Tag: Fossils

Environmental Stress Hypothesis

November 10, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

In the past 4.000.000 years, human evolution is broadly characterised by a trend of increasing body mass and stature associated with changes in behaviour, diet, cognition, and demographic expansion. The past 2.000.000 years have seen an increase in estimated body size among most Homo species from an…

Japanese Miniatures: Okamura Fossil Laboratory

February 24, 2016 By arne hendriks 0

We can only speculate on what inspired the Japanese palaeontologist Chonosuke Okamura to develop his exceptional Fossil Laboratory. Perhaps he felt that the rather unglamorous study of tiny fossil of algae and vertebrates from the Ordovician period limited his imagination. Or maybe this is a…

Cope’s (non)Rule

October 31, 2012 By arne hendriks 1

Cope’s rule states that, as geologic time progresses, body size increases. Edward Drinker Cope, a dinosaur fossil hunter who postulated the rule at the end of the 19th century, based his theory on the analysis of over 1500 fossil families. The more recent species in his…