Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Biological Anthropology @bioanth.bsky.social · Jul 5

Professor Bernard Wood discusses Homo and Paranthropus evolution, the Sahelanthropus femur, the taxonomy of H. naledi and H. floresiensis, and the importance of fossil access and data sharing in human origins research:

Bernard Wood | Hominin Taxonomy, Paranthropus Evolution, and Interpreting the Fossil Record

YouTube video by Our Primate Past

youtu.be

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Reposted

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Jul 7

Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales

Climate and ecosystem dynamics vary across timescales, but research into climate-driven vegetation dynamics usually focuses on singular timescales. We developed a spectral analysis–based approach that...

www.science.org

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Jul 2

15 days to go!
Proud to keep advancing research + training #OldupaiGorge

🙏
University of Dodoma
+
University of Calgary

Team's fired up,
Some already in-country,
others landing soon:

Abel Shikoni
Maria Soto
@aloycem.bsky.social
Raquel Hernando
AbdallahMohamed
StephenMagohe
Ayoola Oladele

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Jun 10

Starch is biodegradable, so why do we assume it survives for millennia? Our new study shows rapid microbial decay, even in dry soils. Time for archaeology to rethink what “ancient” starch really means.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

HOUSE OF CARDS? A Call for Paradigm Shift in Archaeological Starch… | Julio Mercader Florín

HOUSE OF CARDS? A Call for Paradigm Shift in Archaeological Starch Research Could decades of ancient starch research be built on a house of cards? Archaeologists have long recovered microscopic sta...

www.linkedin.com

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · May 20

Joint research at Oldupai Gorge unites palaeoanthropology with Masai-led stewardship.

A new MOU formalizes co-design in science, education, tourism and heritage. A model for collaborative futures.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Collaborative Research and Joint Management at Oldupai Gorge: A… | Julio Mercader Florín

Collaborative Research and Joint Management at Oldupai Gorge: A long-term partnership at Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania between palaeoanthropologists and the Maasai Advisory Council demonstrates how co...

www.linkedin.com

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Apr 24

Excited to see the University of Dodoma
leading research at Oldupai Gorge
(Tanzania),
collaborating globally
to explore the origins of humanity
#UNESCO
#WorldHeritageSite

Cheers to a new chapter of discovery 🎉
@udomofficial
#HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology

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Reposted

Michael Petraglia @mdpetraglia.bsky.social · Apr 9

Paper alert, @nature.com. Our study reveals 8 million years of #GreenArabia. We document environmental variability - ranging over the entire course of human evolution. Arabia is a key bridge at the cross-roads of continents. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Apr 4

Big thanks to
University of Dodoma
and
University of Calgary
for backing our project and permit
to uncover early human life
at the cradle of humankind
in Eastern Africa

#OldupaiGorge

Stay tuned for discoveries ahead!
#Paleoanthropology
#HumanEvolution

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Mar 31

Aloyce Mwambwiga defended his doctoral thesis today!

He is a scholar I respect for his consistency and integrity, even as we navigated the most extreme challenges

There’s now a new phytolith lab in Tanzania, equipped.
He will be directing it, for the science to be practiced locally

Cheers!!

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Reposted

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Mar 25

Direct effects of mountain uplift and topography on biodiversity | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Direct effects of mountain uplift and topography on biodiversity

Biodiversity hotspots in Earth’s mountain ranges suggest a strong connection between topographic development and biological processes. However, it remains unclear whether high biodiversity in mountain...

www.science.org

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Reposted

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Mar 24

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Nasa rover discovers largest organic compounds yet found on Mars

Presence of long-chain alkanes in rock raises new questions about possible existence of life billions of years ago

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Mar 18

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans - Nature Genetics

The cobraa model extends the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent to identify structured population history by examination of the model transition matrix. Applied to human polymorphism data, cob...

www.nature.com

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Reposted

Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo @whiterabbit36.bsky.social · Mar 12

Our new paper 🥲 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The earliest human face of Western Europe - Nature

A Homo aff. erectus individual dated to 1.4 million to 1.1 million years ago found at Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) does not display the modern-human-like aspect of Homo antecess...

www.nature.com

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Reposted

Matthew Skinner @matthewskinnerphd.bsky.social · Feb 13

The Tai Chimpanzee Project is making available microCT scans from their collections on human-fossil-record.org. All proceeds are used to support their mission of conservation and non-invasive research in Tai National Park (taichimpproject.org).

The Human Fossil Record: A Digital Resource for Research and Education

human-fossil-record.org

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Reposted

Nicole Boivin @nicoleboivin.bsky.social · Feb 6

Another fascinating study on the broader knock-on effects of megafaunal extinctions

Zoognosis with Joy! @zoognosisjoy.bsky.social · Feb 5

Megafauna disperse pathogens and ectoparasites. The End Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions led to an 85% reduction of pathogen dispersal, causing surviving species to become immunonaieve. This led to the rise of zoonotic disease and epizootics 🧪
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Figure 3 from Doughty (2020). (A) Hypothetical example of a South American Late Pleistocene animal assemblage and their home ranges. The animals host tick-borne and fecal pathogens with homogenous colors because the large home range of the megafauna keeps them interacting. Numbers indicates the mean global dispersal distance (Table 1) for ectoparasites and fecal pathogens. (B) Hypothetical early to middle Holocene animal assemblage without the extinct megafauna, thus removing the regular interaction between tick and fecal pathogens increasing immuno-naivety for all species. Colors of tick-borne and fecal pathogens begin to diverge representing a hypothetical speciation because without the now extinct megafauna there is less interaction between pathogens. (C) Hypothetical late Holocene animal assemblage with humans and their domestic animals picking up the now diverged (many colored) pathogens which could cause EIDs in people and domestic animals. This panel has no numbers because we did not calculate Anthropocene pathogen dispersal.

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Reposted

Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · Feb 2

Unfortunately few academics realise the power they have to change the system, when they reach the points where they can begin to bear pressure.

The UKRI has shifted focus from individuals to academic teams in the next Research Assessment Exercise.

Here is my take docs.google.com/presentation...

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Reposted

David Wright @davidkwright.bsky.social · Jan 30

Paper alert! We use polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (🔥) biomarkers at staggered scales relative to Palaeolithic archaeological sites to argue for deep antiquity (600 to 400 ka) to land management practices in 🇹🇯 Central Asia. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biomarker evidence on early Paleolithic human-environment interactions from loess records in Tajikistan, Central Asia

The loess-paleosol sequences of Khovaling, southern Tajikistan preserve signatures of prehistoric human settlement during the Early Paleolithic. Archa…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted

Martin Hodson @martinjhodson.bsky.social · Jan 24

The third of our series of papers on this topic, in which I had a minor part: 🧪 🏺 "Auto-fluorescent #phytoliths : can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts?" 𝑉𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑦. #plantscience
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Auto-fluorescent phytoliths: can we detect past fires in tropical and subtropical contexts? - Vegetation History and Archaeobotany

To understand human practices and landscape evolution it is crucial to be able to trace evidence of past fires, notably in tropical environments. In such anthromes, phytoliths are generally well prese...

link.springer.com

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Prof. Rhiannon Stevens @nannonstevens.bsky.social · Jan 22

Just starting our fieldwork at Pegwell bay for Palaeo-Thaw project. Sampling the Late Pleistocene Loess sequence

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Reposted

Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · Jan 18

Potentially significant

1st independent replication of sequenced dinosaur 🦕 collagen. 41 peptides in Edmontosaurus bone, identical sequences in Brachylophosaurus. Minimal PTMs suggest exceptional preservation #teammassspec #ZooMS.

Now to explore the data...

Data on PRIDE PXD048810 (but not yet)

Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone

Reports of proteins in fossilized bones have been a subject of controversy in the scientific literature because it is assumed that fossilization results in the destruction of all organic components. I...

pubs.acs.org

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Jan 16

Dear Colette, it was fantastic to work with you, thank you so much!

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Jan 16

Thank you Mr Zimmer for your write up! Cheers

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Jan 16

And in news from one million years ago: extinct humans were a lot tougher than traditionally thought, thriving in a harsh desert. Here's my story [gift link] nyti.ms/3CbTjqI

Extinct Human Species Lived in a Brutal Desert, Study Finds (Gift Article)

A million years ago, a species known as Homo erectus most likely survived in an arid desert with no trees.

nyti.ms

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profmercader.bsky.social @profmercader.bsky.social · Jan 16

Groundbreaking research
on Homo erectus
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

#OldupaiGorge
BED III:

Using sedimentology, geochemistry, Ar/Ar dating, biome simulations, fire history, paleobotany, fauna, and lithics, we reveal how hominins navigated extreme environments in northern Tanzania 1 Ma

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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Jan 15

Space exploration has expanded the realm of geoscience to the outermost Solar System. A new generation of missions shines the way www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Outer planet frontier of geoscience - Nature Geoscience

Space exploration has expanded the realm of geoscience to the outermost Solar System. A new generation of missions shines the way.

www.nature.com

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Reposted

Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · Jan 14

🏺 Massive new isotope database drops! NARIA (North American Repository for Archaeological Isotopes) just launched with 28k+ measurements spanning 12,000 years of human history across North America 🗺️

pandoradata.earth/organization...

NARIA - Communities - Pandora

pandoradata.earth

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