john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Hot Darwin action

Mon, 2009-06-15 15:40 -- John Hawks

Well, I watched the new trailer for the upcoming Darwin movie, Creation. On the one hand, there's an awful lot of senseless (and anachronistic-sounding) stuff -- he's writing the "Most Explosive Book of All Time", he's going to "Kill God". Yada yada yada.

On the other hand, we get Darwin partially nude next to Jennifer Connelly.

OK, well, maybe those are both on the same hand. But Paul Bettany does look amazingly like sideburn-era Darwin from some angles. (Not, as far as I know, the partially nude ones...)

(the movie has a website, too)

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.