inhumanoid:

Reconstructed Face of Extinct “Hobbit” Species Is Startlingly Humanlike

I’ve seen this a couple times floating around. There’s still isn’t a general consensus to what taxa H. floresiensis belongs to. It has the brain size of 380 cubic centimeters which places it lower to the modern chimps and thus being smaller than the australopithecines, yet has a body structure similar to that of the genus Homo just…dwarfed.  Homo floresiensis remains one of my favorite hominid fossil just for the mere fact that it raises so many questions about what it taxonomically means to be part of the genus Homo.  And now they have a face! However, that doesn’t seem to shed light on where to place it haha. Viva la science!

Short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata)

Lateral (top) and ventral (bottom) views of stage 19 bat embryos as viewed by reflected light (left) or after alcian blue staining and clearing (right). 

photo by Chris Cretekos and Richard Behringer

This is remarkably beautiful. 

fuckyeahevolution:

Australopithecus Sediba Paved the Way for Homo Species, New Studies Suggest

ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2011) — Researchers have revealed new details about the brain, pelvis, hands and feet of Australopithecus sediba, a primitive hominin that existed around the same time earlyHomo species first began to appear on Earth. The new Au. sediba findings make it clear that this ancient relative displayed both primitive characteristics as well as more modern, human-like traits. And due to this “mosaic” nature of the hominin’s features, researchers are now suggesting that Au. sediba is the best candidate for an ancestor to the Homo genus. (click thru picture to read more)

Emperor Penguin(Aptenodytes forsteri)

Gestation Length: 64 days

Day 2: The five-inch egg is laid and the mother transfers the egg to the father’s feet shortly thereafter. One quarter of all the eggs laid annually are lost during the transfer.

Day 7: The penguin embryo is about the size of a grape and gets its nourishment from its yolk sac.

Day 21: The penguin fetus has grown to about the size of a plum and its flippers, feet, feathers, and eyes are developing for a lifetime in the freezing cold.

Day 28: The penguin fetus begins to “eat” its own shell, absorbing the shell’s calcium to thicken its bones.

Day 60: The yolk sac which has fed the chick has shriveled to almost nothing, but still contains vital nutrients. Using small contractions, the chick pulls the sac into its body, where it is still connected to the chick’s intestine and becomes a temporary extension of the gut. The sack will provide crucial sustenance to keep the chick alive for its first few days outside of the egg.

Day 64: Birth. Temporarily swollen neck muscles give the penguin chick the extra strength it will need to hatch. A tiny egg tooth on the tip of its beak will concentrate the force of each peck as it hatches through its shell. Hatching takes about three days.

bonedust:

sciencecenter:

Creationists Accidentally Validate Human Evolution

The above table summarizes the conclusions of about a dozen creationist essays, classifying hominid fossils as either humans or apes. If, as creationists claim, the ape and humans species were created spontaneously and distinctly, there should be no issue grouping a fossil in one group or the other. As shown above, creationists can’t even agree among themselves which species each fossil corresponds to, inadvertently supporting the evolutionary theory of human origins.

H. erectus/ergaster fossils aren’t human…they’re H. erectus/ergaster. They’re hominids, not humans. And we’re all apes.

Goddammit, why is science so hard for some people?

Sometimes I found it more irritating that people called monkeys, “Apes’ and vice versa. 

sciencecenter:

Pregnant fossil reveals lots about plesiosaurs

A recently discovered fossil of a plesiosaur (think a marine turtle crossed with a giraffe) with a fetus still inside sheds quite a bit of light on the ancient creature. The dinosaur is pretty clearly pregnant - the fetus is too large to have been swallowed, of the exact same species, and doesn’t appear to have been chewed or digested. The find does reveal that plesiosaurs laid live young and invested heavily in a few young. The authors of the finding also speculate that plesiosaurs may have lived in social groups, like pods of dolphins.