Dawn of sapiens

The recent explosion of genetic research has propelled DNA, genes, and genetic determinism into the public consciousness. It wasn't until I took a course on functional genomics that I began to understand how oversimplified the public’s (myself included) understanding of DNA, genes, and phenotype is in contrast to reality. Genes are important but they are hardly the only element that determines the...

The research for two upcoming projects recently had me wondering about sex biased dispersal and female autonomy in Neanderthals. Fully understanding the answer requires putting Neanderthal behavior in context with that of both modern humans and other mammals. That was what I attempted to do here. References General Prugnolle & Meeus – 2002 - Inferring sex-biased dispersal from population genetic t...

The power of a new subfield of ancient DNA (aDNA), known as environmental DNA (eDNA), is growing. In this episode I explore a study released in 2021 that reconstructs an ancient Siberian ecosystem from 50,000 years ago to the present. The ability to answer long held questions from a handful of dirt is quite the feat. Studies mentioned in the episode: * Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from...

Recently Dan Carlin, of the Hardcore History podcast, released an episode exploring prehistory. I found a history guy’s perspective on prehistory fascinating. There were many points I agreed with and some I didn’t. I thought it would be worthwhile to explore some of the points Dan made and add a little anthropological depth to the discussion. References in Order of Appearance * Growth, Development...

While researching for a separate project I was confronted with the variation of life histories across the hominin lineage. This variation is quite fascinating as it makes one wonder which of these are requisite to being a "modern human" and how did this variation affect the perceptions and experiences of these species? Studies mentioned in the episode: Schwartz - 2012 - Growth, Development, and Li...

Humans seek to understand the world around them by using narrative and story as explanatory tools. In this episode I explore how narrative often oversimplifies the past. Using three examples; hominin species length, genetic admixture between modern humans and an archaic human species, and the group history of determined from one Neanderthal skeleton; I explore the how considering time in addition...