W. Andrew Barr

my best writing advice for students

@gwCASHP @GW_OVPR @kat_garrigan

Human evolution is not out of the woods yet! Congrats to @enquye on this landmark paper! In it, we present a new model for woody cover based on an Africa-specific soil dataset. Results show hominin sites were ~13% more wooded than previously predicted! kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2…

Barr lab cookout (plus a few honorary members) at my house. Fun times, except for the mosquitoes 🦟

This is such a cool job opportunity for any early career paleoanthropologists! Run Sterkfontein, study hominin fossils, advise graduate students at Wits 😍

Edit: **exploring the impact

Nature published a “research briefing” on our recent paper expiring the impact of spatial sampling bias on our understanding of human evolution. rdcu.be/dRLNw

Was asked to comment on @wabarree's new paper (in Dutch, sorry Andrew!): "There is far too little explicit thought about the limits of our knowledge and what we can do about it. This is a much-needed and creative response to that scarcity..a delightfully uncomfortable conclusion"

We conclude that we must take habitat reconstructions of extinct species as minimum estimates. We also point out that the rift is bad at capturing east-west gradients in variation. Free link to article here rdcu.be/dRqUm (4/4)

We then take published cranial datasets of modern baboons and guenons and ask, how much anatomical variation does the rift capture in these widely distributed primates? Turns out major portions of morphological variation are missed by the rift. (3/4)

In my paper out today, coauthor Bernard Wood and I explore the potential impacts of a spatially limited fossil record on understanding human evolution. We do this using two "thought experiments", focusing on the Eastern African Rift Valley. (1/4)

*New Article Alert* Sophia Anderson spearheaded this study of the anatomy of the bovid humerus, with special reference to Rusingoryx! With contributions from Fire Kovarovic, and me! doi.org/10.1111/joa.14…

@wabarree Good news!

I think Louis and Mary really missed a trick by not naming OH 5 "Olduvai George".

Some @gwCASHP students and staff found a good spot to check out the eclipse!

New paper out by former @gwCASHP PhD student Vance Powell, with contributions from me, Bernard Wood, and @ashleyshammond "Behavioral and phylogenetic correlates of limb length proportions in extant apes and monkeys" Free access here: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@DemingYang @IDPAS_SBU @UofUGeo @RGGSatAMNH @AMNH Really cool....great work, Deming!

🚨New article alert 🚨 Our article on the the seasonal dietary variations of wild pigs in Africa has been published in Current Zoology. @IDPAS_SBU @UofUGeo @RGGSatAMNH @AMNH academic.oup.com/cz/advance-art…

Lots of credit to John Kappelman for pushing this along and including all those involved. nature.com/articles/s4158…

@BrianaPobiner @gwCASHP didn't know you were sneaking up from behind!

Shout out to the strong @gwCASHP representation at the 2024 Paleoanthropology Society poster session!