Posts Tagged anthropology
BOOK REVIEW: Palarch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 8 (3) 2011
Posted by PalArch Editor (IN) in Book Reviews, PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on April 24th, 2011
Ilja Nieuwland about Brian Switek. 2010. Written in Stone. Evolution, The Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. – New York, Bellevue Literary Press.
The history of vertebrate paleontology has simultaneously been very well and very poorly served in the past. Certain periods have seen tens or hundreds of publications devoted to them, and there’s little new to be found out about London in the 1830s and 1840s, or the Bone Wars of the 1870s and 1880s. But there’s still a whole world to be discovered. One of the – many – admirable qualities of Brian Switek’s first book, Written in Stone, is that Switek generally steers clear from re-hashing the historical warhorses of vertebrate paleontology and so offers something that holds interest for both the lay reader and the paleontological veteran.
Heeteren, van, A.H. 2008. Homo floresiensis as an island form. – PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 5, 2: 1-12
Posted by PalArch Editor (IN) in PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on July 1st, 2008
Abstract Homo floresiensis is a small bodied hominin from the Indonesian island Flores. The type specimen, LB1, is believed to be a female of approximately 1 m or a bit more than 3 feet in length with a cranial capacity of around 400 cc. There is still no agreement on the cause of the small stature and small cranial capacity of LB1 and the associated individuals.
Homo floresiensis displays several island adaptations, which also have been observed among the members of other typical island faunas, indicating that Homo floresiensis might very well have been an endemic island form. Homo floresiensis has morphology similar to that of a Homo erectus juvenile, since it has a high orbital, dental and brachial index, low humeral torsion, low tibial torsion and a high gonial angle. Additionally Homo floresiensis has shortened lower limbs. The features displayed by Homo floresiensis give an indication of the manner of dwarfing by paedomorphosis, which was by truncating growth through increase in the rate of skeletal ossification, possibly caused by hormonal changes.
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