The Archives

What gibbons might teach us about the evolution of human bipedalism
12.19.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments

Recently, I posted a bit of news regarding an article that appeared in The Journal of Experimental Biology. Well, I promised I would look into that matter further, and so here I am. The article, authored by Evie Vereecke and Peter Aerts, analyzes the mechanics of the gibbon foot in hopes of better understanding the [...]
Our gibbon-footed ancestors?
12.15.08 | Permalink | Comment?

In a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Biology researchers at the University of Liverpool have hypothesized that ancestral humans possessed the ability to walk bipedally on a flat foot, much similar to the way modern gibbons do.
To understand how successful or ‘restrictive’ the flexible foot might have been for early humans we set [...]
Virunga in trouble
10.29.08 | Permalink | Comment?

On October 26th, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo overtook the headquarters of Virunga National Park, home to the last of the world’s wild mountain gorillas. Many researchers, rangers and civilians have fled the area for safety, and no effective action has been taken by the UN “peacekeepers.”

[Video from National Geographic]
If you haven’t had [...]
Great apes prefer Burger King: The food, the food, the food is on fire.
08.16.08 | Permalink | Comment?

An interesting article in this month’s issue of the Journal of Human Evolution begs the question of whether great apes prefer cooked, or raw, food. Of course, the answer in and of itself isn’t what these anthropologists are after, no… it’s ALWAYS about the humans… stupid, if you ask me (but you probably didn’t, and [...]