Papers I have Read This Week

Adami, C, Ofria, C, and Collier, T. C., (2000) Evolution of Biological Complexity. PNAS 97(9):4463-4468

Cameron, C. B., Garey, J. R., and Swalla, B. J. (2000) Evolution of the Chordate Body Plan: New Insights from Phylogenetic Analysis of Deutersome Phyla. PNAS 97(9): 4469-4474. Still reading this one actually.

A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa
MICHEL BRUNET, FRANCK GUY, DAVID PILBEAM, HASSANE TAISSO MACKAYE, ANDOSSA LIKIUS, DJIMDOUMALBAYE AHOUNTA, ALAIN BEAUVILAIN, CÉCILE BLONDEL, HERVÉ BOCHERENS, JEAN-RENAUD BOISSERIE, LOUIS DE BONIS, YVES COPPENS, JEAN DEJAX, CHRISTIANE DENYS, PHILIPPE DURINGER, VÉRA EISENMANN, GONGDIBÉ FANONE, PIERRE FRONTY, DENIS GERAADS, THOMAS LEHMANN, FABRICE LIHOREAU, ANTOINE LOUCHART, ADOUM MAHAMAT, GILDAS MERCERON, GUY MOUCHELIN, OLGA OTERO, PABLO PELAEZ CAMPOMANES, MARCIA PONCE DE LEON, JEAN-CLAUDE RAGE, MICHEL SAPANET, MATHIEU SCHUSTER, JEAN SUDRE, PASCAL TASSY, XAVIER VALENTIN, PATRICK VIGNAUD, LAURENT VIRIOT, ANTOINE ZAZZO & CHRISTOPH ZOLLIKOFER
Nature 418, 145–151 (2002). On the Toumai fossils. Note: This paper, along with some of the other important papers in Paleoanthropology (published in Nature) can be found at Focus on Human Origins

Palaeoanthropology: Hominid revelations from Chad
BERNARD WOOD
The story of human origins in Africa takes a twist with the description of a 6–7-million-year-old cranium from Chad. The discovery hints at the likely diversity of early hominids.
Nature 418, 133–135 (2002). See above.

Backwell, L. R. and d'Errico, F. (2001) Evidence of Termite Foraging by Swartkrans Early Hominids. PNAS 98(4):1358-1363. Macroscopic and microscopic analysis of bones at Swartkrans and Sterkfontein reveal they were used for termite fishing.

Niewoehner, W. A. (2001) Behavioral inference from the Skhul/Qafzeh Early Modern Human Hand Remains. PNAS 98(6):2979-2984. I'm still reading this one (well, actually rereading it - I'm still trying to figure out if I'm convinced or not). Compares the Skhul/Qafzeh hand remains with Neanderthals, early and late Paleolithic humans and holocene humans and finds: 1)Skhul/Qafzeh hand remains are similar to the upper Paleolithic humans and are significantly different from Neanderthals.

Roseman, Charles (2004) Detecting Interregionally Diversifying Natural Selection on Modern Human Cranial Form by Using Matched Molecular and Morphometric Data. PNAS 101(35):12824-12829. Still reading.