Friday, September 09, 2016

Paleolithic Papers #9

Genus Homo:


Stone tools found from Middle Pleistocene Jordan have the blood of ducks, rhinos and others on them.

Upper Pleistocene Altamira cave has evidence of pigment processing in sea shells.

Does genus Homo need to be split?

Has the increased flow of blood to the brain been more important for the evolution of intelligence rather than brain size?

 H. neanderthalensis:

Is it NeanderTHAL or NeanderTAL

H. sapiens:

Evidence of people from the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary in Brazil from a cave.

Modern humans have a gene allowing better tolerance of smoke than Neandertals. 

Modern human brains do not have a larger prefrontal cortex in relative terms than other primates, but do have an absolute larger number of neurons present.

The dispersal of modern humans into south east asia is tracked.

The first colonization of the Americas probably did NOT use the ice free corridor.

How DID humans occupy the Tibetan plateau?
Did the earliest modern humans acutally arise in China?

Genus Australopithecus:

The Laetoli hominin (A. afarensis?) had a gait distinctive from modern humans.

The earliest stone tools were used for more than just butchering.

A. afarensis:

Did Lucy die from falling from a tree? John Hawks is skeptical.

How flexible was A. afarensis' diet?

You can now 3d print Lucy's bones.

A. africanus:

The heel of A. africanus appears to have been more like a gorilla's than a chimp's.

 A sediba:

Cancer was found in one of the bones associated with A. sediba.

META:

A new analysis suggests the Piltdown Hoax was conducted by one person.

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