Thomas Püschel

Thrilled this paper is out! We describe the rich vertebrate fauna from Lomekwi, identifying 85 taxa. During the time of Kenyanthropus, there were megaherbivores 🦒🦛🐘, numerous artiodactyls, diverse carnivores, giant crocodiles, and multiple primates 
👉 authors.elsevier.com/c/1mHna3ic-F...

#ESHE2025
Thomas Puschel ‘The evolutionary singularity of human handedness’
Is human handedness exceptional?
87% R handed. Study: 2000 ind fr 41 primate spp
ONLY HUMANS have an outstanding handedness bias! Increase during human evolution
No existing hypothesis best explains findings

The perks of having another palaeontologist in the family: my younger brother is leading this cool fieldwork near Santiago and of course I had to join him 🪏🪨⛏️🦴

The radiation and geographic expansion of primates through diverse climates | PNAS One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e...

While it is often believed early #primates dispersed and radiated in warm tropical forests, new evidence suggest they may have occupied arid, cold and temperate regions too!

🦧🦍🐒🧪 #science #primatology #BioAnth

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Early primates evolved in cold, seasonal climates, not warm tropical forests

'We’ve long assumed that primates evolved in tropical forests because that’s where most of them live today.

But fossil & climate evidence tells a different story...'

🐒NEW research @tpuschel.bsky.social ‪
@oxford-anthro.bsky.social ‬& @uniofreading.bsky.social

www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/article/earl...

Early primates evolved in cold, seasonal climates, not warm tropical forests - new research by our Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology, Dr Thomas Püschel, and collaborators ‪@uniofreading.bsky.social‬ challenges our assumptions about where primates originated: ‪https://shorturl.at/3AnbC

Fossil evidence reveals early primates evolved in cold climates, not tropical forests Primates—the group of animals that includes monkeys, apes and humans—first evolved in cold, seasonal climates around 66 million years ago, not in the warm tropical forests scientists previously believed.

Fossil and environmental data indicate that early primates evolved in cold, seasonal climates in North America, challenging the long-standing view that they originated in tropical forests. doi.org/g9v72t

The radiation and geographic expansion of primates through diverse climates | PNAS One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e...

🌍❄️ New paper out! Early primates didn’t just thrive in tropical forests, they evolved and dispersed through cold & temperate climates 🐒🧊
Enjoyed being part of this collaboration led by @avaria_jorge! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Uploaded two preprints with fantastic colleagues: one on handedness, the other on sexual dimorphism, both tackling different aspects of human evolution 🧠💪
👉 Handedness: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
👉 Dimorphism: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

A Dryopithecine Talus From Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès‐Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula): Morphometric Affinities and Evolutionary Implications for Hominoid Locomotion Objectives The functional interpretation of postcranial remains of Middle Miocene great apes from Europe (dryopithecines) suggests a combination of quadrupedalism and orthograde behaviors without mo...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Thrilled to have been part of this fantastic collaboration: A Dryopithecine Talus From Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès‐Penedès Basin); check out our new paper! 🦴

A Dryopithecine Talus From Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès‐Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula): Morphometric Affinities and Evolutionary Implications for Hominoid Locomotion Objectives The functional interpretation of postcranial remains of Middle Miocene great apes from Europe (dryopithecines) suggests a combination of quadrupedalism and orthograde behaviors without mo.....

New paper alert! 🦧
Described a new dryopithecine talus from the Vallès-Penedès basin to inform about crown hominoid locomotor evolution 👇
doi.org/10.1002/ajpa...
with Shubham Pal, @tpuschel.bsky.social , @a-urciuoli.bsky.social , Víctor Vinuesa, Josep M. Robles, Sergio Almécija and David M. Alba

Saying what is better when comparing apples and oranges " Models are not literal representations of reality but provide simplifications or substitutes of the events, scenarios or behaviours that are being studied or predicted. All models make...

With @tpuschel.bsky.social we wrote this text on #FEA models in #biomechanics: Models aren’t reality, just tools for specific questions. Comparing different models outside their context? Like apples & oranges. 📓Read more 👇

How early human brains expanded over time New research challenges old assumptions about how the human brain evolved, revealing a more complex, gradual pattern of growth within species.

I was recently interviewed by @bigthink.com in connection to our research on brain size evolution 🧠 bigthink.com/the-past/how...

The latest issue of PaleoAnthropology is now out! #openaccess
Volume 2025, Issue 1, In Progress

Read Here: paleoanthropology.org/ojs/index.php/paleo/issue/view/91

#paleoanthropology #humanevolution #archaeology

Nice visualisation of our latest paper in a new French scientific magazine 🧠

Shrinking trees and tuskless elephants: the strange ways species are adapting to humans

a large flock of birds are flying in a cloudy sky ALT: a large flock of birds are flying in a cloudy sky

#SciAdvent Dec11 🐦‍⬛🌲🐦‍⬛🌲🐦‍⬛
How do the stunning shapes of starling #murmurations happen? How does each bird know what to do? By 3D-tracking starling flocks and comparing their movements with computer simulations 👩‍💻, researchers found out that birds only keep track of about 7 other closest birds! (1/2)

Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪

Hominin brain size increase has emerged from within-species encephalization | PNAS The fact that rapid brain size increase was clearly a key aspect of human evolution has prompted many studies focusing on this phenomenon, and many...

In our latest paper we argue that brain expansion 🧠 in hominins was primarily driven by within-species dynamics, with an accelerating trend in recent lineages! 📈

Available here 👉🏼 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@oxford-anthro.bsky.social

Just thought that the best way to kick off with this new account would be to post a few pictures from the incredible Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, where I’m fortunate to do fieldwork every year 🐘🇲🇿