Search Results for: Neanderthal

More Sophisticated Theology: a religious scholar ponders whether Neanderthals had immortal souls

Lest you think that Sophisticated Theology™ has fallen on hard times, here we have an article pondering at great and tedious length the immensely important question, “Did Christ die for Neanderthals?” That can be rephrased, according to author Simon Francis Gaine, as “Did the Neanderthals have immortal souls?” (The “OP” after his name stands for … Continue reading More Sophisticated Theology: a religious scholar ponders whether Neanderthals had immortal souls

Svante Pääbo nabs Medicine and Physiology Nobel

I had totally forgotten that it’s Nobel Prize season, and the first one, the Medicine or Physiology Prize, was awarded today—to the human evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo, a Swede. The reader who sent me the news had these immediate reactions: Highly unusual that there is a single winner nowadays How often has the prize gone … Continue reading Svante Pääbo nabs Medicine and Physiology Nobel

A nice lecture from Matthew on genetics and human evolution

Here’s a virtual lecture on genetics and evolution that Matthew gave the other day to the Cardiff University’s School of Medicine. It was intended for the general public, was just posted on YouTube, and I’ve listened to it.  I have been most enlightened, and unless you already know this stuff you will be, too—it’s an … Continue reading A nice lecture from Matthew on genetics and human evolution

Fire use by hominins: an example of rapid cultural evolution?

Yesterday we discussed the possibility of cultural evolution (dissemination of a behavior or skill through imitation and learning) in cockatoos, which attracted a lot of attention, probably because of its parallel with human cultural evolution. (The cockatoos seem to have learned to open garbage bins by watching each other.) And in our species there are … Continue reading Fire use by hominins: an example of rapid cultural evolution?

Human Phylogeography: The lessons learned, 1

by Greg Mayer UPDATE. A couple of readers have drawn attention to the website, gcbias, of Graham Coop, a population geneticist at UC Davis. He has excellent discussions, with nice graphics, of issues in genetic genealogy, including calculation of the number of “genetic units” in particular generations. As an example, 7 generations back you have … Continue reading Human Phylogeography: The lessons learned, 1

Neanderthal bones in Croatia

Note: This has been slightly updated after I ran it by Davorka, who caught a few errors. Over the years we’ve had a number of posts about Neanderthals and their genetic legacy in “modern humans” (see here for a collection), many of them written by Matthew Cobb. Croatia—in particular a hill near the small town … Continue reading Neanderthal bones in Croatia

Human Phylogeography

by Greg Mayer For the spring semester, my colleague Dave Rogers and I are teaching a seminar class entitled “Human Phylogeography.” Phylogeography is the study of the history of the genetic variation, and of genetic lineages, within a species (or closely related group of species), and in the seminar we are looking at the phylogeography … Continue reading Human Phylogeography

“Modern” Homo sapiens may have been in Eurasia as long as 210,000 years ago

The conventional wisdom about the migration of Homo out of Africa, where the genus originated, involves the spread of Homo erectus about 2 million years ago across Eurasia, with that species appearing to have gone extinct without issue. After that, the Neanderthals, which split from the lineage producing “modern” (i.e., living) H. sapiens about 800,000 … Continue reading “Modern” Homo sapiens may have been in Eurasia as long as 210,000 years ago