Hominid Evolution Fun Facts- Dr. Alexandra Kralick

Fascinating, I am trying to figure out why and I wonder if this might explain it- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringi…

How have I never noticed this? Over half of orangutans have big toes (hallux) that congenitally lack both a nail and a distal phalanx! (Tuttle and Rogers, 1966) What?! I think you can see it in these pictures here. Wow.

Receiving the #AABA2022 student presentation prize honorable mention for my first time presenting a podium presentation talk (as opposed to a poster) was such a shocking and exciting honor! Thank you so much @BiologicalAnth, and thank you @BrianaPobiner so much for the shout out!

An easy way to tell the difference between apes and monkeys is that Monkeys have tails, and apes do not. Apes include chimps, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, and siamangs. Monkeys include species like baboons, macaques, and capuchins!

Ever noticed how kids are less likely to sprain their ankle than adults? Sprains are very uncommon in young children - fractures are more common Why? Because their bones are still growing, their muscles and tendons are stronger than the ends of their long bones (growth plate)

So if primary forests are being lost with habitat loss, this is very bad for orangutans. What about the nearly 75% of all orangutans live outside protected areas? Well in 2010 unexpectedly high orangutan densities were discovered in plantation landscapes dominated by acacias

New study on teeth found that early Pleistocene fossil orangutans had a body masses 75% greater than living orangs today. Large flanged males in the past would have had a body mass of ~134 kg (around 300 lbs) compared with ~74 kg (around 160 lbs) today sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

American Anthropological Association Conference attendees, a plug to stop by our virtual roundtable at 10:15am on Saturday. It starts a conversation about applying decolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and animal ethics frameworks to bio anthro research on great ape remains

there are three species of orangutan- sumatran, tapanuli, and bornean

New research calls into question the 60 year old assumption that the big molar teeth in fossil hominin Paranthropus (middle in image) meant they ate harder foods (i.e. nuts & seeds) than the softer diet (i.e. meats, cooked food) of our direct ancestors the Homo lineage (bottom)