Bram Hessels @kanderwat.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Looking forwards to Kim Sterelny's new book . . www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...goodreads.comEvolution and Human UniquenessDiscover and share books you love on Goodreads. 000
Reposted by Bram HesselsPaleoAnthropology @qafzeh.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Did cooperation make us human? www.meer.com/en/103370-di...meer.comDid cooperation make us human?Shared intentionality, language, and the evolution of the social mind 074
Reposted by Bram HesselsJohn Hawks @johnhawks.net · 12/10/2025Paleoanthropology can be confusing with names. Why would scientists use “Denisovan” instead of coming up with a species name? Or “modern human” instead of Homo sapiens? And why didn’t some names ever catch on, like the Heidelbergers or the chumanzees? www.johnhawks.net/p/informal-h...johnhawks.netInformal hominins, from Denisovan to superarchaicIn a new research article, I review the ways that paleoanthropologists name ancient groups outside the Linnaean system. 55016
Reposted by Bram HesselsJon Topham @jontopham.bsky.social · 13/05/2024So excited to see that Adrian Desmond's important new study of atheist and evolutionist W. D. Saull is out. Free to download the pdf. www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...openbookpublishers.comReign of the Beast: The Atheist World of W. D. Saull and his Museum of EvolutionIn the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's i... 162
Reposted by Bram HesselsEleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · 18/06/20251/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comMajor expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - NatureAnalysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka... 712039
Bram Hessels @kanderwat.bsky.social · 04/06/2025The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution has a cover. global.oup.com/academic/pro... 060
Bram Hessels @kanderwat.bsky.social · 29/05/2025O.k, I am obsessed with this book. It changes everything about how we look at human evolution, human psychology, culture, history, religion . . . secretofoursuccess.fas.harvard.edusecretofoursuccess.fas.harvard.eduTHE SECRET OF OUR SUCCESSHow culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smart 270
Reposted by Bram HesselsAlex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 25/05/2025Fascinating latest model of Homo sapiens evolution within Africa. Interesting finding that cultural innovation was accelerated by both population size increases, but also recombination across partially isolated regions (e.g. Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa) 35619
Reposted by Bram Hesselsmanvir singh @manvir.bsky.social · 29/04/2025Are dance & infant-directed song human universals? Like many people, I've long thought so. But in a new paper in Current Biology, Kim Hill & I report that the Northern Aché (Paraguay) lacked both behaviors, likely losing them after cultural collapse. Open-access link: www.cell.com/current-biol...cell.comLoss of dance and infant-directed song among the Northern AchéSingh and Hill report no evidence of dance or infant-directed song among the Northern Aché of Paraguay, based on 122 months of fieldwork. Their findings challenge claims of these behaviors’ universali... 26328
Reposted by Bram HesselsJim Coan @jimmycoan.bsky.social · 21/03/2025All humans descend from two ancient populations that split ~1.5M yrs ago, rejoined ~300k yrs ago. One had a brutal bottleneck—and then became almost all of us. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comFig. 6: A simplified model of human demographic history, as inferred by cobraa. | Nature Genetics 031
Bram Hessels @kanderwat.bsky.social · 20/03/2025Humans aren’t the only animals with complex culture − but researchers point to one feature that makes ours unique theconversation.com/humans-arent...theconversation.comHumans aren’t the only animals with complex culture − but researchers point to one feature that makes ours uniqueAnimals can learn from each other, maintaining their cultures for long periods of time. What sets people apart may be the uniquely open-ended ways we invent new ideas and share and build on them. 030
Reposted by Bram HesselsRoberto Sáez @robertosaezm.bsky.social · 15/02/2025Population connectivity shapes the distribution and complexity of chimpanzee cumulative culture www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgPopulation connectivity shapes the distribution and complexity of chimpanzee cumulative cultureAlthough cumulative culture is a hallmark of hominin evolution, its origins can be traced back to our common ancestor with chimpanzees. Here, we investigated the evolutionary origins of chimpanzee cum... 061
Reposted by Bram HesselsAlex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 14/02/2025Reminder of this #culturalevolution starter pack go.bsky.app/6mZJyQq 25028
Reposted by Bram HesselsChris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Perhaps the oldest known human portrait, made from mammoth ivory, about 27,000 years old. Dolni Vestonice, Czechia. 617542
Reposted by Bram HesselsWill Gervais @willgervais.com · 13/11/2024Hi all 👋 I’m a cultural & evolutionary scientist obsessed with 2 ideas: 1) humans are the only species with religion 2) within our religious species, atheism comes naturally I wrote a book on that, here’s a short 🧵 with some fun book tidbits. Enjoy & share! 💙📚 🧪 www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Or...amazon.comDisbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species: Gervais Ph.D, Will M.: 9781633889248: Amazon.com: BooksDisbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species [Gervais Ph.D, Will M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species 911014
Reposted by Bram HesselsProf. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · 08/11/2024📢 Excited to announce that the new edition of my co-authored book on human behaviour and evolution will be published next month (Dec 2024): 'Sense & Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour (3rd Ed)' global.oup.com/academic/pro... 🧪🏺 #evolution #psychscisky #evobio #philsci #histsci 412631
