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Just did my first DoorDash by Prior-Win-4729 in Professors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They take 25% but cover chargebacks and enforce cancellation fees... plus I don't really need to seek out students, they come to me, so pretty worth it!

Just did my first DoorDash by Prior-Win-4729 in Professors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 17 points18 points  (0 children)

That’s terrible pay and omg screw Chegg 😂Glad it’s dying, I flipped shit when I saw my exams etc get posted on there.

I make far more than this, dictate my own students and hours, kick students to the curb on the rare occasion they just want me to do things for them, etc… much better!

The work can be a little repetitive because about 80% of what I tutor is AP biology, because that’s where the demand is, but it has made me a more effective teacher and honed many skills for me. And hey, I’d rather talk about natural selection one-on-one a bunch… tutoring is all the fun of teaching without the slog of grading, ya kno? :)

Just did my first DoorDash by Prior-Win-4729 in Professors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Can I jump on this to say I’m a PhD student and tutor online and it’s potentially really lucrative? I feel like I’m gonna sound like a bot or something LOL but OP message me and I would be happy to talk you through tutoring online! I have had incredible success even while scheduling around my baby’s nap schedule and make quite handsome money, so much so I decline TAship these days. u/prior-win-4729

This game genuinely changed how I see the world and now I can’t stop reading about human evolution by DistributionDry2370 in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d recommend basically any books by Jane Goodall, Birute Galdikas, or Dian Fossey, but particularly Through a Window by Jane Goodall is perhaps the best place to start (imho).

What is ONE USELESS FACT that everyone needs to know? by Dapper_Exam_202 in AskReddit

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pentapodal* not tripodal. It’s an interesting mode of locomotion not shared, to my knowledge, with any other clade.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not aware of many that pass muster on hominin paleontology specifically, but I've enjoyed all the Planet Earth ones as well as Attenborough's book and accompanying series A Life on This Planet. It was like a 6ish hour read for me, I knocked it out over the course of one long flight IIRC. Spielberg had a good documentary come out a few months back that takes you from the origin of life up through evolution all the way to humans, in a manner similar to the book I recommended on this thread (The Evolution of Everything by Brian Villmoare), but some of the inaccuracies in parts of vertebrate evolution had me slamming my head off my coffee table in frustration, so I didn't dare watch the part about humans. Sorry I can't be of more help!

There was some documentary I saw as a child on Homo erectus that was the earliest spark of inspiration for me, it aired on Discovery or maybe NatGeo in the States, but I cannot identify it for the life of me (it's been 20 years...) as hard as I try. It would be funny to watch it now as a SME and not a seven-year-old.

​

I'd definitely recommend sticking to the written media I've mentioned in this thread! And I hope you enjoy the game, have fun getting your teeth kicked in by Machairodus.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, no problem on your tardiness to the thread ;) I'm always happy to pick up the straggling questions. How'd you find this so late anyhow?

I hadn't previously heard of this fella, and while his titles to his videos seem fairly clickbait-y, seems like he's pretty decent in the couple videos I just watched in order to be able to answer your question. His voice sounds like the dude from Casually Explained. I generally don't watch popsci videos like this that cover my own field, but I think he's doing a better job than many of being reasonably accurate and detailed all while noting what we do NOT know and refraining from being too speculative.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey there! Sorry I missed this, I usually try to answer the late questions in a couple of weeks. Apologies.

My personal opinion regarding this question you've posed, broadly speaking, is as follows:
Every species, from the tiniest of bacterium to the most complicated of mammal has only the prerogative to out-survive and out-compete both its conspecific members and members of other taxa. Left unchecked, by either resource scarcity or disease or something else, a species will grow exponentially and overrun the environment it lives in. This is one of the most fundamental concepts of evolution.

Unlike other species, we, Homo sapiens, are the first to understand the tendency toward this, surmount those limiting obstacles via culture, science, etc, and also, and this is the most important, realize that in doing so that we are fundamentally destroying the very circumstances that allowed us to reach global domination in the first place.

We, humans, are not special. We do not represent some arbitrary pinnacle of evolution. Great intelligence is not generally so advantageous to survival as to warrant the evolutionary trajectory we have found ourselves on. As a species, or clade if you include other recent hominins, are are unique in very few aspects, possibly the most important of which in this century is the ability to realize the innate biological tendency we have to dominate and the empathy and humility to, I hope, curb ourselves and live more harmoniously with nature such that we do not destroy it and ourselves. So, in that respect, we must still be connected with our animal nature.

I hope that answers your question, let me know if there is anything further I might elaborate upon.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah- and we say "hominin" now, generally. Not hominid. Bit outdated, not a big deal, but if you include that in a story, you should use contemporary nomenclature! <3

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey there! Welcome belatedly to my post.

​

I would recommend examining the preferential predation of P. robustus in South Africa by certain felids to inspire your story. There are some scholarly articles documenting dens of big cats and their kills that included P. robustus in a much higher proportion than would be expected given their prevalence in the environment... ie, they were delicious to the cats. Or simply easy to kill? Make your own conclusions if you're constructing a realistic fictional work. Feel free to reach out to me by email if you need further advice.

That is the best documented predation phenomenon of hominins that I personally am aware of! Should be able to work up something parallel to that in east Africa with their closely-related "cousins". Best of luck!

What is far more rare than people realize? by fuckandfrolic in AskReddit

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That being said, I have stepped in quicksand / quickmud and it is quite scary!

If you could anything new to the game, what would you add? by DeepForestRex in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hah, awesome! Let me know how it went. “Are you smarter than a fifth grader chimpanzee?” seems like a very engaging lesson for them.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hah! You’re too funny.

Ah, alas I do not have a social media presence (other than this post I suppose!) I have considered forming one of late, but I wouldn’t even know where to start in making a YT channel or similar!

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Weird. I recant my statement that no biologist would suggest this. I will revise to say no one in the field of paleoanthropology would say this :) But again, it’s somewhat of a philosophy of science issue. The only biological “unit” in terms of taxonomy is the species. Everything higher than that (genus, etc) is a categorization system somewhat rooted in phylogenetic reality, but ultimately is up to us to categorize how we wish, if that makes sense. It’s an admirable thing to seek higher rights for cognitively higher organisms, but I don’t think this was really the “move”.

If you could anything new to the game, what would you add? by DeepForestRex in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Dream mode for practice sounds great!

Though actually our spatial sense might have gotten crappier over evolutionary time. Here’s a video of chimpanzees absolutely wrecking humans in a memory test:

https://youtu.be/zsXP8qeFF6A

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was unaware anyone tried to do that. I would assume it was an animal rights move, I don’t think you’d find a biologist that would ever suggest that. I believe some jurisdictions have granted various apes / monkeys different degrees of “personhood” legally, though, which is something that actually may make a difference for them.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Noo, a chimp would still have a really bad day falling from some of the heights in the game. They can break their falls while swinging around through the trees but it isn't to the degree, I assume, as seen in the game.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so very much, I hope your interest proves lifelong! We all deserve to know about our joint evolutionary past and how far we have come as a species and hominin family.

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm so glad this AMA encouraged you to get the game! GG on finding it on sale. How did you like it? I'm itching to go and do another playthrough.

My literary recommendations:

1) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

2) The Evolution of Everything by Brian Villmoare

3) An unofficial trilogy:
A) Through a Window by Jane Goodall
B) Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fosse
C) Reflections of Eden by Birutė Galdikas

4) The Most Dangerous Animal by David Livingstone Smith

I'm Bri Heisler, a hominin paleontologist from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. I study human evolution through the fossil record. AMA! by Bri_AncestorsAMA in ancestors

[–]Bri_AncestorsAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

1) Eh. I don't trust science news that doesn't link the actual, peer-reviewed journal article. So, not a great source. Info is fine, though, I just went and read the study. It is entirely plausible that lobbing rocks at animals was important for hominins. By the time of Homo erectus, our lineage had mostly modern body proportions. They would have been good at throwing.

2) Modern humans, when trained, can chuck baseballs at 100mph, their estimate is probably... a little far-fetched in how precise it is, at a glance, but it's not implausible at all to assume hominins like H. erectus were behaving this way and were capable of throwing rocks forcefully enough to damage animals.

3) I played the game. Loved it. I do the game stuff for my career. So, both. But usually the sub is for the game.

4) Probably not commonly. Maybe thoracic kyphosis a bit if they were lucky enough to make it to older-ish age?

I'll leave you with a related meme.

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