Articles

The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Teaching Human Evolution in the Museum

As natural history museums are increasingly challenged to represent the complexities of human evolution, new innovations are required to create dynamic, dialogic experiences between museum scientists and museu...

Authors: Monique Scott

On Human Evolution

Authors: William E. H. Harcourt-Smith

Anthropological Genetics: Inferring the History of Our Species Through the Analysis of DNA

The genetic material, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), contains information about the evolutionary history of life. Both the relationships amongst organisms and the times of their divergence can be inferred from D...

Authors: Jason A. Hodgson and Todd R. Disotell

The First Hominins and the Origins of Bipedalism

Molecular and paleontological evidence now point to the last common ancestor between chimpanzees and modern humans living between five and seven million years ago. Any species considered to be more closely rel...

Authors: William H. E. Harcourt-Smith

Origin of the Genus Homo

The origin of the genus Homo in Africa signals the beginning of the shift from increasingly bipedal apes to primitive, large-brained, stone tool-making, meat-eaters that traveled far and wide. This early part of ...

Authors: Holly M. Dunsworth

The NCBI Databases: an Evolutionist’s Perspective

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) organizes information resources for life scientists on an evolutionary scheme. This facilitates research about present-day organisms. The recent discove...

Authors: Adam M. Goldstein

Ancestor or Adapiform? Darwinius and the Search for Our Early Primate Ancestors

On May 19, 2009, an international team of scientists claimed to have found one of our early primate ancestors. Dubbed Darwinius masillae, the 47 million-year-old primate was presented as “the link” that bridged a...

Authors: Brian J. Switek

Apes and Tricksters: The Evolution and Diversification of Humans’ Closest Relatives

The evolutionary history of humans comprises an important but small branch on the larger tree of ape evolution. Today’s hominoids—gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans—are a meager representat...

Authors: Kieran P. McNulty

Paleontology and Evolution in the News

This paper is a review of recent publications and journal articles about human evolution and paleontology.

Authors: Sidney Horenstein

Thirty-Five Years of Paleoanthropology

Authors: Ian Tattersall and Niles Eldredge

Human Origins Studies: A Historical Perspective

Research into the deep history of the human species is a relatively young science which can be divided into two broad periods. The first spans the century between the publication of Darwin’s Origin and the end of...

Authors: Tom Gundling

The Evolutionary History of the Australopiths

The australopiths are a group of early hominins (humans and their close extinct relatives) that lived in Africa between approximately 4.1 and 1.4 million years ago. Formerly known as the australopithecines, th...

Authors: David S. Strait

Archaeology and Human Evolution

Archaeology is the study of human behavior through material culture, the things we rely on for survival. Behavioral change was likely a driving factor in the evolution of our species, and archaeology therefore...

Authors: Christian Tryon, Briana Pobiner and Rhonda Kauffman

Neanderthals

Neanderthals are a group of fossil humans that inhabited Western Eurasia from approximately 300 to 30,000 years ago (ka). They vanished from the fossil record a few millennia after the first modern humans appe...

Authors: Katerina Harvati

A Missing Link: K-4 Biological Evolution Content Standards

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) is one of the most influential documents in US science education. The NSES has been utilized by local schools and districts, state departments of education, and ...

Authors: Ron Wagler

Cosmic Evolution

Just as biological evolution is the heart of modern biology, cosmic evolution is the heart of modern cosmology. For instructors to be confident in teaching science, it is helpful for them to appreciate the cur...

Authors: Lawrence M. Krauss

Complete Bibliography of Eugenie C. Scott

Bibliographic references for all works authored by Eugenie C. Scott are provided, including her contributions to the publications of the National Center for Science Education and to other sources. The publicat...

Authors: Adam M. Goldstein and Glenn Branch

Paleontology and Evolution in the News

Authors: Sidney Horenstein

Lessons from the Social Psychology of Evolution Warfare: Good Science Alone is not Enough

American student acceptance of evolution is far from uniform, even when students experience instruction in the relevant scientific methods and data. But, excellent science teaching alone cannot be expected alw...

Authors: Raymond Arthur Eve, Susan Carol Losh and Brandon Nzekwe

How Old is Earth, and How Do We Know?

Earth scientists have devised many complementary and consistent techniques to estimate the ages of geologic events. Annually deposited layers of sediments or ice document hundreds of thousands of years of cont...

Authors: Robert M. Hazen

Editorial

Authors: Niles Eldredge and Gregory Eldredge

Three Wishes for Genie

Authors: Glenn Branch

The Evolution of Creationist Movements

Every discipline has its hazards, and for evolution scientists and educators, a major hazard consists of encounters with creationists, their rhetoric, and their attempts to insert antievolutionism into public ...

Authors: Nicholas J. Matzke

A Bulldog of Your Owen: The Philosophies Behind the Huxley–Owen Debate

Authors: David M. Lovelace

Richard Owen’s “Most Interesting Department of Natural History ... Its Very Soul”

Authors: Adam M. Goldstein

What’s a Nice Midwestern Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

Authors: Andrew J. Petto

Problem Concepts in Evolution Part II: Cause and Chance

In a previous article, we suggested that differences in how the general public and scientists use terms such as purpose and design can lead to confusion, particularly around understanding evolution and mechanisms...

Authors: Louise S. Mead and Eugenie C. Scott

Communicating Evolution as Science

Authors: Anastasia Thanukos

Geology as Theater: The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802–1856, by Ralph O’Connor

Authors: Steven Newton

The Theory of Evolution is Not an Explanation for the Origin of Life

The propagation of misconceptions about the theory of biological evolution must be addressed whenever and wherever they are encountered. The recent article by Paz-y-Mino and Espinoza in this journal contained ...

Authors: Justin W. Rice, Daniel A. Warner, Clint D. Kelly, Michael P. Clough and James T. Colbert

Should Students Be Able to Opt Out of Evolution? Some Philosophical Considerations

One new development in the ongoing creationism/evolution controversy has been the proposal to institute opt-out policies that would allow creationist parents to exempt their children from any instruction invol...

Authors: Robert T. Pennock

From the Classroom to the Courtroom: Intelligent Design and the Constitution

Although the Supreme Court of the United States has never developed a single clear test for determining what kinds of state action violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, schools that attempt ...

Authors: Jay D. Wexler

Compatibility of Major U.S. Christian Denominations with Evolution

Public school teachers sometimes encounter the sentiment that the study and acceptance of evolutionary theory is contrary to the Christian faith. This perception can pose a significant barrier to the teaching ...

Authors: Joel W. Martin

Apprehension and Pedagogy in Evolution Education

Instructors’ apprehensions and the decisions instructors make about pedagogy are often linked when it comes to teaching evolution. Whether it is the reticence of K-12 teachers that their instruction may affect...

Authors: Brian Alters

Evolution—by the (Text) Book

Textbooks are widely used in American science classrooms and as such have become a focal point of efforts by the anti-evolution movement to eliminate or weaken evolution education in American schools. Because ...

Authors: Kenneth R. Miller

It's Déjà Vu All Over Again: The Intelligent Design Movement's Recycling of Creationist Strategies

The intelligent design (ID) creationist movement is now a quarter of a century old. ID proponents at the Discovery Institute, headquartered in Seattle, WA, USA, insist that ID is not creationism. However, it i...

Authors: Barbara Forrest

Listening to Teachers

The author reflects on how much she has learned about teaching from K-12 teachers, and about the difficulties teachers encounter when they teach about evolution. Misconceptions and preconceptions, especially t...

Authors: Eugenie C. Scott

Not Just for Ornithologists

Authors: Beatrice Kondo

Thirteen Essays on Evolution and Creationism in Modern Debates

Authors: Kim Paffenroth

“Little Monkeys on the Grass…” How People for and Against Evolution Fail to Understand the Theory of Evolution

In an informal survey, only five percent of 306 college freshmen students in an introductory biology course provided a correct scientific definition for the theory of evolution. The other respondents provided ...

Authors: Steven R. Jakobi

Evolution and the Media

Journalists have been writing about evolution since Darwin first published the Origin of Species. Today, news about evolution comes in a dizzying diversity of venues. In this paper, I survey this diversity, obser...

Authors: Carl Zimmer

Interactive Evolution Modules Promote Conceptual Change

We developed a suite of online modules (http://​ats.​doit.​wisc.​edu/​biology/​) to improve student understanding of challenging concepts in our introductory biolo...

Authors: Jean G. Heitz, Jan A. Cheetham, E. Michelle Capes and Robert L. Jeanne

How to Win the Evolution War: Teach Macroevolution!

If the American public understood what is actually known about the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life and how we know about them, uncertainty about evolution would drop precipitously, creati...

Authors: Kevin Padian

Problem Concepts in Evolution Part I: Purpose and Design

In 1999, Scott suggested that evolution has existential repercussions for some students because they confuse methodological naturalism with philosophical naturalism: conflating the incapacity of scientific exp...

Authors: Louise S. Mead and Eugenie C. Scott

Coevolution in the Classroom

Authors: Anastasia Thanukos

Evolution and the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Effectively Communicating to Non-technicians

Given the degree of disbelief in the theory of evolution by the wider public, scientists need to develop a collection of clear explanations and metaphors that demonstrate the working of the theory and the flaw...

Authors: Alexander Schreiber and Steven Gimbel

Coevolution and the Web of Life

Authors: John N. Thompson and Rodrigo Medel

Using Microbial Microcosms to Study Host–parasite Coevolution

Microbial microcosm experiments with bacteria and their viral parasites allow us to observe host–parasite coevolution in action. Laboratory populations of microbes evolve rapidly, thanks to their short generat...

Authors: Michael A. Brockhurst

Biosemantics: An Evolutionary Theory of Thought

Evolutionary theory has an unexpected application in philosophy of mind, where it is used by the so-called biosemantic program—also called the teleosemantic program—to account for the representational capaciti...

Authors: Crystal L’Hôte

Darwinian Morality

The paper explores the significance of Darwinian evolution for morality and moral theory. After presenting Darwin’s own views on the evolution of the moral sense and the Victorian spectrum of opinion on the re...

Authors: Catherine Wilson