Anthropology Blog

The Piltdown Hoax: The Best and Worst of Human Nature     The Piltdown hoax involved the fabrication of fossil remains in Piltdown, England, consisting of a human-like skull and a jaw, which were initially presented as belonging to the same ancient hominin. If genuine, this would suggest that large brain size evolved before significant changes in the jaw or the development of bipedalism. This aligned with a prevailing scientific preference for a “brain-first” theory of human evolution and reinforced a European origin for early hominins. This pre-existing bias contributed to the initial acceptance of the hoax, notably leading many experts to be unimpressed by a small-brained specimen found in Taung in 1924 because they considered Africa an “unlikely place for the origins of hominins.” The hoax was exposed in the early 1950s by Professor Kenneth Oakley of the British Museum, who utilized fluorine analysis to show a significant discrepancy in the fluorine content between the...

How Humpback Whales are More Closely Related to Cats Than Sharks Two different species that possess a homologous trait are humpback whales and domestic cats . Humpback whales are large marine mammals adapted to life in the ocean’s depths. They can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh as much as 40 tons. Despite their large size, whales are very acrobatic, able to leap out of the water before slapping the ocean surface on their way down. Unlike whales, domestic cats are small terrestrial mammals adapted to life on land. They can stand about 8 to 10 inches high and weigh approximately 8 to 12 pounds. Lightweight, cats are fast and flexible, able to stalk prey across a variety of terrain before pouncing on their target. One common trait that helps explain both species’ maneuverability are their forelimbs. Both species have a humerus (upper arm bone), radius and ulna (forearm bones), carpals (wrist bones), metacarpals (palm bones), and phalanges (finger bones). However, the structure and fun...

It is possible the student is falling asleep in class because the classroom is dimly lit.  Test: I would test this hypothesis by installing brighter lights and asking our teacher to present lectures as usual. I will alter conditions by changing the brightness of the lights. If the student stays awake during class time, this would support my hypothesis. If the student falls alseep during class time, this would falsify my hypothesis. An example of an untestable, unfalsifiable explanation would be that the student suffers from a generational curse of eternal sleepiness.