22May 2026 by Post

Not Out of Context: Comments on Hawks et al. (2000)

anthropology, Aosis, Australopithecines, Australopithecus, autosomes, body plan, body size, bottleneck, brain size, cladogenesis, Evolution, faces, fossil record, Grok, hominids, Homo, Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, Human Origins and Anthropology, John Hawks, Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Molecular Biology and Evolution, mtDNA, nuchal areas, nuclear DNA, paleoanthropology, paleontology, population, population size, Religions (journal), Science and Faith in Dialogue, sex chromosomes, skeleton, speciation, Stephen Barr, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The lead author is John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has a popular blog on paleoanthropology. Source
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24Jun 2022 by Post

In the Footsteps of Social Darwinist Cesare Lombroso

biology, Cesare Lombroso, Charles Darwin, criminal justice, criminals, criminologists, criminology, Culture & Ethics, Darwin Day in America, Evolution, face masks, facial features, forensic medicine, head shape, heredity, Italy, museums, phrenology, prisoners, skeleton, skulls, Social Darwinism, Turin, University of Torino
Lombroso’s ideas were quack science. But they were taken seriously by criminologists and public officials around the world until they were debunked. Source
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17Jan 2020 by Post

Did Cloudinids Have the Guts to Be Worms?

Acuticocloudina, bilaterian animals, bilaterian worms, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, Cambrian Small Shelly Fauna, Chengjiang biota, China, Cloudina, cloudinids, cloudinomorphs, cnidarian, Conotubus, Costatubus, Darwinian evolution, Dickinsonia, digestive tract, Ediacaran biota, Ediacaran Period, Ediacaran Small Shelly Fauna, Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, Evolution, Feiyanella, Germany, GUT, James D. Schiffbauer, Multiconotubus, Nature Communications, Nevada, polyp, Rajatubulus, Saarina, sessile filter feeder, Sinotubulites, skeleton, University of Missouri, Wood Canyon Formation
In my Evolution News article “Why Dickinsonia Was Most Probably Not an Ediacaran Animal” (Bechly 2019), I promised last year to follow up on other alleged Ediacaran animals. Now is a good moment to come back to this, because a new study has just been published in the journal Nature Communications by Schiffbauer et al. (2020), who identify a problematic Ediacaran shelly fossil as a bilateral animal most likely related to annelid worms. The crucial evidence is the alleged preservation of a digestive tract, which would also represent the oldest fossil record for this organ system (Stann 2020). The new fossil is considered to be a close relative of the genus Cloudina, which is a globally distributed Ediacaran index fossil first described by Germs (1972). It represents one of the…
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