"All right, class, who knows what Watson and Crick discovered?"
"Rosalind Franklin's notes."
"That's correct."

Dart thought these were tools used by #Australopithecus africanus, his “killer ape”. Turns out, they are remains left by a carnivore with no hominin intervention.

One of my favorite examples of a scientist just completely getting it wrong. And a reminder that getting it wrong is part of science!

I’ve been scanning fossils: vertebrate take ~5min to scan and process fully. Flat fragments, especially with sharp edges, take a little longer but are still quick once you have the right scans. I actually haven’t had an opportunity to scan a full hipbone yet so I’m not sure how it does with those.

They have different focal lengths so the mini can capture small items in great detail while the pop can capture larger items in still pretty good detail. They both use the same software so you could conceivably fuse scans from both depending on the detail needed.

Today was the first day using the Pop 3 Plus. So far it is really easy to use and the scans look good, but I haven’t directly compared it with other scanners yet. Website says the accuracy is 0.08 mm.

I’ve used the MINI2 for over a year. The accuracy is listed as 0.02 mm. My tests have it delivering similar results as Artec, but faster, cheaper, more portable, and waaay easier to post-process.

This post brought to you by my jet lagged brain after I spent the morning squinting somewhat discerningly at some such fossil fragments.

Forvo is my favorite site for pronunciations, so in case this helps: forvo.com/search/Dryoc...

In my undergrad Intro to Physical Anthropology course, there was a quiz where we had to list all the bones that articulate with the sphenoid. No word bank given. Lefts and rights counted as separate bones. – May have ruined me on the sphenoid for life, though I do appreciate it's cute shape now!

Citing my sources (and thank you to these authors):
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/books/...

This makes so much sense. You know how cranial bones are pretty flat? So is the shoulder side of the clavicle that also uses intramembranous ossification!

And no wonder it takes the clavicle so long to finish growing, I bet it takes time for the 2 sides to figure out how to fit together.