john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

"The sea of synonymy"

Sun, 2006-08-27 10:50 -- John Hawks

R. D. Guthrie, from p. 3 of "Bison evolution and zoogeography in North America during the Pleistocene," Q Rev Biol 45:1-15, 1970:

During the early history of Pleistocene paleontology in America it was not uncommon to give any horn core the status of a new species if it was slightly different from any other type that had been described; consequently the literature abounds with forms such as Bison regius, B. angularis, B. oliverhayi, B. rotundus, B. californicus, B. ferox, B. texanus, B. taylori, B. pacificus, B. sylvestris, and B. kansensis, which have since been lost in the sea of synonymy.

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.