Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Different hominin species not so species-like it seems

Posted 30 Aug 2018 / 0

Science “This ancient bone belonged to a child of two extinct human species” It’s amazing what can be discovered by looking at ancient DNA. It will be interesting to see how robust this finding is: is this just a rare occurence that we happened to find, or will additional evidence suggest that hybridization between hominin Read More

A Minor Post, Homo species, Human Evolution, Speciation

Ben Knight’s “Phyletic gradualism / Punctuated equilibrium”

Posted 03 Aug 2014 / 0

My good friend, artist Ben Knight, has created a nice chart that captures the difference between two different theories of macroevolution: phyletic gradualism and punctuated equilibrium.

A Minor Post, Art & Design, Divergence, Evolution, Information Design, Macroevolution, Science in Art & Design, Speciation, Web

Okay, I admit it: I am a bit of a Neanderthal

Posted 30 Jan 2014 / 1

The Economist “The genetic contribution Neanderthal man made to modern humanity is clearer” Although this article makes a bigger deal than it should about the “human construct” of the species concept (evolutionists are already well aware of the gradations of isolation that lead to full species separation), it presents these new findings in valuable context. What Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Evolution, Extinction, Genetics, Homo species, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Phylogenetics, Speciation

Sweet Fern Productions puts Alfred Russel Wallace to paper

Posted 26 Jan 2014 / 0

Sweet Fern Productions “The Animated Life of A.R. Wallace” I loved the Sweet Fern video on whale fall, but this is even more valuable as a historical account of Wallace’s life. I really like the way that this video depicts natural selection! Great way of showing differential survival as Wallace might have seen it!

A Minor Post, Biography, Evolution, Evolution Education, Film, Television, & Video, Geography, History, Natural Selection, Science as a career, Science in Art & Design, Speciation, Teaching Tools, The WmD Project, Tropical Forest

Shark species may be more cryptic than previously understood

Posted 26 Jun 2012 / 0

Nature News “Shark species more diverse than thought“

A Minor Post, Speciation

Could differential symbiosis be a mechanism by which genetically-variable hosts speciate?

Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0

PLoS One “Symbiotic Associations in the Phenotypically-Diverse Brown Alga Saccharina japonica“

A Minor Post, Mutualism, Speciation

Cultural Evolution in a Hybrid Society

Posted 03 Mar 2011 / 0

The process of cultural evolution fascinates me. It is still a topic that I need to research further, but I think about it often. My Human Evolution course is steeped pretty heavily in the idea that culture as well as biology has evolved in Homo sapiens, and we talk briefly about how culture might evolve. Read More

Cultural Evolution, Speciation