Eastern Asia, Western Asia, Japan, Beringia and even Europe have all been suggested origination points for the earliest humans to enter the Americas because of apparent differences in cranial form between today's Native Americans and the earliest known Paleoamerican skeletons. Now an international team of researchers has identified a nearly complete Paleoamerican skeleton with Native American DNA that dates close to the time that people first entered the New World.
Dating and DNA show Paleoamerican-Native American connection
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Pygmy phenotype developed many times, adaptive to rainforest
The small body size associated with the pygmy phenotype is probably a selective adaptation for rainforest hunter-gatherers, according to an international team of researchers, but all African pygmy phenotypes do not have the same genetic underpinning, suggesting a more recent adaptation than previously thought.
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Fragile bones of modern humans result from reduced physical activity
The comparatively light bone structure of modern humans compared to early human species and other modern primates may be due to the modern abandonment of the constant physical activity that was inherent in the life of early hunter gathers, according to an international team of researchers. This knowledge may aid in prevention of osteoporosis and hip fracture in the elderly.
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Larger area analysis needed to understand patterns in ancient prehistory
Archaeologists need to study larger areas of land and link those studies to measurable environmental, societal and demographic changes to understand variations in prehistoric societies, according to Penn State anthropologists. The large areas are necessary to say anything meaningful about human behavioral response to social and environmental events.
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Water Symposium to make a splash in the HUB this Earth Day
Research and art representing a diverse array of colleges and disciplines at Penn State will flood the HUB for the first-ever Water Symposium this Earth Day, April 22.
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Jablonski elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Nina G. Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology, Penn State, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Not much size difference between male and female Australopithecines
Lucy and other members of the early hominid species Australopithecus afarensis probably were similar to humans in the size difference between males and females, according to researchers from Penn State and Kent State University.
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State-of-the-art carbon-14 dating facility coming to Penn State
Penn State will soon be home to an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) that will allow researchers all over the country to do high-precision carbon dating to address questions about Earth's past and present. The new instrument will be able to determine the age of samples from the past 10,000 years within 15 to 20 years and will be used by scientists from across the nation.
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Anthropologist receives $1.84 million to study craniofacial malformations
Penn State will receive $1.84 million over five years as a subcontract on a National Institutes of Health grant through the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, N.Y., to explore craniosynostosis, a birth defect that includes facial and cranial dysmorphology.
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Vitamin D status related to immune response to HIV-1
Vitamin D plays an important part in the human immune response and deficiency can leave individuals less able to fight infections like HIV-1. Now an international team of researchers has found that high-dose vitamin D supplementation can reverse the deficiency and also improve immune response.
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Liberal Arts' Sherpa contributes to Nepal relief efforts
Pasang Sherpa, a lecturer in the College of the Liberal Arts’ Department of Anthropology at Penn State, will devote her time this summer to assisting the people affected by recent earthquakes in her home country of Nepal.
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Scarlet macaws point to early complexity at Chaco Canyon
Carbon 14 dating of scarlet macaw remains indicates that interaction between Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and Mesoamerica began more than 100 years earlier than previously thought, according to a team of archaeologists.
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Art history triple threat to present at Byzantine conference
Anthony Cutler, Evan Pugh Professor of Art History, and two graduate students, Sarah Daiker and Andrea Middleton, have been chosen to present papers at the 2015 Byzantine Studies Conference in New York City, Oct. 23–25.
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Rise and fall of agrarian states influenced by climate volatility
Climate variability is one of the major forces in the rise and fall of agrarian states in Mexico and Peru, according to a team of researchers looking at both climate and archaeological records.
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Loss of mastodons aided domestication of pumpkins, squash
If Pleistocene megafauna -- mastodons, mammoths, giant sloths and others -- had not become extinct, humans might not be eating pumpkin pie and squash for the holidays, according to an international team of anthropologists.
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Deep male voices not so much sexy as intimidating
Male voices are not deeply pitched in order to attract female mates, but instead serve to intimidate the competition, according to a team of researchers studying a wide variety of primates including humans.
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St. Paul Island mammoths most accurately dated 'prehistoric' extinction ever
While the Minoan culture on Crete was just beginning, woolly mammoths were disappearing from St. Paul Island, Alaska, according to an international team of scientists who have dated this extinction to 5,600 years ago.
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Where there's smoke and a mutation there may be an evolutionary edge for humans
A genetic mutation may have helped modern humans adapt to smoke exposure from fires and perhaps sparked an evolutionary advantage over their archaic competitors, including Neandertals, according to a team of researchers.
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Climate change impacts on Menominee nation's forest home focus of NSF funding
A Native American tribal nation in Wisconsin faces cultural and economic challenges as climate change impacts its forest home. A $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to study this relationship and how it could inform decision-making about forest management.
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Climate change impacts on Menominee nation's forest home focus of NSF funding
A Native American tribal nation in Wisconsin faces cultural and economic challenges as climate change impacts its forest home. A $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to study this relationship and how it could inform decision-making about forest management.
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