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Viviane Callier

Viviane Callier

Viviane Callier is a freelance science writer and a contractor at the National Cancer Institute. She was a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University, where she studied early tetrapod fossils, and then earned her Ph.D. in insect physiology at Duke University, where she studied body size regulation in tobacco hornworms. You can follow her on Twitter @vcallier and see more of her work on her website.

baboons

The Sweet Spot: New Study Shows Optimal Group Size for Baboons

A new study on the Amboseli baboons of East Africa shows that there is a “sweet spot,” or optimal group size for surviving predators and gathering food.
"Darwinius masillae PMO 214.214" by Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer1, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald, B. Holly Smith - http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005723;jsessionid=E8154D7406947B36A39470C790A4F08C. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Darwinius_masillae_PMO_214.214.jpg#/media/File:Darwinius_masillae_PMO_214.214.jpg

Is Darwinius really “The Missing Link” to Humans?

Darwinius is an exceptionally well preserved, 47-million-year-old primate from the ancient Messel Pit in Germany. Its position in evolution is contested.