Deming Yang
@demingyang.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Anatomy at Midwestern University. Hominin evolution, eastern Africa, faunal change, teeth, stable isotopes, and Bayesian models. Practical microbiologist, culinary enthusiast, photographer
Pinned
Deming Yang
@demingyang.bsky.social
· Dec 20
The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya
Cainochoerus is an extinct suid (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) taxon of very small size, found in multiple late Neogene sites in southern and eastern Africa. Despite its wide geographic distribution and ...
doi.org
Mini pig cuteness 🚨: we found fossils of a mini pig (Cainochoerus) in the southern Kenyan Rift, near Narok, the first reporting of Cainochoerus at the site (Lemudong’o). Link to the article @jvertpaleo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/0272...
It was great working with folks at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont on this communication article for our recent paper on Cainochoerus. Mini-pig with a big story: bit.ly/4rMinJb. Original article free to access at doi.org/10.1080/0272...
Mini-pig with a big story: A Dog-Sized Pig roamed Ancient Kenya
The extinct pig Cainochoerus inhabited eastern Africa during the late Miocene, around 6 million years ago and was remarkably small compared to modern African pigs. Now, a team of paleontologists reports the discovery of rare fossil jaws and teeth from the Lemudong’o site in the southern Kenyan Rift,...
bit.ly
February 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
It was great working with folks at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont on this communication article for our recent paper on Cainochoerus. Mini-pig with a big story: bit.ly/4rMinJb. Original article free to access at doi.org/10.1080/0272...
Reposted by Deming Yang
Meet our fall 2025 research grant recipients! Thanks to our donors, we awarded grants to 30 scientists exploring fundamental questions about human origins, including 17 PhD candidates at the start of their careers.
Introducing the fall 2025 Leakey Foundation research grant recipients
Meet the 30 scientists who received Fall 2025 research grants from The Leakey Foundation to study human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival.
leakeyfoundation.org
February 9, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Meet our fall 2025 research grant recipients! Thanks to our donors, we awarded grants to 30 scientists exploring fundamental questions about human origins, including 17 PhD candidates at the start of their careers.
Reposted by Deming Yang
I am really excited to share news of this new jaw...until now Paranthropus had been conspicuously absent from the Afar.
Fieldwork at Mille-Logya is not easy, and this fossil is the result of years of very hard work (and a lot of days of dry screening by our team)!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fieldwork at Mille-Logya is not easy, and this fossil is the result of years of very hard work (and a lot of days of dry screening by our team)!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Afar fossil shows broad distribution and versatility of Paranthropus - Nature
With its attribution to Paranthropus, a 2.6-million-year-old partial mandible expands the range of the genus into the Afar region of Ethiopia and adds to our understanding of hominin evolution in east...
www.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:14 PM
I am really excited to share news of this new jaw...until now Paranthropus had been conspicuously absent from the Afar.
Fieldwork at Mille-Logya is not easy, and this fossil is the result of years of very hard work (and a lot of days of dry screening by our team)!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fieldwork at Mille-Logya is not easy, and this fossil is the result of years of very hard work (and a lot of days of dry screening by our team)!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Deming Yang
The MWU Anatomy Department was featured in the 2026 Art Walk! Can you identify the department members by their caricature?
January 21, 2026 at 12:18 AM
The MWU Anatomy Department was featured in the 2026 Art Walk! Can you identify the department members by their caricature?
Reposted by Deming Yang
“If you dressed up a Homo habilis individual in clothes and you saw her walking in the distance, would you do a double take? … This study shows us that the answer is YES!” https://scim.ag/4aSsPJT
The earliest Homo species did not look human, partial skeleton shows
Homo habilis, 2 million years old, was known mainly from teeth and jaw bones
scim.ag
January 15, 2026 at 2:30 PM
“If you dressed up a Homo habilis individual in clothes and you saw her walking in the distance, would you do a double take? … This study shows us that the answer is YES!” https://scim.ag/4aSsPJT
Reposted by Deming Yang
A newly published H. habilis skeleton is just the fourth post-cranial skeleton ever found from the species. 🏺🧪
Most complete Homo habilis skeleton ever found dates to more than 2 million years ago and retains 'Lucy'-like features
Scientists have revealed the most complete skeleton yet of our 2 million-year-old ancestor Homo habilis.
www.livescience.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:28 PM
A newly published H. habilis skeleton is just the fourth post-cranial skeleton ever found from the species. 🏺🧪
Reposted by Deming Yang
Excellent write-up in Science by Ann Gibbons of the exciting new Ileret Homo material: ]
www.science.org/content/arti...
Check out the original AR article by Frederick Grine and colleagues here:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Check out the original AR article by Frederick Grine and colleagues here:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
January 13, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Excellent write-up in Science by Ann Gibbons of the exciting new Ileret Homo material: ]
www.science.org/content/arti...
Check out the original AR article by Frederick Grine and colleagues here:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Check out the original AR article by Frederick Grine and colleagues here:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Proud to be part of this study! Excellent team work from @stonybrooku.bsky.social @mwuanatomy.bsky.social @unm.edu and other institutions.
KNM-ER 64061, most complete Homo habilis skeleton yet (Koobi Fora) shows primitive limb proportions: long forearms, thick cortices, small body mass & ~160 cm stature. Upper limbs like early Homo, but proportions differ from H. erectus
Grine et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Grine et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
January 13, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Proud to be part of this study! Excellent team work from @stonybrooku.bsky.social @mwuanatomy.bsky.social @unm.edu and other institutions.
Mini pig cuteness 🚨: we found fossils of a mini pig (Cainochoerus) in the southern Kenyan Rift, near Narok, the first reporting of Cainochoerus at the site (Lemudong’o). Link to the article @jvertpaleo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/0272...
The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya
Cainochoerus is an extinct suid (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) taxon of very small size, found in multiple late Neogene sites in southern and eastern Africa. Despite its wide geographic distribution and ...
doi.org
December 20, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Mini pig cuteness 🚨: we found fossils of a mini pig (Cainochoerus) in the southern Kenyan Rift, near Narok, the first reporting of Cainochoerus at the site (Lemudong’o). Link to the article @jvertpaleo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/0272...
Reposted by Deming Yang
🚨New Pub!🚨The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya🐷🇰🇪by Yang et al.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya
Cainochoerus is an extinct suid (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) taxon of very small size, found in multiple late Neogene sites in southern and eastern Africa. Despite its wide geographic distribution and ...
www.tandfonline.com
December 20, 2025 at 3:48 AM
🚨New Pub!🚨The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya🐷🇰🇪by Yang et al.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Deming Yang
Flowstones from the Cradle of Humankind in #SouthAfrica reveal no evidence of intrusion.
New work, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, counters arguments that the flowstones are uniform & intrusive, adding support for their role in dating fossils.
🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...
New work, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, counters arguments that the flowstones are uniform & intrusive, adding support for their role in dating fossils.
🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...
November 12, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Flowstones from the Cradle of Humankind in #SouthAfrica reveal no evidence of intrusion.
New work, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, counters arguments that the flowstones are uniform & intrusive, adding support for their role in dating fossils.
🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...
New work, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, counters arguments that the flowstones are uniform & intrusive, adding support for their role in dating fossils.
🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...
Reposted by Deming Yang
Hey folks out there who ❤️ to #CTscan things and ❤️ museums! the @amnh.org is hiring a Laboratory Manager for their Microscopy and Imaging Facility, a.k.a. the CT lab 🧪
careers.amnh.org/postings/4550
careers.amnh.org/postings/4550
Laboratory Manager
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions, and has as its mission to discover, interpret and disseminate information about human cult...
careers.amnh.org
August 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Hey folks out there who ❤️ to #CTscan things and ❤️ museums! the @amnh.org is hiring a Laboratory Manager for their Microscopy and Imaging Facility, a.k.a. the CT lab 🧪
careers.amnh.org/postings/4550
careers.amnh.org/postings/4550
Reposted by Deming Yang
New Publication Alert!
Dr. Jieun Kim, Dr. Erin Leslie, and Dr. Hadiah Kedwaii (DO, MWU alumnus) have a new paper out in Forensic Science International.
"Breaking the 50+ Barrier: Cortical Speed of Sound via Quantitative Ultrasound as a New Age-at-death Estimator in Older Adults"
Dr. Jieun Kim, Dr. Erin Leslie, and Dr. Hadiah Kedwaii (DO, MWU alumnus) have a new paper out in Forensic Science International.
"Breaking the 50+ Barrier: Cortical Speed of Sound via Quantitative Ultrasound as a New Age-at-death Estimator in Older Adults"
August 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
New Publication Alert!
Dr. Jieun Kim, Dr. Erin Leslie, and Dr. Hadiah Kedwaii (DO, MWU alumnus) have a new paper out in Forensic Science International.
"Breaking the 50+ Barrier: Cortical Speed of Sound via Quantitative Ultrasound as a New Age-at-death Estimator in Older Adults"
Dr. Jieun Kim, Dr. Erin Leslie, and Dr. Hadiah Kedwaii (DO, MWU alumnus) have a new paper out in Forensic Science International.
"Breaking the 50+ Barrier: Cortical Speed of Sound via Quantitative Ultrasound as a New Age-at-death Estimator in Older Adults"
Reposted by Deming Yang
The MWU Anatomy Department in Downers Grove welcomes our newest faculty member, Dr. Deming Yang! Dr. Yang earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Stony Brook University and completed postdoctoral research fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History.
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August 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
The MWU Anatomy Department in Downers Grove welcomes our newest faculty member, Dr. Deming Yang! Dr. Yang earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Stony Brook University and completed postdoctoral research fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History.
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Reposted by Deming Yang
A couple photos from the 2025 CGS Picnic, where the Anatomy Department retained our BEAST trophy for another year, thanks to Tyler Speer (CCOM '28) and Dr. Deming Yang!
August 6, 2025 at 8:45 PM
A couple photos from the 2025 CGS Picnic, where the Anatomy Department retained our BEAST trophy for another year, thanks to Tyler Speer (CCOM '28) and Dr. Deming Yang!
Reposted by Deming Yang
AI in the DOE report? This ref (p29) is fake:
Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7
www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7
www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
RealClimate: The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
RealClimate: The EPA, along with the "Climate Working Group" (CWG) of usual suspects (plus Judith Curry and Ross McKitrick) at DOE, have just put out a document for public comment their attempt to res...
www.realclimate.org
August 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM
AI in the DOE report? This ref (p29) is fake:
Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7
www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7
www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
Reposted by Deming Yang
August 1, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Deming Yang
Anthropology collections manager job at the AMNH @amnh.org in New York! Additional info: A PhD (or PhD candidacy) is required to apply. Prior training in collections management and databases is essential. This is not a research position. Salary range $93-98k/year. careers.amnh.org/postings/4509
Curatorial Associate
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific and cultural institutions, and has as its mission to discover, interpret and disseminate information about human cult...
careers.amnh.org
July 17, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Anthropology collections manager job at the AMNH @amnh.org in New York! Additional info: A PhD (or PhD candidacy) is required to apply. Prior training in collections management and databases is essential. This is not a research position. Salary range $93-98k/year. careers.amnh.org/postings/4509
Reposted by Deming Yang
Waking up excited hearing that Antarctica is mentioned in international news.
Reading the news: “Antarctica and sub Antarctic islands are the safest place for humans to flee to during WW3”.
Reading the news: “Antarctica and sub Antarctic islands are the safest place for humans to flee to during WW3”.
June 22, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Waking up excited hearing that Antarctica is mentioned in international news.
Reading the news: “Antarctica and sub Antarctic islands are the safest place for humans to flee to during WW3”.
Reading the news: “Antarctica and sub Antarctic islands are the safest place for humans to flee to during WW3”.
Reposted by Deming Yang
Most staple food crops are expected to experience substantial production losses due to climate change, even when mitigation measures to limit the impact of climate change are considered, according to a study in Nature. The study finds that only rice might avoid substantial losses. 🧪
Impacts of climate change on global agriculture accounting for adaptation - Nature
Analysis of data on six stable crops, capturing two-thirds of global crop calories, allows estimation of agricultural impacts and the potential of global producer adaptations to reduce output losses owing to climate change.
go.nature.com
June 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Most staple food crops are expected to experience substantial production losses due to climate change, even when mitigation measures to limit the impact of climate change are considered, according to a study in Nature. The study finds that only rice might avoid substantial losses. 🧪
Reposted by Deming Yang
A federal judge on Monday declared the Trump administration’s move to cut hundreds of grants issued by the National Institutes of Health illegal, accusing the government of discrimination against minorities and L.G.B.T.Q. individuals. nyti.ms/4jSIjOG
Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Are Illegal, Federal Judge Rules
The judge accused the Trump administration of discriminating against minorities and L.G.B.T.Q. people and ordered the government to restore much of the funding.
nyti.ms
June 16, 2025 at 9:02 PM
A federal judge on Monday declared the Trump administration’s move to cut hundreds of grants issued by the National Institutes of Health illegal, accusing the government of discrimination against minorities and L.G.B.T.Q. individuals. nyti.ms/4jSIjOG
Reposted by Deming Yang
So who are the winners? Very clearly AI takes the cake.
$22M more would be added to AI programs in GEO (>1100% incr) [who really asked for this?]
In contrast, the Global Change cross-cutting program would drop from $335M to $10M (-97%). OPP would drop from $161M to $12M (-93%).
$22M more would be added to AI programs in GEO (>1100% incr) [who really asked for this?]
In contrast, the Global Change cross-cutting program would drop from $335M to $10M (-97%). OPP would drop from $161M to $12M (-93%).
June 2, 2025 at 2:18 PM
So who are the winners? Very clearly AI takes the cake.
$22M more would be added to AI programs in GEO (>1100% incr) [who really asked for this?]
In contrast, the Global Change cross-cutting program would drop from $335M to $10M (-97%). OPP would drop from $161M to $12M (-93%).
$22M more would be added to AI programs in GEO (>1100% incr) [who really asked for this?]
In contrast, the Global Change cross-cutting program would drop from $335M to $10M (-97%). OPP would drop from $161M to $12M (-93%).
Reposted by Deming Yang
Argh. The P4CLIMATE program solicitation will be archived (the program website itself hasn't been updated) www.nsf.gov/geo/updates/...
June 2, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Argh. The P4CLIMATE program solicitation will be archived (the program website itself hasn't been updated) www.nsf.gov/geo/updates/...
Reposted by Deming Yang
This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
www.science.org
May 9, 2025 at 3:42 AM
This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
