Ask An Anthropologist
Ask An Anthropologist is an educational resource for students, teachers, parents, and life-long learners. We encourage anyone interested in anthropology to make use of its content.
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When you tape down your thumb, you’ll get a sense of how hard it would be to do many things if our hands were shaped differently. Even a simple task like placing a straw in a bottle becomes difficult!
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Becoming human brings together interactive multimedia, research and scholarship to promote greater understanding of the course of human evolution.
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Tool test
humans have evolved a whole suite of specialized skills to help us survive. Perhaps the most important of these skills was our ability to make and use tools. Did you know that crows use tools, too?
Controlling the Code
DNA controls all of your traits. Right? Well, kind of. The environment can actually control how your DNA works. Learn about how it does this through a series of switches known as epigenetic mechanisms.
On the Origin of Species
In 1859, Charles Darwin published a book called On the Origin of Species that completely changed our understanding of how biodiversity arises.
Babies, Birth, and Brains
We have big brains, but are we born with big brains or do they get big as we grow up? It turns out that it’s a little bit of both. Learn about how our incredible brains grow and find out what limits our brain size. Also in: Español