Carrier seems totally irrelevant. Sexual selection always leads to dimorphism and humans are not optimised for standing but for long distance running. Pair bonding must also have been an early adaptation leading to much reduced fighting compared to groups where one male has all the harem and all the others none.
Fiorenza (two articles, method and results) puts some sense back into the fierce discussion about plant use and meat eating. Humans eat what’s there and have always done so.
Pinhasi, Balter, and Slimak show the discussion about the timing of the Neanderthal demise is just as fierce as ever. By all previous knowledge the Neanderthals with their cold adapted physique have only occupied cool areas but never really cold ones, as they never mastered housing, fire, and clothing the way the moderns did. So not only the timing but also the place ten degrees further north than ever observed before make Slimak‘s conclusion highly unlikely. His arguments against moderns are quite convincing too. So, could these be the elusive Denisovans?
Here’s the link to this week’s complete list.