Bernard Wood | Hominin Taxonomy, Paranthropus Evolution, and Interpreting the Fossil Record YouTube video by Our Primate Past

Professor Bernard Wood discusses Homo and Paranthropus evolution, the Sahelanthropus femur, the taxonomy of H. naledi and H. floresiensis, and the importance of fossil access and data sharing in human origins research:

Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales Climate and ecosystem dynamics vary across timescales, but research into climate-driven vegetation dynamics usually focuses on singular timescales. We developed a spectral analysis–based approach that...

Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

15 days to go!
Proud to keep advancing research + training #OldupaiGorge

🙏
University of Dodoma
+
University of Calgary

Team's fired up,
Some already in-country,
others landing soon:

Abel Shikoni
Maria Soto
@aloycem.bsky.social
Raquel Hernando
AbdallahMohamed
StephenMagohe
Ayoola Oladele

HOUSE OF CARDS? A Call for Paradigm Shift in Archaeological Starch… | Julio Mercader Florín HOUSE OF CARDS? A Call for Paradigm Shift in Archaeological Starch Research Could decades of ancient starch research be built on a house of cards? Archaeologists have long recovered microscopic sta...

Starch is biodegradable, so why do we assume it survives for millennia? Our new study shows rapid microbial decay, even in dry soils. Time for archaeology to rethink what “ancient” starch really means.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Collaborative Research and Joint Management at Oldupai Gorge: A… | Julio Mercader Florín Collaborative Research and Joint Management at Oldupai Gorge: A long-term partnership at Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania between palaeoanthropologists and the Maasai Advisory Council demonstrates how co...

Joint research at Oldupai Gorge unites palaeoanthropology with Masai-led stewardship.

A new MOU formalizes co-design in science, education, tourism and heritage. A model for collaborative futures.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Excited to see the University of Dodoma
leading research at Oldupai Gorge
(Tanzania),
collaborating globally
to explore the origins of humanity
#UNESCO
#WorldHeritageSite

Cheers to a new chapter of discovery 🎉
@udomofficial
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology

Paper alert, @nature.com. Our study reveals 8 million years of #GreenArabia. We document environmental variability - ranging over the entire course of human evolution. Arabia is a key bridge at the cross-roads of continents. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Big thanks to
University of Dodoma
and
University of Calgary
for backing our project and permit
to uncover early human life
at the cradle of humankind
in Eastern Africa

#OldupaiGorge

Stay tuned for discoveries ahead!
#Paleoanthropology
#HumanEvolution

Aloyce Mwambwiga defended his doctoral thesis today!

He is a scholar I respect for his consistency and integrity, even as we navigated the most extreme challenges

There’s now a new phytolith lab in Tanzania, equipped.
He will be directing it, for the science to be practiced locally

Cheers!!

Direct effects of mountain uplift and topography on biodiversity Biodiversity hotspots in Earth’s mountain ranges suggest a strong connection between topographic development and biological processes. However, it remains unclear whether high biodiversity in mountain...

Direct effects of mountain uplift and topography on biodiversity | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Nasa rover discovers largest organic compounds yet found on Mars Presence of long-chain alkanes in rock raises new questions about possible existence of life billions of years ago

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans - Nature Genetics The cobraa model extends the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent to identify structured population history by examination of the model transition matrix. Applied to human polymorphism data, cob...

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The earliest human face of Western Europe - Nature A Homo aff. erectus individual dated to 1.4 million to 1.1 million years ago found at Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) does not display the modern-human-like aspect of Homo antecess...

Our new paper 🥲 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Tai Chimpanzee Project is making available microCT scans from their collections on human-fossil-record.org. All proceeds are used to support their mission of conservation and non-invasive research in Tai National Park (taichimpproject.org).

Another fascinating study on the broader knock-on effects of megafaunal extinctions

Unfortunately few academics realise the power they have to change the system, when they reach the points where they can begin to bear pressure.

The UKRI has shifted focus from individuals to academic teams in the next Research Assessment Exercise.

Here is my take docs.google.com/presentation...

Biomarker evidence on early Paleolithic human-environment interactions from loess records in Tajikistan, Central Asia The loess-paleosol sequences of Khovaling, southern Tajikistan preserve signatures of prehistoric human settlement during the Early Paleolithic. Archa…

Paper alert! We use polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (🔥) biomarkers at staggered scales relative to Palaeolithic archaeological sites to argue for deep antiquity (600 to 400 ka) to land management practices in 🇹🇯 Central Asia. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Auto-fluorescent phytoliths: can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts? - Vegetation History and Archaeobotany To understand human practices and landscape evolution it is crucial to be able to trace evidence of past fires, notably in tropical environments. In such anthromes, phytoliths are generally well prese...

The third of our series of papers on this topic, in which I had a minor part: 🧪 🏺 "Auto-fluorescent #phytoliths : can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts?" 𝑉𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑦. #plantscience
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Just starting our fieldwork at Pegwell bay for Palaeo-Thaw project. Sampling the Late Pleistocene Loess sequence

Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone Reports of proteins in fossilized bones have been a subject of controversy in the scientific literature because it is assumed that fossilization results in the destruction of all organic components. I...

Potentially significant

1st independent replication of sequenced dinosaur 🦕 collagen. 41 peptides in Edmontosaurus bone, identical sequences in Brachylophosaurus. Minimal PTMs suggest exceptional preservation #teammassspec #ZooMS.

Now to explore the data...

Data on PRIDE PXD048810 (but not yet)

Dear Colette, it was fantastic to work with you, thank you so much!

Thank you Mr Zimmer for your write up! Cheers

Groundbreaking research
on Homo erectus
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

#OldupaiGorge
BED III:

Using sedimentology, geochemistry, Ar/Ar dating, biome simulations, fire history, paleobotany, fauna, and lithics, we reveal how hominins navigated extreme environments in northern Tanzania 1 Ma

Outer planet frontier of geoscience - Nature Geoscience Space exploration has expanded the realm of geoscience to the outermost Solar System. A new generation of missions shines the way.

Space exploration has expanded the realm of geoscience to the outermost Solar System. A new generation of missions shines the way www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🏺 Massive new isotope database drops! NARIA (North American Repository for Archaeological Isotopes) just launched with 28k+ measurements spanning 12,000 years of human history across North America 🗺️

pandoradata.earth/organization...

Panoramic view of Turin with the iconic Mole Antonelliana dome rising above the cityscape, backed by snow-capped Alps. Golden evening light illuminates the historic architecture and grand boulevards of this Italian city that will host ISBA 11. Image: Turin by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar, 31 March 2013, via Wikimedia Commons

ISBA @isbarchaeology.bsky.social heads to Turin! 🇮🇹
Call for abstracts for biomolecular archaeology's premier conference, @isba11.bsky.social. Spotlight on ancient biomolecules, isotopes & their stories of the past 🧬
Human-environment interactions foodways, mobility & more 🏛️

Deadline: Jan 20, 2025

Human migration from the Levant and Arabia into Yemen since Last Glacial Maximum - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Human migration from the Levant and Arabia into Yemen since Last Glacial Maximum

Human migration from the Levant and Arabia into Yemen since Last Glacial Maximum www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High-precision 40Ar/39Ar dating of Australasian tektites associated with bifacial tools in the Bose Basin (Xiaomei and Fengshudao sites), South China and in Vietnam (Go Da and Roc Tung 1 sites) Bifacial tools discovered at about a hundred Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Bose Basin, southern China, have been previously dated to around 800,000 …

Confirming previous age estimates at the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary, this fascinating study provides precise dating of Australasian tektites (glass formed by meteorite impacts) at 788,000 years ago, offering insights into the Acheulean in SE Asia www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

For cat lovers everywhere, no less than 15 big cats, cave lions?, lionesses?, in black outline on the beige limestone rock. All are looking left, their attention utterly caught by the bison and bear drawn there. There is so much energy in their attentiveness, as if about to move. Some close superimposition of cat profiles hints at animation

A large pendant of stalactite drops down from the cave roof. On it is drawn the lower half of a female figure taking in the wider part of the stal as her belly, black charcoal outlines sketching her tapering legs and pubic hair. From the right, also in black, a bison in profile is superimposed on the left flank of the female, by its leg appears to merge with her leg. the single eye of the bison appear coincident with the position of the belly button of the female. Ambiguity in showing human forms directly does seem to be a part of Aurignacian and later European cave art.

At least 10 Woolly Rhinos, in black outline on the beige limestone rock. At the top four look closely superimposed giving an impression of animated movement.

Finally the famous, beautiful image of four horses, all facing left drawn in black outline on the beige limestone with yellow ochre paint to the rear. The person, or people, who drew these, captured something so essential in the nature of the horse, as with so many Chauvet animals there is empathy/sympathy here.

Chauvet Cave was discovered on the 18th December 1994.
30 years ago today. To many it is the most arresting expression of cave art in the archaeological record & it is one of the oldest examples in Europe.
Here are four of my highlights.
archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/chauvet/en
#AncientSky
🦣🏺

A transformative initiative
to foster capacity building in Paleosciences!

Eastern African Network for PaleoBioGeoChem (PaleoBGC):

🔬 Nairobi: Raman (May 5-6)
📊 Addis Ababa: XRF (May 12-13)
🔍 Dodoma: Thin-sectioning (May 20-21)