Dr. Angie Achorn

Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...

Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵

Through Film, Discovering Hope in the Face of Environmental Destruction In the midst of acute eco-anxiety, can community-based filmmaking help young people imagine a different future?

From the archive. In the midst of acute eco-anxiety, can community-based filmmaking help young people imagine a different future? Read more: www.sapiens.org/culture/anth...

One of my Virtual Anthropology students is looking at primate endocasts using data from Morphosource, and they found this massive gorilla brain (630 ml) lurking inside a very cresty cranium

Original data here: www.morphosource.org/concern/biol...

A video journey into the world of primates, their habitats, their lifestyles, and more. A collection of youth-friendly videos for understanding primates, primate conservation, and how everyone can help.
neprimateconservancy.org/discovering-...

Drawing chimps
#art #sciart #chimp #wildlifeart #arttips

So proud to see our new paper out in PNAS spearheaded by @emilypigott.bsky.social She found a tiny 46,000 yr old Neanderthal bone at Starosele (Crimea). DNA work revealed long-distance connections across Eurasia, supported by stone tool evidence @heasvienna.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The comeback of the mountain gorilla – podcast Patrick Greenfield hikes up the Virunga mountains in east Africa to trace the remarkable comeback of the mountain gorilla

On mountain gorillas: A biodiversity reporter "heads up into the Virunga mountains, guided by wildlife vets, to find out how they achieved this rare and extraordinary conservation success." A podcast with @pgreenfielduk.bsky.social from @theguardian.com #gorillas #conservation #anthropology 🧪

Someone asked me the other day*:

How do we replace all the science that’s being lost across the US as NIH, NSF etc are being lawlessly destroyed?

The answer is: we cannot. It is impossible.
The task now is to defend #NIH and public funding for medical research.
1/ 🧪 #neuroscience

I’ve been regularly volunteering at a food bank for about a year and please, if you want to help, consider donating cash.

For $3, they can provide 15 meals and what they can do with the money you might spend on a few cans can be converted to vastly more in fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, or meat.

Mother rhesus macaque with her baby

Postdoc position available at NYU Anthropology to work on topics related to longitudinal aging in the long-running (>80 years) study of rhesus macaque biology on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico 🧪 #primates #academicsky

apply.interfolio.com/173938

📷: davidraju, wikimedia commons

This paper just came out in Folia, and it shows that there is more variation in invertebrate nutrition than we previously thought. Important for nutritional ecologists out there.

brill.com/view/journal...

Guinea baboons share meat according to fixed social rules that parallel hunter-gatherer societies The quality of relationships and the social organization of a society, influence the transfer of valuable resources not only in humans but also in other primates.

Guinea baboons distribute meat based on social bonds, with closer relationships leading to more frequent and peaceful sharing, mirroring patterns seen in human hunter-gatherer societies. doi.org/g97sbw

#primates 🧪🏺

As a historian, I can certify that we are in the bad times. But bad times eventually end.
In the meantime:
• Figure out a small way to help someone
• Figure out a small way to fight back
• Figure out a small place to find joy
• Figure out a small way to grow and thrive

And do it often.

Post-reproductive lifespan in wild mountain gorillas: "Almost one third of females in our study population (7/25) were “postreproductive” according to a commonly used criterion & lived more than a decade past their age of last reproduction, representing at least a fourth of their adult lifespan"

Two of my favorite things: primates and Jeopardy!!

An Orangutan Sanctuary in Borneo Is Giving the Endangered Primates a Second Chance, Just When They Need It Most The critically endangered species gets a helping hand from an Indonesian facility as the island's human population is about to explode

"In the time it would have taken an orangutan mother to raise two offspring—from 1999 to 2015—half of the island’s orangutans had died."

Lovely surprise to open my newest @smithsonianmag.bsky.social & find this article celebrating the work of BOSF. #Orangutans need all the help we can give them!

A survey of critically endangered plecturocebus oenanthe in moyobamba’s urban forests, Peru - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A survey of critically endangered plecturocebus oenanthe in moyobamba’s urban forests, Peru

"...urban forests can support important populations of primates, particularly endemic and threatened species ... remnant forest patches and green corridors should be prioritized in urban planning strategies to ensure long-term wildlife persistence in rapidly developing landscapes."

Congrats!!!!

Job Alert!

Come and join our team at our field site CRP Simenti in Senegal. Julia Fischer @julxf.bsky.social (@primatenzentrum.bsky.social) is recruiting a #Research_Manager. Work with the wonderful lovely Guinea baboons and manage our long-term data collection.

👉 www.dpz.eu/karriere/ste...

🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨

We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨

Scan the QR code & share widely

#AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science

[Depeche Mode voyce]:

🎶
REACHE OUT
TOUCHE GRASS
🎶

The world has lost one of the biggest figures in Anthropology, Biology, and Conservation to have ever lived. Science will be an emptier place without her, and I can only take solace in knowing that she has inspired entire new generations of researchers who will continue her work. Rest in peace, Jane

Changes in Grooming Networks Among Male Chimpanzees Preceding a Permanent Community Fission at Ngogo Chimpanzees form social communities with memberships that change only with births, deaths, and female emigrations or immigrations and that are characterized by high fission-fusion dynamics. Relations...

Study to help explain very rare and violent (horrifying for me to see) intracommunity split among Ngogo chimpanzees. Changes in female # and residence patterns affected male grooming networks, which likely negatively affected male affiliative bonds.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Sounds super neat!! I can’t wait to read it!

Released today!
SEVEN DECADES: HOW WE EVOLVED TO LIVE LONGER
Now available at your favorite bookseller.

Leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon if you can.

Please help spread the word!

#sevendecades @princetonupress.bsky.social

Gender-affirming care is suicide prevention.

Please get clear on that.

It should be needless to say, but it is perhaps at this moment worth saying, that transgender individuals have the same right as anyone else to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Lecturing and stand-up comedy have some overlap in that sometimes you plan a joke and sometimes you come up with one on the spot that you know you'll be using over again for the next decade

Evolutionary tree with different human fossil species represented as silhouettes, all of which are standing like normal ppl except for Homo naledi which is apparently running for its life arms flailing

This Homo naledi silhouette is sending me

(Source: www.nature.com/articles/s42...)