Journal Club

Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members

Category Archives: Anthropology

Models shift blame for Neanderthal extinction away from modern humans

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Stephen Ornes

Neanderthals vanished about 40,000 years ago, but the reasons for their demise remain shrouded in mystery and a source of debate among archaeologists. The timing coincides with the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which has led some researchers to … Continue reading →

Pollen frozen in a glacier reveals the legacy of human impacts in the heart of the Inca Empire

Posted on August 23, 2019 by Amy McDermott

The Illimani glacier sits between the urban sprawl of La Paz, Bolivia, on one side, and the roads and plantations of the Amazon basin on the other. It was no doubt a very different landscape some 550 years ago, when … Continue reading →

Categories: Anthropology | Ecology | Journal Club | Tagged Amazon, Andes, glacier, ice core, Inca, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, pollen analysis | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Canines remember who cooperates, suggesting principles similar to those seen in human interaction

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Carolyn Beans

Human cooperation often comes down to one key understanding: You help me, I’ll help you. Social animals, including dogs, also help others, even nonrelatives. But many scientists assume that animal cooperation is a different breed. They see animals as less … Continue reading →

Journal Club: How traditional people tamed the Amazon rainforest

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Natasha Gilbert

The Amazon rainforest is often thought of as an untamed wilderness. But a growing number of studies, for example one in 2015 and another in 2017, show that local people have domesticated the forests for millennia, weaving patches of useful … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Ancient diet helps tell the story of Easter Island

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Carolyn Beans

Famous for its towering stone human figures, Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has long been shrouded in mystery, with the demise of its people the subject of an intense debate. Now, new findings about what its residents ate hundreds of … Continue reading →

Journal Club: How social structure might drive the evolution of cumulative culture

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Charles Choi

Humans accumulate knowledge over generations, building vast bodies of expertise—a quality that scientists have long suggested helps make humanity unique. In order to explore how such “cumulative culture” arose, anthropologists examined the way in which hunter-gatherers known as the BaYaka … Continue reading →

Categories: Anthropology | Journal Club | Tagged BaYaka, cumulative culture, hunter gatherer, pygmies | Leave a comment

Journal Club: Charred fossilized eggs suggest that humans contributed to Australia’s megafaunal extinction

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Charles Choi

A huge flightless bird known as Genyornis newtoni once roamed the Australian Outback along with a host of other giant animals. Now scientists have unearthed what may be the first reliable evidence that humans contributed to the extinction of these … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Maya altered their environment significantly, for better or worse

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Charles Choi

The ancient Maya once had a civilization in the Americas that stretched over an area the size of Texas. Now scientists detail a number of key ways the Maya left behind a lasting impact on the environment during the so-called … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Epigenetic marks may reveal how the environment affected ancient societies

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Charles Choi

Ancient DNA can shed light on the past in myriad ways — for instance, genes and mutations may reveal important adaptations or physiological changes. But gene-regulating molecules latched onto the DNA, known as epigenetic marks, may also reveal important clues. … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Cultivated sweet potatoes were genetically modified — naturally

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Charles Choi

The first genetically modified foods were not human creations. Scientists have now found that sweet potatoes all over the world naturally contain bacterial genes that the microbes introduced. Such transgenes may have provided attractive traits for domestication, researchers added. The … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Age of ‘Little Foot’ provides twist in story of hominid evolution

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Joel Shurkin

An early hominid named Little Foot has been dated to 3.67 million years old, making the timeline of human evolution even more complicated. Little Foot was found in a cave at Sterkfontein in South Africa, an hour’s drive from Johannesburg … Continue reading →

Categories: Anthropology | Evolution | Journal Club | Tagged fossil, hominid, human evolution, isochron burial dating | Leave a comment