Ardipithecus has arrived.

After near fifteen years of waiting, the partial skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus is published this week in Science. “Ardi” is a 4.4 million year old hominin from the Aramis region of Ethiopia and is the oldest partial hominin skeleton discovered to date. There are 11 publications in this week’s Science covering all things Ardipithecus. Here [...]

Most complete fossil primate, Darwinius masillae

Here is a link to a recent publication describing the most complete known fossil primate specimen–Darwinius masillae–from PLoS One. The fossil dates to the early-middle Eocone (~41 million years ago). I would love to write more, however the article is summarizes the findings better than I could with my current schedule. I am very busy [...]

A summer for hobbits

Two publications in Nature this week 1,2, a special issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, and a conference at Stony Brook University this past month provide new data on the origins of the curious fossil hominin from Ling Bua Cave, Flores, Indonesia. First announced in 2004 3,4, the LB-1 fossil hominin has been the [...]

New Homo erectus pelvis described in Science

A nearly complete female Homo erectus pelvis (BSN49/P27) is described in this week’s issue of Science (Simpson et al. 2008). The fossil pelvis was excavated from the Busidima Formation of Gona, Afar, Ethiopia (Simpson et al. 2008). It dates from the early Pleistocene, with specific radiometric dating of the site to be 0.9-1.4 million years [...]

The hobbit saga continues

A news brief from Science Daily details the lastest blow to the hypothesis of insular dwarfism in archaic hominins in Micronesia. This story was a bit unbelievable since it surfaced last spring in National Geographic, but managed to hang around human evolution discussion because of the interesting LB1 specimen found on Flores several years earlier. [...]