Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5h

Sts 17 is one of the less well known skulls from Sterkfontein, South Africa, attributed by most scientists to Australopithecus africanus. Some data suggests that the date of this and other Member 4 fossils may be older than 3.4 million years, but not all accept such an ancient date.

#inktober

Line drawing of a skull portion of Australopithecus viewed from the left side

5

Reposted by John Hawks

Prachee Avasthi @pracheeac.bsky.social · 1d

Some scientists aren’t waiting for journals to catch up. They’re showing us what’s next.

The Beyond the Journal awards honor those breaking the mold in how science is shared.

More details: pracheeac.substack.com/p/off-roadin...

Nominate or self-nominate here: www.experiment.foundation/beyond

12 24

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 1d

The skull denoted as Mladeč 1 was excavated from the Mladečské Caves by Josef Szombathy in 1881. Representing a person who lived around 35,000 years ago, it is one of the few human remains from the caves to survive the fire of the Mikulov Castle at the end of the Second World War. #inktober

Line drawing of skull viewed from the left side, with large fragmented area missing including parts of temporal, parietal, and frontal bones.

1 2 21

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 1d

The body tells stories. People’s health, their place in the natural scheme of things, their relation to other individuals, all make a difference in our bodies and bones. I’m always fascinated to go back in history to see how the ancients framed these connections.

www.johnhawks.net/p/roots-of-a...

The ancient Egyptian legacy of anatomical science

The early foundations of human anatomy were built from traditions of medicine, embalming, and animal sacrifice.

www.johnhawks.net

1 1 3

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 2d

The Neanderthal skull from La Roche à Pierrot, France, known as Saint-Césaire 1. This belongs to a partial skeleton discovered during excavations in 1979, representing an individual that lived between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago. #inktober

Lie drawing of a partial skull with right half mostly missing

5 27

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 2d

This morning I’ll be sharing stories about the earliest possible hominins with my students. There are more species of these than most people have heard about, including a second species of Orrorin, Orrorin praegens, which got no news coverage at all.

www.johnhawks.net/p/guide-to-s...

Guide to Sahelanthropus, Orrorin and Ardipithecus

These fossil species between 8 million and 4.4 million years old include some of the earliest members of the hominin lineage.

www.johnhawks.net

1 1 18

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 3d

This skull of an early human was found near the Ethiopian village of Herto in 1997, and today is thought to be around 200,000 years old. With two cutmarks on its vault, Tim White and collaborators have suggested that some mortuary treatment may have accompanied this individual's death. #inktober

A line drawing of a fossil human skull with some obvious fragmentation viewed from the right side

20

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 3d

Recipe email from @nytimes.com this morning led with a “beans, greens, and grain” dish, which honestly looks very much like the food mixture preserved in charcoal from Shanidar Neanderthals, some 70,000 years old. Classic dishes indeed!

www.johnhawks.net/p/a-neandert...

A Neandertal recipe with lentils and grain

Looking at a fascinating new study that finds mixtures of different plants within ancient morsels of charred foods.

www.johnhawks.net

1 5 12

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 4d

Key line of the paper: “The alternative hypothesis, that the assemblage comprises a single species, requires substantial paradigm shifts in our definition of Homo.”

Paradigm shifts incoming!

1 4

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 4d

The D2282 partial cranium from Dmanisi, Georgia, found in 1999, is attributed to Homo erectus and is approximately 1.77 million years old. This specimen, now associated with the D211 mandible, is one of five individuals known from the site, the earliest fossil hominins outside of Africa. #inktober

Line drawing of fossil skull with missing nasal area and some distortion to frontal bone, seen from front

1 3 39

Reposted by John Hawks

Scott Solomon, PhD @scottsolomon.bsky.social · 8d

COVER REVEAL! I am SO excited to share the cover for my new book, Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds! Thanks to the team at @mitpress.bsky.social for the stunning design! It's officially out Feb 17 but available now for pre-order!

1 3 15

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 4d

“America’s history shows that controlling TB is like a staircase: social change, then medicine, then relentless management to keep the gains from slipping away.”

healthchecksonhistory.substack.com/p/this-is-ho...

This is how tuberculosis ends

TB won't fall to miracle cures. It falls when systems choose to act. Six countries show the blueprint- now the question is whether the rest will follow.

healthchecksonhistory.substack.com

4 16

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 4d

Isernia la Pineta, Italy, preserves small areas of landscape from four periods between 570,000 and 700,000 years ago. A deciduous incisor may come from a child of the toolmakers, who cracked the bones of bison, elephant, and hippo.

Photo: Rosalia Gallotti and Carlo Peretto

Photo showing archaeological excavation surface with boardwalk surrounding beneath a structure with glass walls

1 9

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5d

Known as the Bodo skull, this fossil from the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia is an individual who lived around 600,000 years ago. The species name of this archaic human has fluctuated greatly since its discovery in 1976 by Alemayhew Asfaw, most recently Homo bodoensis. #inktober

Line drawing of fossil skull viewed from the left

1 24

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5d

Nice! Great to learn more

1

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5d

Great to be a guest on @scifri.bsky.social today on this really intriguing paper and the challenges it has posed to conventional ways of thinking about human origins.

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 5d

Drama in the field of human origins! Some anthropologists are raising an eyebrow at a new study that claims our species could have emerged at least half a million years earlier than we thought.

Anthropologists Have A Bone To Pick With New Skull Finding

A reconstruction of an ancient skull suggests that humans could have evolved half a million years earlier than thought. Not so fast, some say.

buff.ly

2 9 50

Reposted by John Hawks

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 5d

Drama in the field of human origins! Some anthropologists are raising an eyebrow at a new study that claims our species could have emerged at least half a million years earlier than we thought.

Anthropologists Have A Bone To Pick With New Skull Finding

A reconstruction of an ancient skull suggests that humans could have evolved half a million years earlier than thought. Not so fast, some say.

buff.ly

1 13 71

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 6d

A skull of Aegyptopithecus zeuxis from the Fayum formation, Egypt. This was a small, tree-dwelling primate that lived 30 million years ago, an early catarrhine related to the common ancestors of cercopithecoid monkeys, apes, and humans. #inktober

A black and white line drawing of a skull of a small primate viewed from the front

2 30

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 6d

The genetics of South Asia are coming into focus, helping reveal how fast the avalanche of modern humans got going. This region has more Neanderthal genetic variation than any other, and a unique component of Denisovan ancestry never seen before.

www.johnhawks.net/p/deep-histo...

Deep history from the genomes of India

People carrying Neanderthal mixture entered the subcontinent after 50,000 years ago, meeting Denisovans

www.johnhawks.net

1 8 30

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 7d

The most complete of the fossil human crania from Caune d’Arago, near Tautavel, France, is designated as Arago XXI. This individual is thought to have lived around 450,000 years ago and was part of an early population of Neanderthals. #inktober

A drawing of a fossil skull looking toward the face.

1 5 43

Reposted by John Hawks

Erin 🦇🎃EEK🎃🦇 Kane @dianamonkey.bsky.social · 7d

In 2016, Jane Goodall spoke at the International Primatological Society meetings. She closed her talk asking everyone to thank the primates we studied not with applause, but with their calls. And so a room full of Very Eminent Primatologists made delighted monkey noises to Jane Goodall. ⚱️🐒🧪🌍

5 49 160

Reposted by John Hawks

Patrick Randolph-Quinney @kabweprq.bsky.social · 7d

Beautifully said. Her passing marks the loss of another giant in the field who broke down the barrier between "sapiens" "humans" and "primates" - that some of our more sapient-obsessed palaeoanthropologists had constructed.

2 6

Reposted by John Hawks

Spencer Wells @spwells.bsky.social · 7d

Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 🙊 www.bbc.com/news/live/c9...

Jane Goodall, chimpanzee expert and animal rights campaigner, dies age 91 - follow live

The primatologist was a

www.bbc.com

2 20

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 7d

I find that often students have trouble imagining the scale of some excavations of prehistoric sites, especially before the 1960s. Some involved immense movements of rock and sediment, with different documentation standards from today's work.

Historic photo of 1930s-era work at Zhoukoudian, China.

Historic black and white photo showing around a dozen archaeological workers digging in a very large hillside

1 2 8

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 8d

Niah Caves, Malaysia. In the west entrance archaeologists uncovered Neolithic burials and a partial skull dating to between 45,000 and 37,000 years ago—one of the earliest known modern human skeletal remains in the region.

Photo: Starlightchild (Wikipedia)

A cave opening viewed from the inside with trailing vines and green landscape outside

9 59