My personal view is that I am much less likely to submit material to "letters" or "technical comment" sections of scientific journals moving forward. www.science.org/content/arti...

Helping some of the most senior people see the next phase of their work and lives is such an urgent need across society. The challenge in academic life is much the same as in government. Moving to a new project and a new role is even more vital.

I’ve spent many years explaining/defending biorxiv’s “no reviews” policy. The logic was always that opening Word and opining is a far lower barrier than doing actual research, so noise’d be >> signal and we didn’t want to make subjective quality judgements. LLMs mean it makes even more sense 1/2

A new post covering some recent work on estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and pregnancy from ancient skeletons. A window has just opened a crack but it’s another fascinating area where the lives of ancient people may be encoded in their bones and teeth. www.johnhawks.net/p/finding-ho...

Oh wow! @johnhawks.net has just singled out this study of pregnancy hormones for a special post on his newsletter! "The widening horizon of molecular biomarkers from ancient bones and sediments may open new doors to the biology of ancient people."

A #Halloween #FossilFriday! Here’s a 🧠 brain! Sorta… this is an endocast, where sediment packed into a skull while there was still some soft tissue replacing and molding and casting where the brain was. This particular one is Miocene from Kyrgyzstan and likely horse. Found by @ashpoust.bsky.social

Great day yesterday sharing fossil hominins with more than a hundred sixth-graders here in Madison. I was able to tell them that—even though many are extinct today—our fossil relatives had families, they came from many parts of the world, and they came in all colors that today's people do. #inktober

Two Hartebeest molars in a maxilla, from the Last Interglacial of Turkana, Kenya--a time period in which we desperately need more research! #FossilFriday

Love this story about the new analysis of an important Nanotyrannus fossil and resulting conclusions. Why am I never surprised when a long debate in paleontology is ultimately settled by just letting researchers study a fossil that has been hidden from them? arstechnica.com/science/2025...

One of my Virtual Anthropology students is looking at primate endocasts using data from Morphosource, and they found this massive gorilla brain (630 ml) lurking inside a very cresty cranium Original data here: www.morphosource.org/concern/biol...

The D3444 calvaria was uncovered at Dmanisi, Georgia, in 2002. The individual represented by this cranium lived sometime around 1.77 million years ago, and most scientists attribute the fossil to Homo erectus. The individual had lost nearly all teeth at the time of death. #inktober

The skull from near Herto, Ethiopia, BOU-VP-16/1 represents a person who lived sometime between 162,000 and 147,000 years ago. The skull bears two cutmarks on the right parietal and temporal, suggesting that other individuals may have conducted mortuary practices upon his death. #inktober

The rockshelter at La Ferrassie in the Dordogne of southern France contained the remains of several Neanderthals. The most complete of the skeletons was La Ferrassie 1, who lived an estimated 70,000 to 50,000 years ago. His body like the others was buried, likely by members of his group. #inktober

KNM-WT 17000 is one of the most iconic skulls in the hominin fossil record due to its natural manganese staining, rendering it as the Black Skull. At around 2.5 million years old it is one of the first with pronounced large jaw musculature that would characterize big-molared Paranthropus. #inktober

The skull known as OH 5 was first uncovered by Mary Leakey in 1959, soon became the type fossil of the species Zinjanthropus boisei. Around 1.75 million years old, I'm sure that this individual would have loved pumpkins if they had existed in Africa at the time. #inktober

Great to still have the peak of fall color happening in Wisconsin as I get back from the other side of the planet.

The fossil sample from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa, is one of the largest known of human relatives. Sts 71 (left) and StW 505 (right) are close to the extremes of cranial size of fossils from the site that are usually attributed to Australopithecus africanus. #inktober

I am interested in this recent work on lead levels in tooth enamel of ancestral hominins and apes (Gigantopithecus!) but I wonder whether the sensitivity of the measurements is now so high that they detect exposures that had no biological effects. www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Marcel de Puydt and Max Lohest excavated in the Grotte de Spy, discovering partial skeletons of Neandertals in 1886 including this one, Spy 1. It the first time that Neandertal skeletal remains were recorded in stratigraphic context, keeping associated artifacts and animal bones together. #inktober

I always love to be out on the Greater Cradle Reserve visiting the Malapa site. www.johnhawks.net/p/a-visit-to...

The skull numbered KNM-WT 40000 was first found by Justus Erus in 1999 and is between 3.57 and 3.4 million years old. While broken and distorted, some aspects of its face are different from other contemporary species, leading Meave Leakey and coworkers to name it Kenyanthropus platyops. #inktober

This is interesting (if a bit gruesome) on power dynamics in bonobos: "eighty-five percent of violent coalitions are led by females seeking to keep males in check"

The most iconic cranial fossil from Krapina, Croatia, is Cranium C, which represents a female adult Neandertal individual who lived approximately 120,000 years ago. This and other remains were excavated by Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger from 1899 to 1905. #inktober

Sima de los Huesos, Spain, contains the remains of more than 27 individuals of an early Neanderthal population, estimated to be around 430,000 years old. Cranium 5 is one of the most complete known so far from the site; it is also the smallest of 15 with estimated brain sizes. #inktober

“This group mixed with early Neandertals and was then replaced by Denisovans who had mixed with later Neandertals.” Mixing all the way down. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

One of the most important skill sets for people in my field is teamwork and few courses or research experiences are successful in developing this. Would be amazing to redirect with coteaching, team-building and problem-solving in a wider array of courses.

Bernard Vandermeersch and Ofer Bar-Yosef led excavation at Qafzeh Cave in 1967 when the burials of two skeletons were uncovered. Oafzeh 9 is an adult found in a flexed position, with the Qafzeh 10 child skeleton at its feet. Both lived sometime between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago. #inktober

Sts 5 from Sterkfontein, South Africa was considered to be likely a female individual by Robert Broom, who discovered it in 1947. He named the fossil Plesianthropus transvaaensis. Today most scientist consider it to be Australopithecus africanus. #inktober

In 1969, a farmer named Towikromo in central Java was plowing his land and unearthed this fossil skull, known as Sangiran 17 the most complete known of Homo erectus from Sangiran, Indonesia. This individual lived sometime between 790,000 and 900,000 years ago. #inktober

Born in darkness. Forever struggling toward The Light. Man and Mankind. #shortpoetry

Any day working in a cave is a great day! Especially when the weather topside is hot, dry, and windy. Cool air underground is a great relief! This is one of the many cave sites within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bernard Ngeneo found the first pieces of this skull, KNM-ER 1470, in July of 1972. Sieving from the site produced more than a hundred fragments, which Meave Leakey and Alan Walker reconstructed. The skull came from sediments now thought to be between 1.95 and 2.03 million years in age. #inktober

KNM-ER 1813 is a skull that scientists have usually attributed to Homo habilis. It was found in 1973 by the famous fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu, one of his many significant discoveries. The skull is around 1.9 million years old. #inktober

Sorry today to hear about the death of Drew Struzan. He was probably the artist that was most globally well-known without most people knowing his name. He invented an entire style of art, which just like the movies themselves, borrowed from everywhere and became part of our whole culture.

This is truly one of those ideas that just gain more oxygen whenever it is debunked.

The “Thorin” genome from Mandrin Cave, France, comes from a Neanderthal individual that might not have attracted much notice from the teeth and jawbone on their own. His DNA shows a deeper story of dynamic movements of some groups and long stasis of others. www.johnhawks.net/p/surprising...

Great time visiting Lucy and Selam in Prague this weekend! Amazing to see the original fossils, well worth the trip

On the left is the well-known SK 48, and on the right the more fragmented and lesser-known SK 52, both from Swartkrans, South Africa and attributed to Paranthropus robustus. The two individuals lived in the time between 2.1 and 1.8 million years ago. #inktober

Dorothy Garrod directed excavation of the Tabun Cave from 1929 until 1934, and the workers found a partial skeleton of an individual generally considered today as Neanerthal. #inktober

Here’s something you don’t see every day (or in fact ever) the bigger bone is a hominin phalanx. The little round bone, a sesamoid bone nearly in anatomical position. 2mya from Malapa - A sediba. Beautiful preparation by one of our outstanding preparators Bonele of the Nat Geo Rising Star Project.

The first images of this skull, KNM-ER 406, published by Richard Leakey in 1976 included one from this overhead angle, showing the enormous gaps to accommodate temporal muscles for powerful chewing. The skull represents Paranthropus boisei, and lived around 1.65 million years ago. #inktober

Paleoanthropology can be confusing with names. Why would scientists use “Denisovan” instead of coming up with a species name? Or “modern human” instead of Homo sapiens? And why didn’t some names ever catch on, like the Heidelbergers or the chumanzees? www.johnhawks.net/p/informal-h...

if you're wondering what kinds of work we fund through Patreon, check out the retrospective I wrote on 10 years of funding science through small donor subscriptions: www.southernfriedscience.com/small-drops-...

AL 444-2 is one of the most complete skulls attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. Around 3.2 million years old, this skull was found in 1992 by Yoel Rak. Its jaw is one of the largest and thickest known for the species, and its brain size at around 550 ml the largest. #inktober

MH1, the ”skull in the rock”, represents a child of between 8 and 11 years of age belonging to the species Australopithecus sediba. This and other fossils from Malapa, South Africa, are approximately 2 million years old. #inktober

Christos Sariannidis found an ancient skull in the cave at Petralona, Greece, in 1960, attached to the cave wall by speleothem. Recent work has established the skull is at least 286,000 years old. It is likely an early member or relative of the Neanderthal lineage. #inktoberLine

Sts 17 is one of the less well known skulls from Sterkfontein, South Africa, attributed by most scientists to Australopithecus africanus. Some data suggests that the date of this and other Member 4 fossils may be older than 3.4 million years, but not all accept such an ancient date. #inktober

Some scientists aren’t waiting for journals to catch up. They’re showing us what’s next. The Beyond the Journal awards honor those breaking the mold in how science is shared. More details: pracheeac.substack.com/p/off-roadin... Nominate or self-nominate here: www.experiment.foundation/beyond

The skull denoted as Mladeč 1 was excavated from the Mladečské Caves by Josef Szombathy in 1881. Representing a person who lived around 35,000 years ago, it is one of the few human remains from the caves to survive the fire of the Mikulov Castle at the end of the Second World War. #inktober

The body tells stories. People’s health, their place in the natural scheme of things, their relation to other individuals, all make a difference in our bodies and bones. I’m always fascinated to go back in history to see how the ancients framed these connections. www.johnhawks.net/p/roots-of-a...