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Tag: evolution

Biases of the fossil record

Posted October 1, 2022 by Allison Nelson

[Mounted statue of a Triceratops fossil at a museum. People can be seen in the background looking at a wall of fossils. ]

As scientists, we strive to reduce error and bias as much as possible. But as a paleontologist, I need to be aware of the biases I can’t reduce. The fossil record is inherently biased. Not everything that dies becomes a fossil. Not every fossil has been found. Not every fossil stays intact well enough to study. These biases in the fossil record come in many forms and are studied under the branch of paleontology known as taphonomy…

Grey wolves can be black? Recent trail camera footage shows a pack of black wolves in Minnesota

Posted May 7, 2022 by Allison Nelson

[A black wolf stands in snow, facing left. It is looking at the camera. There is snow on its muzzle and back leg.]

Recently, a trail camera in northern Minnesota caught video of a pack of all-black wolves. The video has been viewed more than 950,000 times since it was uploaded in late December 2021. A greyish-brown wolf crosses the meadow in the shot, followed by three all-black wolves. People are fascinated. So, what affects animal coloration? And why are these wolves black?

The new beast in our backyards

Posted February 19, 2022 by Allison Nelson

[Reddish brown coywolf in the snow. It has partially turned to face the camera.]

Watch out, Hoosiers! There’s a new predator afoot. Thirty to forty-five pounds, hungry, mobile, and travelling up to 15 miles per day — coywolves are Indiana’s newest predators! A quick note on terms — since the early 1900’s, the term ‘coywolf’ has described a hybrid animal from a wolf and a coyote. The mid-2000’s saw the rise of wolf-coyote-dog hybrids across North America. These creatures are widely called ‘coywolves.’ All uses of ‘coywolf’ or ‘coywolves’ in this article refer to the latter. Scientists are still somewhat divided on whether these triple-hybrids are a separate species…

The tale of anthropology’s sweetheart: Lucy

Posted December 5, 2020 by Guest Contributor

[An artist’s rendering of two Australopithecus afarensis. They are both standing upright and are partially covered in black hair all over their bodies. One is grabbing a low tree branch.]

The skeleton known as Lucy is arguably the most recognizable specimen of the modern human lineage. Anthropologists have used her remains to learn about the behavior and anatomy of Australopithecus afarensis, a member of the modern human lineage, as well as evolution in general. While she is one of the most famous and recognizable skeletons to the general public, she is also beloved in the field of anthropology.

An Archaeological Introduction to Coding in Python

Posted January 18, 2020 by Chloe Holden

A left-hander sits facing the camera holding a core in her right hand and a hammerstone in her left hand. She is preparing a core to begin making flakes off the rock. Both the core and the flakes produced are considered stone tools.

Programming skills are not only becoming more in demand in industry jobs, they’re also becoming a required skill in academia as well. Programming is now used in almost every discipline for tasks such as data collection,  organization, and analysis. In this post, I’m going to demonstrate how some basic programming in Python can be used… Read more »

Back to the Stone Age: Why study primate archaeology?

Posted July 6, 2019 by Chloe Holden

An orangutan with a ripped paper bag on her head acting as a hat.

This is the first installment of the Primate Conversation Series. You can read parts two and three here! In 1960, Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee, whom she named David Greybeard, deep in the Tanzanian jungle using a stick to fish for termites. This discovery was the first documented observation of a chimpanzee using tools in… Read more »

Can science be value-free? The “gap” argument

Posted May 7, 2019 by Chris ChoGlueck

This graphic has the structure of two circles connected by a bridge. The right circle has a line graph and is labeled "data,", which is conntect by a bridge labeled "evidence" with background knoweldge, to the left circle labeled "hypothesis" with a lightbulb inside.

If scientists are in the business of facts, is there still space for human values?  Like many other scientists-in-training, I used to think of the sciences as ideally free from societal values, such as environmentalism and feminism.  Sure, our ethical or political biases might guide what scientists study or how others use that knowledge.  But,… Read more »

When the things we can’t see matter: the plant vs. environmental change edition

Posted April 16, 2019 by Abby Kimmitt

Mark Hammond is planting seeds in a large pot filled with soil for the mesocosm experiment. Pots are lined up in two rows on shelving in a greenhouse. Another lab assistant is planting seeds in another pot in the background.

Farmers are facing new challenges in the age of global change. Drought is a major stressor for crops in Indiana and other regions of the U.S. and is forcing farmers to face the question: to irrigate or not to irrigate? Irrigation equipment is incredibly expensive, but is often the best quick solution to water crops… Read more »

Kissing, hand holding, and somatotopic organization in the brain

Posted February 12, 2019 by Taylor Woodward

A couple holding hands during a sunset.

Have you ever wondered why humans express affection by kissing and hand holding?  As with most things in life, the more you think about it, the weirder that it seems.  Here’s an interesting insight from neuroscience that is fun to think about next time you decide that you want to over-analyze your love life even… Read more »

Stellar psychology part II: what does signaling theory tell us about communicating with other life in the universe?

Posted January 29, 2019 by Lana Ruck

Image of an astronaut on the moon.

This is the second part of a series on extraterrestrial psychology. Read part 1 here! In Part 1 of this series, I discussed how the interdisciplinary field of evolutionary psychology can help us explore similarities between the human mind and possible extraterrestrial ones. One common potential feature is how we search for resources, which often… Read more »

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