Four Stone Hearth Letters

The Four Stone Hearth is a blog carnival that specializes in anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humankind, throughout all times and places. This discourse focuses primarily on four lines of research:
* socio-cultural anthropology* bio-physical anthropology* archaeology* linguistic anthropology
Each one of these subfields represent a stone in our hearth, a blog carnival aims to publish [...]

Forbidden Archaeology? Some So-Called Out of Place Artifacts

I visit various internet sites each week that range from the scientific to the down right kooky. I must confess that “Kooky” fascinates me. But even on the science sites that have active message boards, there are frequent mentions of so-called “out of place artifacts” (OOPA’s?). Very often, these “artifacts” are used by someone to [...]

Paleoanthropology: Multiregional versus Replacement

The multiregional evolution hypothesis asserts that modern humans are the present manifestation of older species of hominids including Homo neanderthalensis and H. erectus. The replacement hypothesis, however, states that modern humans are a new species and that the older species mentioned above were replaced.
In the latter hypothesis, transition of archaic H. sapiens to modern [...]

Homo floresiensis Update: Not a Hobbit?

"LB1 is not a normal member of a new species, but an abnormal member of our own," or so concludes Dr. Robert B. Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology, department of kinesiology, Penn State.
I’ve previously posted about Homo floresiensis (a.k.a. the Hobbit): New Species or Modern Human? and Stone Tools of [...]

Howler Monkeys Part 4: References and Cited Works

I hope if you read this far in this four part series, that you enjoyed reading about one of the most enigmatic New World monkeys. Below is the list of works cited in the previous three parts, but I’m also going to include a few sources that are Internet accessible for those without quick access [...]

Howler Monkeys Part 2: Dietary Needs and Habits

Howler Photo by princessangel
Milton’s Study on and Island in the Panama Canal
Milton studied two groups of mantled howlers on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal (1980) and discovered that while howlers don’t have to pursue their foods, neither can they use a “sit and wait” strategy. Their preference for seasonal foods presents [...]

Howler Monkeys Part 3: Vocalizations

Howler Photo by JeanKearn
Perhaps the most familiar characteristic of the howler monkey are their vocalizations for which they are named. Howlers, both male and female, use their loud, lion-like roars (Fleagle 1999 p150) to advertise their presence and to warn or intimidate intruders (Kitchen 2004). Vocalizations may also provide auditory cues that reveal fighting ability [...]

Howler Monkeys Part 1: General Characteristics

 Afarensis has been doing his weekly “Know Your Primate” series, so I hope he won’t mind if I toss in my bit on the howler monkey. It was his series that inspired me and reminded me that I had this from a paper I wrote a while back. I’ll post this in two, maybe three, [...]

Gorillas Get Sodium From Tree Bark

I remember my Primate Evolution class and the mention that Gorillas chew bark and spit it out. The hypothesis, according to my professor, was (if I remember correctly) possibly they do this for some nutrient they cannot get elsewhere.
As it turns out, new research has shown that decayed wood provides over 95% of the [...]

Stone Tools of a new Hominid Species?

On 5/23/06, I blogged about Homo floresiensis: New Species or Modern Human? and I mentioned the debate over whether H. floresiensis represents a new species of hominid or just a pathologically affected modern human. These are the two primary dogs in the hunt, but there are others.
Susan Larson of Stoney Brook University gave a presentation [...]