bowman, the operations manager for the New Horizons mission, was commenting on the incredible flyby of Pluto, a flyby that gave humans a closer view of the planet than we had ever...
Floresiensis Family: Legacy & Discovery at Liang Bua
In 2003, a single swipe of a spade rocked the field of paleoanthropology. During a routine excavation, digging through damp clay of a cave floor, that single swipe revealed an entirely unexpected creature. It was the small skull of a primitive-looking hominin,...
Excavating Fluffy Pastries and Pulling Gold Dust from the Air: Best Paleoanthropology of 2017!
2017 was not an easy year. Many of us found ourselves consistently disheartened and frustrated with the events unfolding around us--so much so that it was sometimes difficult to focus on science. Given those frustrations, how does one write a roundup post celebrating...
Imaginary Continents and the Search for Origins: Where Did Humans Evolve?
Human evolution was a pretty crazy event (or series of events, specifically). One can't help but wonder, how did a group of tree-dwelling apes evolve into the large-brained, upright walking creatures we see dominating the planet today? On a related note--where did...
Extracting Gold Dust From Air: Best Paleoanthropology of 2017 so far!
How is it August already?! We're more than halfway through 2017 and a dizzying amount of paleoanthropology has already happened this year. I can't think of a better time to look back on some of the incredible discoveries that have been announced so far, so let's count...