Monthly Archives: February 2014

OsteoMenagerie 7: The Vertebrae

Posted on February 26, 2014 by JB

Word on the street is that the third polar vortex will hit Michigan later this week. After trudging through this year’s record amounts of snowfall, shivering angrily at the bus stop while the temperature experiments with establishing its true seasonal … Continue reading →

Posted in Osteology, OsteoMenagerie, Vertebrae | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Can you teach a wolf brain new tricks? Some thoughts on artificial selection and brain evolution in canids

Posted on February 18, 2014 by JB

A few weeks ago, I attended another Evolution and Human Adaptation lecture. The ultimate reason I went to another talk was  to expand my mind and learn about the evolution of the human brain, though as always the proximate reason I … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Sussing out site taphonomy: Understanding formation processes in the Sonoran Desert

Posted on February 13, 2014 by JB

Last year I got wind of an exciting project that was being undertaken at the University of Michigan. Jason De León, an anthropologist and professor in my department, was looking for a faunal analyst to examine some bones for him. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Humans: Low energy, high payoff

Posted on February 4, 2014 by JB

One of the recurring motifs in any intro-level Human Evolution class is the importance of bipedalism.  I’ve tried to teach this topic in a variety of ways, even going so far as to encourage undergrads to walk like chimpanzees – … Continue reading →

Posted in Biological Anthropology, Evolution | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments