john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Giant panda noises

Tue, 2009-09-15 11:30 -- John Hawks

Uhhh...

Giant pandas’ sex talk revealed

"Giant pandas (also) produce barks, moans, honks, growls, roars and squeals," said Charlton, a postdoctoral research biologist at Zoo Atlanta. "In addition, females produce chirps when they are approaching and entering estrus, and some non-vocal sounds, such as the snort and chomp, which are sometimes heard."

So much for my mental image of prurient zookeepers.

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.