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The Human Lineage. Edition No. 2. Foundation of Human Biology

  • Book

  • 640 Pages
  • August 2022
  • John Wiley and Sons Ltd
  • ID: 5842715

The newly revised and thoroughly updated standard source for mastering the human fossil record.

This new edition of The Human Lineage is the best and most current guide to the morphological, geological, paleontological, and archeological evidence for the story of human evolution. This comprehensive textbook presents the history, methods, and issues of paleoanthropology through detailed analyses of the major fossils of interest to practicing scientists in the field. It will help both advanced students and practicing professionals to become involved with the lively scholarly debates that mark the field of human-origins research. Its clear and engaging chapters contain concise explanatory text and hundreds of high-quality illustrations. This thoroughly revised second edition reflects the most recent fossil discoveries and scientific analyses, offering new sections on the locomotor adaptations of Miocene hominoids, the taxonomic distinctiveness of Homo heidelbergensis, the Burtele foot, Ardipithecus, and Neandertal genomics. Updated and expanded chapters offer fresh insights on topics such as the origins of bipedality and the anatomy and evolution of early mammals and primates. Written and illustrated by established leaders in the field, The Human Lineage:

  • Provides the background needed to study human evolution, including dating techniques, mechanics of evolution, and primate adaptations
  • Covers the major stages in human evolution with emphasis on important fossils and their implications
  • Offers a balanced critical assessment of conflicting ideas about key events in human evolution
  • Includes an extensive bibliography and appendices on biological nomenclature and craniometrics

Covering the entire story of human evolution from its Precambrian beginnings to the emergence of modern humanity, The Human Lineage is indispensable reading for all advanced students of biological anthropology.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface to the First Edition xiii

Preface to the Second Edition xvi

Some Notes on Nomenclature xix

About the Companion Website xxi

1 The Fossil Record 1

1.1 The Discovery of the Deep Past 1

Changing Ideas About the Changing Earth 1

Neptune vs. Vulcan 2

A Brief Guide to Sedimentology 3

Dating the Rocks 4

The Succession of Faunas 5

Radiation-Based Dating Techniques 7

Other Dating Techniques 9

Dating Based on the Cycles of the Earth 9

The Problem of Orogeny 11

Continental Drift 11

1.2 A Brief History of Life 12

Life: The First Three Billion Years 12

Multicellular Life 14

The Cambrian Revolution 15

Jaws, Fins, and Feet 16

The Reptilian Revolutions 18

The Two Great Extinctions 20

The Mammals Take Over 21

2 Analyzing Evolution 23

2.1 Darwin and Evolution 23

Parsimony and Pigeons 23

Darwin’s Theory 24

Improving on Darwin 27

2.2 The Origin of Species 30

What, if Anything, is a Species? 30

The Speciation Process 31

The Tempo of Speciation 32

Semispecies, Hybrids, and Isolating Mechanisms 33

2.3 Species Concepts and Classification 35

Races, Semispecies, and Taxonomy 35

Other Species Concepts 37

Morphospecies and Chronospecies 39

2.4 Microevolution and Macroevolution 40

Is Evolution Smooth or Jerky? 40

The Neo-Darwinian Synthesis 41

The Politics of Macroevolution 42

2.5 Reconstructing the Tree of Life 42

Phylogenetic Inference 42

Sources of Error in Phylogenetics 44

2.6 Taxonomy and Classification 47

Linnaean Systematics 47

Evolutionary Systematics 47

Phenetics and Cladistics 49

Pros and Cons of Phylogenetic Systematics 49

3 People as Primates 51

3.1 Primates as Mammals 51

The First Mammals 51

Allometry 57

Allometry and Early Mammals 58

Death and Molar Occlusion 59

Allometry, Motherhood, and Milk 60

Respiration and the Palate 60

The Tribosphenic Molar 62

Live Birth and Placentation 64

Jurassic and Cretaceous Mammals 65

3.2 The Order Primates 66

What is a Primate? 66

The Living Strepsirrhines 73

Anthropoid Apomorphies: Ears, Eyes, and Noses 74

Tarsiers 76

Platyrrhines: The New World Anthropoids 77

Cercopithecoids: The Old World Monkeys 78

Hominoids: The Living Apes 79

Pongids and Hominids 81

Bonobos and Chimpanzees 84

Humans vs. Apes: Skulls and Teeth 85

3.3 The Primate Fossil Record 88

Primate Origins: The Crown Group 88

Fossil Primates: The Stem Group 90

Ancestral Traits and Genetic Evidence 91

The First Euprimates 92

Eocene “Lemurs” and “Tarsiers” 94

The First Anthropoids 96

Anthropoid Radiations 98

Miocene Catarrhines 99

Ape Origins 103

Cercopithecoids 107

4 The Bipedal Ape 109

4.1 The Discovery of Australopithecus 109

Being Human vs. Becoming Human 109

The Taung Child 109

Australopithecus Grows Up 111

4.2 The Anatomy of Bipedality 115

Upright Posture and the Vertebral Column 115

Bipedality and the Pelvis 116

Bipedal Locomotion: Knees 118

Bipedal Locomotion: The Hip Joint 123

Bipedal Locomotion: Feet 124

4.3 More South African Finds 127

Australopithecus Stands Up 127

The Skull of Australopithecus africanus 128

Australopithecus robustus 129

Man-Apes, Just Plain Apes, or Weird Apes? 133

Postcranial Peculiarities 133

4.4 Louis Leakey and Olduvai Gorge 135

4.5 Mio-Pliocene Enigmas 139

Sahelanthropus: The Oldest Hominin? 139

Orrorin 140

Ardipithecus 141

The Burtele Foot 146

4.6 The Genus Australopithecus 146

Australopithecus anamensis? 146

Australopithecus afarensis? 148

Afarensis Skulls and Teeth 152

Australopithecus bahrelghazali? 153

Australopithecus deyiremeda? 153

Kenyanthropus platyops? 154

Early Australopithecus from South Africa 154

Australopithecus prometheus? 155

Australopithecus aethiopicus 156

Australopithecus garhi 158

Australopithecus sediba? 159

Australopithecus boisei 160

Australopithecus robustus: Postcranial Skeleton and Relationships 162

4.7 Australopithecine Phylogeny 163

Alpha Taxonomy and Cladograms 163

Getting Around Cladistics 166

4.8 The Australopithecine Postcranium 167

Down from the Trees - How Far, How Fast? 167

Australopithecine Shoulders 171

Arms vs. Legs 172

The Hominin Hand 173

Australopithecine Vertebrae 174

Hip and Femur 177

Early Hominin Feet 179

Postcranial Diversity in Early Hominins 181

4.9 Ecology and Behavior 183

The Facts Thus Far 183

What Did Australopithecines Eat? 183

Early Hominin Environments 186

Social Ecology 188

4.10 Major Issues: Explaining Hominin Origins 192

5 The Migrating Ape 197

5.1 The Spread of Hominins out of Africa 197

5.2 The Emergence of the Genus Homo 198

Homo habilis and the Habilines 198

Habiline Dates and Stratigraphy in East Africa 203

Habiline Skulls 204

Habiline Teeth and Diets 207

Habiline Postcranial Remains 208

Habiline Taxonomy: The Frustrations of Variation 210

Back to South Africa 211

Advanced Australopithecus or Early Homo? Phylogenetic Issues 212

Early Material Culture 214

A Summary of the Habilines in Eight Questions 215

5.3 Homo erectus 216

An Introduction to Homo erectus 216

A Brief History of Homo erectus: 1889-1950 218

Later Discoveries in Africa and Eurasia 220

Erectine Chronology and Geographic Distribution 222

Asian Homo erectus: The Neurocranium 224

Cranial Capacity and the Brain in Asian Erectines 229

Asian Homo erectus: Faces and Mandibles 230

The Asian Erectine Dentition 232

Asian Erectine Postcranial Remains 233

Early African Erectine Skulls and the Ergaster Question 233

Early African Erectine Postcranial Morphology 237

Early Erectine Adaptations: Anatomy and Physiology 242

Early Erectine Adaptations: The Archaeological Evidence 245

Patterns of Development and Evolutionary Change in Erectines 247

Early Erectine Radiations in Africa 248

Out of Africa I: The First Migration into Eurasia 250

Dmanisi - The First Eurasians 253

Indonesian Erectines and the Specter of “Meganthropus” 259

Chinese Erectines 261

The Initial Occupation of Europe 262

Gran Dolina 264

5.4 Peripheral Holdouts along the Continental Margins 267

Flores 267

Luzon 272

Dushan 272

Rising Star 273

5.5 Major Issues: Summing Up the Erectines 275

6 The Big-Brained Ape: Middle Pleistocene Variants and Trends 279

6.1 Homo “heidelbergensis” 279

Crossing the Rubicon? 279

“Archaic Homo sapiens” vs. “Homo heidelbergensis” 280

Brains and Tools in the Middle Pleistocene 282

6.2 Models of Later Human Evolution 284

Changing Origin Narratives 284

The Piltdown Fraud 285

RAO and MRE 287

6.3 Regional Variants in Europe and Africa 289

European Heidelbergs 289

Petralona 290

Bilzingsleben 293

Swanscombe 293

Steinheim 294

Mauer 295

Boxgrove 296

Ceprano 296

Arago (Tautavel) and Lazaret 297

Sima de los Huesos 298

Other European Heidelbergs 303

African Heidelbergs: Kabwe 304

Bodo and Ndutu 306

African Heidelberg Mandibles 307

Other African Heidelbergs 307

North Africans 308

6.4 Asian Heidelbergs? 308

Mugharet El-Zuttiyeh 308

Other West Asian Candidates 309

South Asia 309

East Asia 309

6.5 Australasia 311

Sambungmacan 311

Ngandong 312

6.6 Supraorbital Tori, Chins, and Projecting Faces 314

6.7 The African Transition to Modern Humans 316

Background and Dating 316

The African Transitional Group: Vault Morphology 319

The African Transitional Group: Facial Morphology 320

The African Transitional Group: Additional Bones, Archaeology, and Other Matters 321

6.8 East Asian Archaic Humans 322

Background and Context 322

Dali 324

Harbin 325

Other Chinese Finds 325

East Asian Archaics: Continuity or Someone New? 326

6.9 Major Issues: Speciation, Migration, and Regional Differentiation 327

7 Talking Apes: The Neandertals 333

7.1 Changing Ideas about Neandertals 333

Early Discoveries and Interpretations 335

Neandertals - From Boule to the Twenty-First Century 338

7.2 Neandertal Chronology and Distribution 340

7.3 The Neandertal Skull 346

Neandertal Braincases 346

Neandertal Faces 356

Neandertal Mandibles 359

Neandertal Teeth 362

Prognathism 364

7.4 The Neandertal Body 366

Body Size and Proportions 366

Neck and Upper Limb 369

Lower Vertebrae, Pelvis, and Lower Limb 371

7.5 Neandertal Life History and Demography 374

7.6 Genetics and Genomics 376

The Mitochondrial Genome 376

The Nuclear Genome 378

Genes, Dates, and Lineages 379

Denisovans 380

Ghosts in the Genes 382

7.7 Brains and Behavior 383

Neandertal Brains 383

Neandertal Technology 385

Symbolic Behavior 386

Neandertals and Language 389

Diets and Subsistence Behavior 393

7.8 Neandertal Populations 395

Early European Neandertals 395

Krapina 396

“Würm” Neandertals from Western Europe 398

Western and Central Asian Neandertals 399

Late Neandertals 402

7.9 Major Issues 406

8 The Symbolic Ape: The Origins of Modern Humans 411

8.1 Symbolic Behavior 411

Signs and Symbols 411

A “Creative Explosion”? 412

8.2 Modern Human Anatomy 414

The Modern Skull 414

Cranial Capacity 416

The Postcranial Skeleton 417

8.3 The Fossil Record of Modern Human Origins 418

Geochronology 418

Early Modern Humans: The East African Record 418

Out of (East) Africa: Early Modern People in North and South Africa 421

The First Modern People Outside Africa: The Near Eastern Evidence 424

African and Circum-Mediterranean Gene Flow and Modern Human Origins 430

Modern Human Origins in East Asia 432

The First Australians 437

Europe: A Late Frontier 443

The Initial Upper Paleolithic 444

The Aurignacian and its Makers 445

The Gravettian 450

The Late Entry into Europe 452

Europe: The Morphological Evidence for Continuity 453

8.4 Genetics and Modern Human Origins 455

Genes, Populations, and Migrations 455

Human Self-Domestication? 459

Ancient DNA in Early Modern Humans 460

8.5 Modern Human Origins: The Models vs. the Data 461

The Recent African Origin Model 461

Multiregional Evolution 462

Alternative Views: The Assimilation Model 463

Assimilation and Interactions Between Modern and Archaic Humans 466

Appendix: Cranial Measurements 471

Bibliography 477

Index 583

Authors

Matt Cartmill Boston University. Fred H. Smith Illinois State University.