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paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

physiology

  • Kidney recapitulation

    Thu, 2012-02-09 10:19 -- John Hawks

    Jerry Coyne reviews a case of recapitulation in human embryonic and fetal development: "Evidence for evolution: development of our kidneys".

    One example is the development of the human kidney, which is pretty much the same as the development of any mammalian kidney. It turns out that, in utero, we develop three separate kidneys in succession, absorbing the first two before we wind up with the embryonic kidney that will become our adult kidney. The first two of these reprise embryonic kidneys of ancestral forms, and in the proper evolutionary order.

    Yesterday during my Anthropology 105 lecture, I was discussing the successive replacement of different hemoglobin forms in embryonic and fetal development. This is not a case of recapitulation, but instead elaboration of function upon the duplication of genes. Amazing how complex the physiological solutions allowing normal development can be, each of them drawing upon the legacy of genes shared with ancient organisms.

    Tags: 
    physiology
    recapitulation
    development
    hemoglobin

  • Sauna cooking

    Sun, 2010-08-15 12:30 -- John Hawks

    Everyday Biology has some science following on the tragic sauna competition.

    People even voluntarily expose themselves to much higher temperatures (70-80°C) in saunas. Which raises an interesting question: why don’t people cook when exposed to the same temperatures so effective for cooking meat and fish?

    With recipes!

    Tags: 
    physiology
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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.