Analyses of papers about hominins, human origins, anatomy, behavior, and population genetics.
9 commentaries in this topic.
Paper: Statistical evidence for common ancestry: Application to primates
The 2016 paper by David Baum et al., “Statistical evidence for common ancestry: Application to primates,” is rightly considered a landmark. It represents the gold standard of quantitative evidence for Darwinian…
Paper: Perimortem fractures in Lucy suggest mortality from fall out of tall tree
The 2016 paper in Nature , "Perimortem fractures in Lucy suggest mortality from fall out of a tall tree," presents a detailed forensic analysis of the famous Australopithecus afarensis fossil, "Lucy." The authors, led…
Paper: A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
The 2010 publication of the draft Neandertal genome was a stunning technical achievement, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the genetics of an "archaic" hominin. The authors concluded that Neandertals contributed…
Paper: Major transitions in human evolution
The Master Framing Strategy: The Final Verdict The 2016 paper by Foley et al. provides a valuable collation of data on a series of fossil forms. The authors correctly observe that the record is complex and cannot be…
Paper: Evidence for reduced BRCA2 functional activity in Homo sapiens after divergence from the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor
A recent paper in Cell Reports by Huang et al. titled, "Evidence for reduced BRCA2 functional activity in Homo sapiens after divergence from the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor," is being presented as a window…
The Paper's Claim vs. The Critical Question The study identifies a human-specific BRCA2 mutation (M2662T) that reduces DNA double-strand break repair efficiency by ~20% compared to the chimpanzee variant. The authors…
Claim vs. Critical Question The authors present KSD-VP-1/1, a 3.6-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis partial skeleton, as evidence for "highly evolved bipedalism" and a key transitional form between arboreal…
Paper: Selection for Decreased BRCA2 Functional Activity in<i>Homo sapiens</i>After Divergence from the Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor
A recent paper in bioRxiv by Jinlong Huang and colleagues, "Selection for Decreased BRCA2 Functional Activity in Homo sapiens ," presents a fascinating piece of genetic investigation. The authors report that modern…
Introduction: The Paper's Claim vs. The Critical Question The study "Using machine learning to classify extant apes and interpret the dental morphology of the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor" claims that Miocene…