Author Archives: LS

Encounter of the Giants of Berlin

More top quality science from the MfN.

Dinosaurs on Youtube

When we prepared the Spinosaurus exhibition, we realized that both Spinosaurus and T. rex have each a very large and also very emotional fanbase discussing lively whether the two could have met and how a fight would have ended. We have published a video starring Heinrich Mallison, Daniela Schwarz and Nizar Ibrahim looking at the facts and fiction of such online videos and discussions. Enjoy watching it here:https://youtu.be/Rz6vF0MyCnQ. We’d be happy if you like to share the video on your social networks (Twitter: @mfnberlin, Facebook@ Museum für Naturkunde Berlin).

 

Stones tools from Pliocene hominins in Northwest India dated to 2.6 million years ago

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068315002286

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068315002304

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068315001165

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068315002110

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068315002237

http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/hollande-modi-hail-indo-french-team-s-findings-at-govt-museum/story-jfrxGfU8zR2cY3Qc4q4ihM.html

http://www.lepoint.fr/science/une-espece-humaine-serait-elle-egalement-nee-au-pied-de-l-himalaya-27-01-2016-2013065_25.php

 

Geoscience seminar TODAY / Leena Sukselainen

Dear all,

The Geoscience Seminar TODAY is given by Leena Sukselainen. Leena works as a PhD student in our department and she is going to present us part of her thesis work.

Friday, 23.10.
Time: 14.15
Location: D114 Physicum, Kumpula Campus

Title: CO-OCCURRENCE OF PLIOPITHECOID AND HOMINOID PRIMATES IN FOSSIL RECORD: AN ECOMETRIC ANALYSIS (abstract below)

All are welcome!

Anu

***

Both pliopithecoid and hominoid primates were widely distributed throughout Eurasia during the Miocene, but are known to have coexisted only at a few localities. It has been speculated that their different habitat preferences permitted only minimal overlap under special environmental conditions. Here, we study the context for pliopithecoid and hominoid co-occurrence by assessing taxonomically-based palaeoecological diversity of associated fossil mammals, as well as through direct ecometric analysis based on hypsodonty of mammalian herbivores. Our results show that pliopithecoids persistently inhabited more humid environments compared to other primate groups studied, suggesting an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The opportunity for hominoids and pliopithecoids to co-occur appears to have been restricted by the niche conservatism in the latter group. Our study also indicates that direct ecometric analysis gives a better separation of the ecological preferences of these primate clades than do analyses of taxonomically-based community structure.

 

BKK 29.9. cl. 16.00

Hello Everyone,

next Tuesday we will have two 12 min presentations. Filipe and Yoland from Viikki evo-devo group are giving their SVP talks in Kurten Club to get some feedback. Don’t miss this, their titles are very interesting!

Yoland Savriama: “The invisible fossil: reconstructing intermediate morphologies using geometric morphometrics”

Filipe Oliveira: “Origin of snake head”

See you in C108 on September 29. cl 16.00!

Janina

Tooth Morphogenesis and Differentiation 2016 – First Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to announce the upcoming 12th Tooth Morphogenesis and Differentiation conference, which will be held in Porvoo (Finland), from the 13th to the 18th of June 2016.

The original spirit of the TMD conference has been preserved as all participants will be housed at the conference venue to provide maximum opportunity for sharing their common passion for dental and craniofacial research.

Further information can be found on the conference website:

www.tmd2016.org  The call for abstracts and the opening of registration will be announced later by email and on the website.

Please, share the information with people who might be interested.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Finland.

Best regards,

The organising committee
Frederic Michon (Chairperson)
Jukka Jernvall
Pekka Nieminen

Evo-Devo JC: Origin of snakes

Hi everybody!

This Friday (11th) in Viikki campus Filipe Oliveira da Silva will be leading the Evo-Devo journal club with a talk on skull shape in snakes and its implications implications about snakes origins (soon to be presented at the 75th SVP meeting).

Filipe’s research spans over a large set of subjects and techniques in both palaeontology and developmental biology that should satisfy the interest of many. You are most welcome to join the discussion on this long-controverted subject starting at 11:00 in Biocenter 1, room 4008 on the 4th floor (in front of the coffee room).

See you there,

Fabien

Co-occurrence of pliopithecoid and hominoid primates in the fossil record: An ecometric analysis

Co-occurrence of pliopithecoid and hominoid primates in the fossil record: An ecometric analysis
Leena Sukselainen, Mikael Fortelius, Terry Harrison
Journal of Human Evolution, Available online 14 May 2015

Both pliopithecoid and hominoid primates were widely distributed throughout Eurasia during the Miocene but are known to have coexisted at only a few localities. It has been speculated that their different habitat preferences permitted only minimal overlap under special environmental conditions. Here we study the context for pliopithecoid and hominoid co-occurrence by assessing taxonomically-based palaeoecological diversity of associated fossil mammals and by direct ecometric analysis based on hypsodonty of mammalian herbivores. Our results show that pliopithecoids persistently inhabited more humid environments compared to the other primate groups studied, suggesting an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The opportunity for hominoids and pliopithecoids to co-occur appears to have been restricted by niche conservatism in the latter group. Our study also indicates that direct ecometric analysis gives a better separation of the ecological preferences of these primate clades than do analyses of taxonomically-based community structure.