So unless you've been living under a rock for the last two weeks (well, or you don't follow the science news at all) you would have heard about Ardi (a female Ardipithecus ramidus), who is the oldest known hominid and a possible human ancestor. Ardi's remains and her likely habitat was analyzed in detail in a Special Issue in Science and several of the results are very surprising, including that she had arboreal adaptations (i.e. traits for living in trees) despite being bipedal.
Anyway, I don't have much to say (not my field) but I do want to point to this video (embedded below, or click here) that the team at Science produced and that has not received enough playtime. It's a great primer on the significance of the find and what it could tell us about hominid evolution.
(By the way: John Hawks has pointed out that one of the photos used in this video is poorly scaled, so it doesn't give a good indication of the skeletal proportions).
Hey! Just thought I take the chance to come over and make an asinine, obnoxious post on your blog! So how's the study of "the phrenology of the 21st century" going for you?
ReplyDelete-- GC
I do wish people would act like adults when they're online. I criticized you -- indeed, criticized you aggressively -- but responding in this way is petulant and, frankly, a little sad.
ReplyDelete(For interested bystanders, "GC" is one Gene Callahan who I criticized in the comments of this blog post: http://thinkmarkets.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/evolutionary-psychology/)
ReplyDeleteYes, Michael, it would be almost as petulant and sad as someone who showed up on someone else's blog and told them they should STFU, even though no one asked them to show up there and make an obnoxious ass of themselves.
ReplyDeleteI told you to STFU if you have the daft position you seem to claim to have. Because then you'd be a moron. I originally criticized you -- harshly -- but I didn't throw mere abuse around. You did.
ReplyDelete'No one asked me'? It's the internet for fuck's sakes. You published something on it. It's public. People will show up to criticize you. Deal with it.
Yes, your a rude little punk, and the rest of us just have to deal with it. I see.
ReplyDeleteDue back on earth now.
Sigh. I attacked your ideas. You attacked me. The latter is, and the former is not, rude.
ReplyDeleteNow GTFO and don't come back.
Ayn Rand challenges a creationist who thinks Ardipithecus disproves evolution.
ReplyDeletehttp://02e56fa.netsolhost.com/blog1/index.php/2009/10/01/ayn-rand-refutes-creationist-who-claims-