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Anthropology

Human ancestors may have originated in Asia, not Africa

Last updated Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 5:35pm

Researchers agree that our immediate ancestors, the upright walking apes, arose in Africa. But the discovery of a new primate that lived about 37 million years ago in the ancient swamplands of Myanmar bolsters the idea that the deep primate family tree that gave rise to humans is rooted in Asia. If true, the discovery suggests that the ancestors of all monkeys, apes, and humans-known as the anthropoids-arose in Asia and made the arduous journey to the island continent of Africa almost 40 million years ago.

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JENNIFER MEYERS/The Associated Press
A Pilling Figurine that was recently sent to Utah State University’s anthropology department in Logan. The piece is believed to be one of 12 clay figurines discovered in 1950 by Clarence Pilling under an overhang in a side canyon of Range Creek.

Anonymous delivery may be long-lost figurine

Kevin Opsahl The Associated Press

Last updated Sunday, April 29, 2012 - 10:26pm

LOGAN — One day last year, Utah State University anthropologist Bonnie Pitblado was given a small box and a typed note from her assistant. The assistant informed her that the box — holding an ancient Native American figurine in a soft leather covering — and the note were given to her by an anonymous person.

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UofU anthropologist writes 'Evidence for Evolution'

Contributed

Last updated Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - 11:56am

SALT LAKE CITY - University of Utah anthropologist Alan R. Rogers has written an evolution book that fills in pieces that were missing from Darwin's argument.

In "The Evidence for Evolution" - published this month by the University of Chicago Press - the anthropology professor tries to lay to rest what he says are persistent and inaccurate anti-evolution arguments with scientific evidence that was unavailable in Charles Darwin's day.

Rogers points out that Darwin didn't know about genetics, continental drift or the age of the Earth. He had never seen a species change. He had no idea whether it was even possible for a species to split in two. He knew of no transitional fossils and of almost no human fossils.

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USU professor wins top honor

Standard-Examiner staff

Last updated Sunday, February 13, 2011 - 11:43pm

LOGAN — Utah State University anthropology professor David Lancy has won USU’s top faculty research honor, the D. Wynne Thorne Career Research Award.

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Researchers link tools to earlier migration out of Africa

Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

Last updated Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 6:49pm

LOS ANGELES -- Some unlikely tools unearthed near the Persian Gulf show that our ancestors may have migrated far out of Africa as early as 125,000 years ago -- about 60,000 years earlier than was previously believed.

The finding, published online Thurday in the journal Science, also provides evidence that early humans took a different route during their migration than scientists had assumed: crossing eastward, directly into southern Arabia from East Africa, rather than following the Nile northward to the northwestern edge of Arabia.

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