Molecular Evidence for a Pongid Clade and New World Primate Behaviors
Science China Life Sciences 55 (2012): 709–25 doi:10.1007/s11427-012-4350-7 Primate phylogeny: Molecular evidence for a pongid clade excluding humans and a prosimian clade containing tarsiers Huang, Shi Interpretations of molecular data by the modern evolution theory are often sharply inconsistent with paleontological results. This…
Observing the Improbable: Capuchin Monkeys Demonstrate Use of Probability Inference
Animal Cognition (2016). doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1043-9 Intuitive probabilistic inference in capuchin monkeys Tecwyn, Emma C., Stephanie Denison, Emily J. E. Messer, and Daphna Buchsbaum The ability to reason about probabilities has ecological relevance for many species. Recent research has shown that both preverbal infants and non-human great apes can make predictions…
New World Monkeys Produce Hominin-Grade Lithic Tools
Nature 539 (2016): 85-88 doi:10.1038/nature20112 Wild monkeys flake stone tools Proffitt, Tomos, Lydia V. Luncz, Tiago Falótico, Eduardo B. Ottoni, Ignacio de la Torre, and Michael Haslam Our understanding of the emergence of technology shapes how we view the origins of…
Primate Stone Tools: Evidence from South America
One of the contributions of this weblog to our evolutionary thinking is the call for a more holistic, bi-hemispheric approach to hominid and human origins and, consequently, an increased appreciation of New World monkey behaviors as a surprisingly close parallel…
Human Hand Proportions Are More Primitive Than Chimp Hand Proportions
Nature Communications 6, no. 7717 (2015) doi:10.1038/ncomms8717 The Evolution of Human and Ape Hand Proportions Almecija, Sergio, Jeroen B. Smaers, and William L. Jungers. Human hands are distinguished from apes by possessing longer thumbs relative to fingers. However, this simple…
Brain Complexity vs. Brain Size in Primate Evolution
Nature Communications 6 (2015), no. 7580 doi:10.1038/ncomms8580 Cerebral complexity preceded enlarged brain size and reduced olfactory bulbs in Old World monkeys Gonzalez, Lauren A., Brenda R. Benefit, Monte L. McCrossin, and Fred Spoor. Analysis of the only complete early cercopithecoid…
The Role of Cooperative Breeding in Modern Human Evolution
Journal of Human Evolution 63 (2012): 52-63 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.03.009, Allomaternal care, life history and brain size evolution in mammals Isler, Karin, and Carel P. van Schaik. Humans stand out among the apes by having both an extremely large brain and a…
Howler Monkeys, Neandertals, Pygmies, Khoisans and More: Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2012
As I write, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) is conducting its annual meetings in Dublin, Ireland. Dienekes has many useful pullouts from the available abstracts. I will make short comments on a few of them, plus bring in…
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