Alex Norwood

A single ancient human footprint impressed into pale, fine-grained sediment, photographed from above. The elongated impression shows a defined heel and forefoot. Two black-and-white measuring scales lie beside the footprint for size reference, and the surrounding surface is cracked and textured with faint sediment ripples, indicating an exposed, dried lakeshore.

This morning I've been writing about the 1.5 million-year-old footprints from Koobi Fora, Kenya. What do you MEAN two species walked along a lakeshore within hours of each other? Breathtakingly cool.
📸Kevin Hatala/Chatham University

Our new paper builds a set of models to recover real-time seasonality data from serial enamel isotope profiles. It's currently operationalized for Equus, so please use the models on your horse and zebra serial isotope data! The paper is open access and available here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...

A foot fossil suggests a second early human relative lived alongside Lucy Foot bones and other fossils have been attributed to Australopithecus deyiremeda, a recently discovered species that may shake up the human family tree.

Australopithecus deyiremeda 🤝 Burtele foot www.sciencenews.org/article/foot... 🏺🧪

Simulating the formation of herbivore tooth death assemblages to improve expectations for paleoenvironmental reconstruction from intra-tooth isotopic analysis Isotopic analysis of serially-sampled dental enamel from fossil faunal assemblages is a popular paleoenvironmental proxy for its ability to inform on …

I'm really excited about this new paper, with @dayvees.bsky.social, where we use simulations to explore how herbivore tooth growth and development, demography, and dental wear mediate the seasonal signal preserved in serially sampled teeth!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

John Green Tackles An Injustice Called Tuberculosis With his new book 'Everything Is Tuberculosis,' celebrity author John Green is breathing new life into tuberculosis advocacy

How am I feeling? It's summed up in this conversation with @madhupai.bsky.social: "I think hope is the correct response to the miracle of human consciousness. I am concerned (and discouraged) in the face of our historical moment. But I refuse to respond with despair."
www.forbes.com/sites/madhuk...

Very excited this paper is out now about the program Erina Baci and I founded to mentor anthro undergrads at the University of Michigan. A timely reminder for me of the importance of community.. Thanks to all who made this work possible, and to all the mentors I've had who taught me its importance