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Paige Madison

@fossilhistory.bsky.social

Science writer. Book on hobbits and human origins coming 2027. Editor PBS Eons. History of science PhD.

367 Posts4922 Follower537 Folgt
Kristina Killgrove@killgrove.bsky.social · 12h ago

In Denisovan news, paleoanthropologists have found only the third ever post-cranial bone, a proximal radius. It suggests Denisovans had a forearm more like humans than Neanderthals. 🦴🧪🏺

Enigmatic Denisovans lived by cave in what is now China for 100,000 years, rare fossils and handcrafted tools reveal

Anthropologists have discovered the first-ever Denisovan arm bone in a cave in southwest China, which also held thousands of prehistoric animal bones and stone tools.

livescience.com

Simon Fisher@profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 11h ago

“These findings establish Bianfu Cave as a Denisovan locality yielding the most abundant remains of this hominin group outside Denisova Cave in Siberia. The results fill a critical geographic gap in the documented distribution of Denisovans & refine understanding of their evolutionary history.”🙌💀🔬🧪👇

Ancient proteins identify various Denisovan remains from Southwest China - Nature

Identification and proteomic analysis of bone fragments and teeth from an excavation in Southwest China provide insight into the evolution and phenotype of Denisovans and fill a geographical gap in th...

nature.com

Paige Madison@fossilhistory.bsky.social · 13h ago

'Somewhere in a Beijing collection sits a fragment of a child’s lower jaw that has spent the past three years quietly annoying everyone who studies human origins.' 🏺🧪

A 300,000-year-old jawbone from China refuses to fit neatly into the human family tree — and a reconstructed million-year-old skull is now suggesting our major ancestral branches split hundreds of tho...

The fossil record is forcing scientists to rewrite when and where human ancestry split into separate branches, upending decades of assumptions about our evolutionary path.

scienceblog.com

Austin Lawrence, PhD@humanaustinology.bsky.social · last wk.

New from @lewton.bsky.social and colleagues: Comparative Morphometric Analysis of the Pelvis of LB 1 (Homo floresiensis) One key finding: In almost all respects, the pelvis of Homo floresiensis is much more human-like than previously reported. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Comparative Morphometric Analysis of the Pelvis of <fc>LB</fc> 1 (<fc><fi>Homo floresiensis</fi></fc>)

Objectives Although there has been copious research on the postcranial functional morphology of Homo floresiensis, there has been relatively little study of its pelvis and its implications for inter...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Paige Madison@fossilhistory.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thinking of everyone in Flores; if anyone is interested in donating, this is a good place to do so: www.globalgiving.org/projects/ind...

NTT Earthquake and Indonesia - Send Emergency Aid

On 15 August 2026, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Flores Island (East Nusa Tenggara, NTT), killing at least 47 people and injuring dozens. Hundreds of homes and public buildings were destroyed (157 homes heavily damaged). Beside NTT, Earthquake also hit communities in Simalungun (North Sumatra) and Parigi Moutong (Central Sulawesi). By delivering staple food packages, safe drinking water, emergency shelters, and health services, thi campaign will help prevent hunger and disease.

globalgiving.org

Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes@lemoustier.bsky.social · 3w ago

🧪🏺🦣 Cool new work using ZooMS on bone assemblages from one of my favourite #Neanderthal sites, Les Pradelles. More hominin remains (MNI = 8), no new processing marks except fresh fracturing, but faunal comparison supports impression of diff taph/treatment. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Integrating ZooMS and taphonomy further highlights differential processing of animal and Neandertal carcasses in the Quina Mousterian at Les Pradelles (Marillac‐le‐Franc, southwest France)

The cave of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, France) was repeatedly visited by Neandertals ~55 000 years ago and is a key site in discussions of Neandertal cannibalism. Excavations between 1967 and ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Ferris Jabr@ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 3w ago

🧵Thread on the fascinating phenomenon that is the multi-species foraging flock: If different species are competing for finite resources, why would they band together like this? Research suggests that by doing so they enhance their chances of finding food, flushing out insects, and avoiding predators

Ferris Jabr@ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 3w ago

I love when multi-species flocks of birds descend upon the garden to bathe, forage, spar, and frolic. Today was a record-breaker for number of bird species in the garden simultaneously: chickadees, juncos, sparrows, wrens, goldfinches, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, nuthatches, and grosbeaks!

Collage of nine photos of named birds, ranging from yellow and black goldfinches to red-breasted nuthatches and grosbeaks to grey-brown chickadees and sparrows, plus a small downy woodpecker with a red cap and an Anna’s hummingbird with a shimmering magenta throat.
Michael Haslam@twigtechnology.bsky.social · 4w ago

Very cool new paper led by @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social on how young male capuchins pay attention to learn nut-cracking skills in the wild 🏺🧪🐒

Zoë Goldsborough@zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · 4w ago

Imagine you are a white-faced capuchin monkey on Jicarón island learning how to use stone tools 🔨 Your mother does not use tools, so who do you turn to as a model? Our new manuscript answering this question is out now in Animal Behaviour @asab.org. doi.org/10.1016/j.an.... A 🧵 of our findings (1/10)

A juvenile white-faced capuchin monkey eating a coconut. Photo credits Christian Ziegler
Climate, Ecology, War & More: Dr. Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai@bigearthdata.ai · 2mo ago

What if hobbits were real? Meet the tiny human species that actually existed… ->Discover Wildlife | More on "Homo floresiensis ancient tiny humans" at BigEarthData.ai | #Biodiversity #Species

What if hobbits were real? Meet the tiny human species that actually existed…

Nicknamed ‘Hobbits’ after the diminutive, human-like race from J.R.R Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-Earth, Homo floresiensis is a similarly small, real-life species that lived from 700,000 to 50,000 years ago on the island of Flores, Indonesia. How many species of human have there been? Could there ever be a new species of human? Standing just 1.1m (3ft 7in) tall, these ancient humans wouldn’t have looked out of place at Bilbo Baggins’ ‘eleventy-first’ birthday party - and like their fictional namesakes, they may have also had big appetites. What was Homo floresiensis? As its nickname suggests, Homo floresiensis was small - in fact, it’s the smallest member of the Homo genus, standing roughly a foot smaller than the next smallest species, Homo habilis, which stood approximately 135cm (4ft 5in) tall. What's the difference between humans and apes? And when did we first appear? Why don't humans have fur? Homo floresiensis had a small brain too, similar in size to that of a chimpanzee’s and several extinct species of australopithecines. It also had robust leg bones, large, flat feet, and no chin - characteristics that distinguish it from modern Homo sapiens. However, like other, more ‘advanced’ species of humans, Homo floresiensis has...

discoverwildlife.com

Dragons of Wales@dragonsofwales.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A portrait of Homo rudolfensis: an extinct species of archaic human from about 2 million years ago. The classification and validity of rudolfensis remains a matter of debate, with some arguing it may actually have been an Australopithecine, or even synonymous with H.habilis. No AI used, obviously.

A digital portrait of Homo rudolfensis: an extinct species of archaic human from about 2 million years ago. It is shown with a long face, protruding jaw and receding chin - a mixture of both ape and human characteristics. Its lips are slightly parted, revealing the rather human-like teeth behind.
Paige Madison@fossilhistory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I've thought about this face every day for years, and I assumed that by the time I finished writing my book, I'd be sick of her. Well, I handed it in last night, and she never bored me for a moment. 🧪🏺

A fossilized hominin skull designated LB1, the type specimen of Homo floresiensis, displayed on a gray surface against a dark background. The skull is viewed from the front-left, revealing the cranial vault, large rounded orbits, nasal aperture, and partial maxilla with several intact lower front teeth. The bone surface is heavily stained golden-brown from fossilization and shows pitting, erosion, and mineralization throughout. A standard archaeological scale bar marked "0" is visible in the lower right corner.