tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post1500057671493483567..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Forget bipedalism. What about babyism?Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-7014105486743992942012-06-25T03:29:49.112-04:002012-06-25T03:29:49.112-04:00Hi Holly,
You've won third place (the much-co...Hi Holly,<br /><br />You've won third place (the much-coveted Charm Quark) in the 3QD Science Prize 2012 (and the $200 that goes with it). Please email me. :)<br /><br />And congratulations!<br /><br />Best,<br /><br />AbbasS. Abbas Razahttp://3quarksdaily.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-4899068916478965632012-04-01T16:58:02.223-04:002012-04-01T16:58:02.223-04:00Was Proconsul a 'she'....or are you implyi...Was Proconsul a 'she'....or are you implying something more subtle about behavior in those days?Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-9898116342243564032012-04-01T16:56:20.407-04:002012-04-01T16:56:20.407-04:00haha! Thanks Ken.
BTW, the main conclusion of my...haha! Thanks Ken. <br /><br />BTW, the main conclusion of my diss: <br /><br />Proconsul wore black platform stiletto knee high leather boots.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-82619334272971520602012-04-01T16:50:52.538-04:002012-04-01T16:50:52.538-04:00Well, Holly, speaking of feet, don't kick your...Well, Holly, speaking of feet, don't kick yourself over that. Everyone can always find something that, had it been known, could have been used to get funding. You have to keep looking the same direction your (human) hallux points--forward.<br /><br />And, if you don't think you'll ever have another good idea, or contribution to make, then shed some tears of regret....and start driving a cab instead.<br /><br />I mean, was Proconsul even sexy? I don't remember if it had any descendants to examine to see if the human shoes fit, so to speak.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-57077461517051439132012-04-01T16:47:18.952-04:002012-04-01T16:47:18.952-04:00I'm also regretting that fossils like this wer...I'm also regretting that fossils like this weren't around when I wrote my dissertation proposals for funding. I could have TOTALLY justified collecting human and hominin fossil data. Alas, back then Proconsul was not as sexy as it is now... featured in the Ardi and the Burtele papers! Primitive apes, well-preserved primitive apes to boot, are informative.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-969482297222060192012-04-01T16:45:29.418-04:002012-04-01T16:45:29.418-04:00ha! A quaintessential Ken response indeed!ha! A quaintessential Ken response indeed!Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-38803241693472017472012-04-01T16:37:46.204-04:002012-04-01T16:37:46.204-04:00Juliet had the answer: a hominin by any other name...Juliet had the answer: a hominin by any other name would smell as feet.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-67486296288397166872012-04-01T16:37:05.738-04:002012-04-01T16:37:05.738-04:00thanks Ken!thanks Ken!Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-92031151417320300712012-04-01T16:35:37.148-04:002012-04-01T16:35:37.148-04:00Days after posting this, my curiosity still grows ...Days after posting this, my curiosity still grows as to why the title calls this find a "hominin." <br /><br />It's not clear at all that it is a hominin, yet the question was hardly even raised! I don't see how this isn't a Nature paper even without it being a "hominin." So I'm baffled. <br /><br />Does it have to be a hominin because Ardi, with which it shared similarities, was published as a hominin?Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-53167484745031968962012-04-01T16:34:12.501-04:002012-04-01T16:34:12.501-04:00I'll collaborate with you! I have feet--human...I'll collaborate with you! I have feet--human, and two of them (replicate observations!). I can walk, climb (sort of), run, jump, and sit back and put my feet up to relax (maybe the latter is why feet evolved). I must admit, though, that I'm not a baby (even if some think I act that way).<br /><br />So I will join the study, so long as I don't have to be dead first.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-914336561559016592012-04-01T16:26:55.677-04:002012-04-01T16:26:55.677-04:00I've got renewed passion about my dissertation...I've got renewed passion about my dissertation. Both the ontogenetic and the cross-sectional geometry studies. If only I knew of a willing collaborator who has the same data on humans!Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-2405392529689176842012-04-01T12:37:33.178-04:002012-04-01T12:37:33.178-04:00...and the metatarsal robusticity sequence of the ......and the metatarsal robusticity sequence of the Burtele foot isn't like that of modern humans (or OH8). Curious, eh?occamserasernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-90623858096688804032012-03-30T16:03:22.236-04:002012-03-30T16:03:22.236-04:00Thanks so much for an enlightened friend for passi...Thanks so much for an enlightened friend for passing this comment to me: "The fourth MT of the Burtele foot doesn't have ape-like torsion. If it did, it is an ape. It has lateral torsion, which is the human and monkey condition."Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-10416328711681621582012-03-30T14:31:18.231-04:002012-03-30T14:31:18.231-04:00Yes, one might say that if our chimpancestors jump...Yes, one might say that if our chimpancestors jumped into the future feet first, we are blogging into the future head first. How will we be reconstructed from our fossil skulls?<br /><br />I think that blogosphering has many very positive potentials relative to traditional media, even in science. There's a glut of etherized material, but there's also a glut of 'published' research, and I wonder if the former isn't as likely to be influential as the stodgy old traditional way. At least, if the ethersphere material stays available.<br /><br />Let's see, there was the stone age, then the iron age, then the bronze age, then the atomic age, and next.....the Google age....Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-52494313000624064902012-03-30T13:50:41.217-04:002012-03-30T13:50:41.217-04:00Without blogs, how did people put the minutia of t...Without blogs, how did people put the minutia of their dissertation in broader terms... peppered with Forrest Gump links? <br /><br />I'm thrilled to be living in the future.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-1873285067170840332012-03-30T13:20:28.875-04:002012-03-30T13:20:28.875-04:00This is another marvelous post from your pen, Holl...This is another marvelous post from your pen, Holly! It's a very fine, balanced, humerous and informative treatment.<br /><br />My only reaction is that besides the difficulty of inferring function, and assuming one master function (if I can summarize a point of yours with that phrase), there is the assumption that the function was responsible for the evolutionary adaptation.<br /><br />The latter, if the assumption is adaptation not as what you can do, but as what natural selection allowed you to do, then the selectionist assumption is very shaky. Because selection means some individuals have more children than others _because_ of their slightly different foot-thumb, or whatever. The case for that is much more difficult to make, I think. And you've shown that the case for function itself is a challenge.<br /><br />If this isn't food for thought, than what is?Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-46138766456433325502012-03-30T11:40:28.872-04:002012-03-30T11:40:28.872-04:00Be my guest and swing away at the rampant adaptati...Be my guest and swing away at the rampant adaptationism, Ken! :)Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.com