all biological anthropology stories

Genetic sex determination let ancient species adapt to ocean life

404132862 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:50:30 -0400

A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans.

The evolutionary sleuthing is described today in a letter in the journal Nature by scientists at Harvard and the University of Reading who also report that the evolution of live-born young depended crucially on the advent of genes — rather than incubation temperature — as the primary determinant of offspring sex.

Individual primates display variation in general intelligence

50443248 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:57:23 -0400

Scientists at Harvard University have shown, for the first time, that intelligence varies among individual monkeys within a species – in this case, the cotton-top tamarin.

Testing for broad cognitive ability, the researchers identified high-, middle-, and low-performing monkeys, determined by a general intelligence score. General intelligence, or g, is a hallmark of human cognition, often described as similar to IQ. The effect of g in primates may offer insights into the evolution of human general intelligence.

New department reflects the evolution of human evolution

50443248 — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:17:07 -0400

Earlier this month, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) made official what scientists worldwide have known for years: Harvard is a hotbed of research and teaching in the field of human evolutionary biology — the study of why we’re the way we are.

Evolution explored from all angles

50443248 — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:10:20 -0400

From humanity’s close relationship to chimpanzees to the missing link between land and sea creatures, the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) has capped off a year celebrating Darwin and “On the Origin of Species” with a new exhibit that puts evolution front and center.

Urban areas offer hidden biodiversity

50443248 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:22:03 -0400

Urban areas around the world are places of hidden biodiversity that need to be protected and encouraged through smart urban design, said an authority in green city design.

Culture skews human evolution

50443248 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:32:21 -0400

The rise of agriculture 10,000 years ago meant the end of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle for which human beings had been optimized by millions of years of evolution and the beginning of an era where culture encourages habits unhealthy for us and for the world around, with uncertain evolutionary outcomes.

“Our bodies are not that well designed for the world we have created,” said anthropology professor Daniel Lieberman.

Chimps in wild appear not to regularly experience menopause

404132862 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:05:03 -0500

A pioneering study of wild chimpanzees has found that these close human relatives do not routinely experience menopause, rebutting previous studies of captive individuals which had postulated that female chimpanzees reach reproductive senescence at 35 to 40 years of age.

Together with recent data from wild gorillas and orangutans, the finding -- described this week in the journal Current Biology -- suggests that human females are rare or even unique among primates in experiencing a lengthy post-reproductive lifespan.

Female lower back has evolved to accommodate strain of pregnancy

404132862 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:12:52 -0500

According to a new study by researchers at Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin, women's lower spines evolved to be more flexible and supportive than men's to increase comfort and mobility during pregnancy, and to accommodate the special biology of carrying a baby for nine months while standing on two feet.

Edward O. Wilson awarded 2007 Catalonia International Prize

404132862 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:42:44 -0500

Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus, has been selected from a pool of 235 nominees, from 227 institutions in 27 countries, to receive the 2007 Catalonia International Prize.

Wilson was cited by the selection jury for the courage and honesty he has shown while defending his theories, "when it was and was not politically correct" to do so.

The Catalonia award is presented annually by the Catalan government to acknowledge contributions to the development of cultural, scientific, or human values around the world.

Redheaded strangers

404132862 — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:10:48 -0400

Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report this week in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals' pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of Neanderthals were likely redheads.

Jane Goodall: A life in the field

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:20:12 -0400

As a girl in England, Jane Goodall had a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee — a harbinger of the primatologist she was to become and of the jubilant audiences that greet her at every turn in adulthood.

Beginning in 1960, her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees in the African wild led to a series of revelations that revolutionized the scientific understanding of these close human relatives.

Goodall, a onetime secretary who skipped past a bachelor's degree to do a doctorate in ethnology at the University of Cambridge, famously discovered that chimpanzees make and use tools, thrive in socially complex families, and even engage in warfare.

I know just how you feel

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:40:37 -0400

When people talk with psychotherapists, the best results occur if both feel similar emotions, when both “like” each other. But do most therapists really connect with patients this way? No one has ever tried to directly measure the biology of empathy between the two.

To fill this gap, a group of researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital measured involuntary biological reactions by both patients and therapists during a regular psychotherapy session. Attention and inattention, expressions of pleasure and satisfaction, and words of care and understanding also were caught on videotape.

Seeing the forest, from the trees

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:17:48 -0400

It was Valentine’s Day 2000 and Alain Houle was not quite sure what to do. He was alone in a fruit tree and the chimps were coming back.

“I thought I’d be killed,” Houle said later. “They climbed up, looked at me, barked at me, and then settled down to eat.”

After Houle climbed down that day, he returned to the research station in Uganda’s Kibale National Park and met Richard Wrangham, Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, who has studied the park’s chimpanzees since 1987.

Though Houle was in the park studying the diets of monkeys for his doctoral work at the University of Quebec at Montreal, Wrangham expressed interest in Houle’s experience and said that chimpanzees had never been studied at eye-level in the treetops before.

Orangutan research yields conservation dividends

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:06:40 -0400

Cheryl Knott remembers the first time she heard the sound of chainsaws shattering the quiet in Indonesia's Gunung Palung National Park.

It was the late 1990s and Knott, an associate professor of anthropology who studies orangutan biology in the park's rain forest, said researchers at the Cabang Panti Research Station listened as the ominous sound grew ever nearer.

"There were illegal loggers in the National Park, thousands of loggers," Knott said. "Every morning, you could hear the sound of chainsaws, and knew they were getting closer."

Gilby blogs from Ugandan forest

50443248 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:52:08 -0400

Ian Gilby was following a chimpanzee through Uganda's Kibale Forest, observing behavior and testing revised data collection methods. Gilby had done his doctoral dissertation on chimpanzees in Tanzania and was studying long-term data about male chimp interactions.

But on this late January morning, it was the elephant that got his attention.