john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Neandertals for kids

Tue, 2010-01-05 09:01 -- John Hawks

There's not really an exciting story to go with the headline, but after it dropped into my news feed, I had to link it:

How We Spent Facebook's Money On A Neanderthal's Skull

Yesterday, a nice Christmas present from Facebook landed in our in-box: $25 to spend at DonorsChoose.org.

After reviewing reader suggestions on how to spend it, we eventually decided to help a North Carolina school teacher buy his students a model of a Neanderthal skull for AP biology students.

Well, OK -- short, and heartwarming. I think every school could use a Neandertal skull.

Tags: 
education
teaching

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.