I must apologize for radio silence, as this is the longest I’ve gone without posting since Steve invited me on board here. I am currently in Imperial County, California running a large archaeological survey. Between the Christmas Holidays and all the work involved in getting into the field I really haven’t had any time to …
Author: Reid Farmer
Frosting
A storm last Friday left us with a couple more inches of snow and some sparkling frost-covered trees. This didn’t last too long after the sun hit it. You could see where the cottontails had been out early looking for breakfast. Someone’s been chewing on my little aspen. I didn’t see any deer tracks around …
Thumbs Up
Bumpersticker observed last night: “Two Opposable Thumbs Up for Evolution!” Wish I’d had my camera!
Human Evolution is Accelerating
Back when I was in graduate school the general consensus was that human evolution had generally halted or at least slowed in the early Holocene. It was believed that the strong evolutionary pressures that had operated on early hunter – gatherer populations had eased with the transition to agricultural economies and settled life. Estimable University …
More Pygmies
We discussed before here the interesting phenomenon that often occurs when species of large fauna get trapped on islands. Natural selection in the restricted habitat favors smaller individuals and you end up with a dwarf or pygmy subspecies. Previously we talked about pygmy mammoths in the California Channel Islands and dwarf water buffalo in the …
“Arboricide”
After my post last week on tree-trimming follies in Burbank, California, I couldn’t pass this article by. A man in Nevada is facing 35 years in prison because he felled, topped or killed 60 trees that blocked his view of the Las Vegas Strip. Honestly, you’d think we were druids.
Dinosaur Mummy
I saw several places this morning information on a dinosaur “mummy” found in North Dakota in 1999. “Mummy” really isn’t the proper term – the fossil cast is unusual in that the soft tissues are very apparent: “Unlike the collections of bones found in museums, this hadrosaur came complete with skin, ligaments, tendons and possibly …
More on Native American DNA
Matt and Chas both sent me this piece last week on another DNA study that shows Native Americans are most closely related to peoples in Siberia, indicating that is their point of origin. This isn’t exactly news, but is another corroborating study apparently done on a larger scale than most in the past. On a …
Bureaucrats Run Amok
The Collard family of Glendale, California received a notice from the Fire Department ordering them to trim foliage from oak and sycamore trees around their house to lessen fire danger. The Collards agreed that their trees needed a trim and hired a tree service to do the work for $3,000. In the midst of the …
Neolithic Fashionplates
This report on excavations at a 7,500 year-old neolithic/chalcolithic site in southern Serbia doesn’t tell us lots of new information about that period in Europe. The article says this site may push back the initial date of the Copper Age by 500 years but doesn’t really give you enough information to assess the claim. However, …