Lynch and Granger: What Happened to the Boskops?
Via Slashdot, here’s a really interesting (to me, at least) article in Discover: What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us? It’s excerpted from Gary Lynch and Richard Granger’s book, Big brain: the origins and future of human intelligence.
It’s a good reminder that our self-serving notions of progress, while providing a comforting myth, are not necessarily always supported by the fossil record.
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Thanks, I’d never heard of Boskops despite being intrigued with archaeology and anthropology. I.e., this kind of stuff (Wade Davis is one smart human being): http://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
Not sure where to classify this though… http://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:07 pm
oops, I meant not sure where to place this on, as in the “surviving idiots” … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtqaH-hnFs
January 4th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Well I read an article on the intertubes that ‘they’ found some evidence that early humans actually might have killed and, er, well, eaten the Neanderthals right out of existence.
I for one welcome our fellow hominid Neanderthal guests to dinner, I know we shall be friends forever, except that you are so delicious prepared in a variety of ways. Sorry about that (light eructation noise – camera fades to black)
January 4th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
great TED link knarly!
I had heard the ‘shit knife’ story before
he almost says “mud hut countries” at the start of this talk (almost)
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/04/anthropologist-wade.html
enjoy!