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The fact that rapid brain size increase was clearly a key aspect of human evolution has prompted many studies focusing on this phenomenon, and many suggestions as to the underlying evolutionary patterns and processes. No study to date has however separated out the contributions of change through time within vs. between hominin species while simultaneously incorporating effects of body size. Using a phylogenetic approach never applied before to paleoanthropological data, we show that relative brain size increase across ~7 My of hominin evolution arose from increases within individual species which account for an observed overall increase in relative brain size. Variation among species in brain size after accounting for this effect is associated with body mass differences but not time. In addition, our analysis also reveals that the within-species trend escalated in more recent lineages, implying an overall pattern of accelerating relative brain size increase through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pliocene was a period of major faunal shift in India as older primate lineages slowly went extinct, leaving the niches vacant for cercopithecoids, specifically cercopithecids (Old World monkeys), to occupy. Among them, Presbytis sivalensis, Macaca palaeindica and Procynocephalus subhimalayanus are important, as they are potential kin to many of the South Asian and Southeast Asian monkeys living today. Further in the Pleistocene, as ecology shifted to a more grassland environment, primates such as Theropithecus delsoni and the first people of Homo sp. migrated into the subcontinent and occupied central India. All of these primate fossils are known only from a handful of fragmentary fossil remains. This article aims to discuss the discovery of fossils and the nature of these fossils from the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. Information regarding the phylogenetic affinities of these fossil primates is sporadic as well. There is a need to learn more about these primates by reanalysing existing discoveries and conducting further research into the lives of these primates of a bygone era. Such research, using modern tools and methods, will surely make significant contributions to palaeoanthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organ–skeleton relationships are understudied in biological anthropology. The torso skeleton is often used to infer the organ size and evolution in hominins; ribcage "types", in particular, are used to infer the abdominal organ size in hominins. This study is a quantitative examination of the relationship between the lower ribcage and two organs: the liver and the intestines ("gut") in humans. Specifically, we test whether the ribcage breadth, shape, and "flare", at the level of rib 10, covaries with the liver volume and gut volume in Homo sapiens. Liver size, gut size, and ribcage measurements are taken from CT scans (N = 61). The results show sex differences in the gut–ribcage relationship. The gut volume is associated with ribcage breadth and flare in both sexes. The liver volume is not associated with any ribcage measurements. We conclude that sex differences in the organ–skeleton relationship complicate the previous simplistic view that the size of the liver or the gut could be inferred through a fossil's ribcage type. Biological anthropologists should continue to explore sex differences in organ–skeleton relationships, when attempting to understand the evolution of visceral organs and the torso. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species is the basic unit of analysis in systematic paleontology. Yet, for most of its history the subfield of paleoanthropology has lacked any coherent concept of what fossil species are, using the species epithet variously at different times -- most recently, with the conspicuous effect of minimizing apparent diversity among the hominins. The application of molecular systematic techniques to the analysis of high-latitude early Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 and its contemporaries thus offers a welcome opportunity to reappraise our approaches to species recognition in the rapidly expanding hominin fossil record. But it must be cautioned that evidence for hybridization among documented or hypothesized lineages cannot necessarily be taken as evidence for recoalescence among them, and that "braided stream" models of hominin evolution (which militate against speciation) cannot account for the diversity of historically and morphologically differentiated entities we see in that record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organ–skeleton relationships are understudied in biological anthropology. The torso skeleton is often used to infer the organ size and evolution in hominins; ribcage “types”, in particular, are used to infer the abdominal organ size in hominins. This study is a quantitative examination of the relationship between the lower ribcage and two organs: the liver and the intestines (“gut”) in humans. Specifically, we test whether the ribcage breadth, shape, and “flare”, at the level of rib 10, covaries with the liver volume and gut volume in Homo sapiens. Liver size, gut size, and ribcage measurements are taken from CT scans (N = 61). The results show sex differences in the gut–ribcage relationship. The gut volume is associated with ribcage breadth and flare in both sexes. The liver volume is not associated with any ribcage measurements. We conclude that sex differences in the organ–skeleton relationship complicate the previous simplistic view that the size of the liver or the gut could be inferred through a fossil’s ribcage type. Biological anthropologists should continue to explore sex differences in organ–skeleton relationships, when attempting to understand the evolution of visceral organs and the torso.

Concepts such as "symbolism" and "symbolic cognition" often remain unspecified in discussions the symbolic capacities of earlier hominins. In this paper, I use conceptual tools from phenomenology to reflect on the origins of early symbolic cognition. In particular, I discuss the possible early use of pointing gestures around the time of the earliest known stone tool industries. I argue that unlike more basic social acts such as expression, gaze following, and attention-getters, which are used by extant non-human great apes, communicative pointing involves key elements that are characteristic of symbolic cognition. In particular, it involves "third order intentionality" as well as "shared practice horizons": shared frameworks of understanding which are required for the interpretation of communicative acts whose meaning is not codified indexically or iconically in the signaling behavior. In the final part, I briefly review some indications for the use of pointing gestures around the time of the Lomekwian and Oldowan industries, as a way to sustain cooperation and possibly learning by instruction. It is suggested that pointing is more complex than is standardly acknowledged, and that it may have been an important communicative act for Early Stone Age hominins in transitioning to more fully symbolic speech capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie ( KZfSS) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reconstructions of palimpsest formation and dynamics in Early Pleistocene African archaeological deposits have undergone significant advances thanks to taphonomic research. However, the spatial imprint of different agents implicated in most of these accumulations still needs to be addressed. We hypothesize that different site formation dynamics may yield diverse spatial distributions of archaeological remains, reflecting the intervention of different agents (i.e., hominins, felids, hyaenids) in palimpsests. This study aims to investigate the spatial patterns of archaeological remains in a selected sample of Early Pleistocene accumulations with the goal of understanding and characterizing their spatial dynamics. Building on previous taphonomic interpretations of twelve paradigmatic archaeological deposits from Olduvai Bed I (FLK Zinj 22 A, PTK 22 A, DS 22B, FLK N 1–2 to 5, FLK NN 3, DK 1–3) and Koobi Fora (FxJj50, FxJj20 East and FxJj20 Main), we explore the spatial patterns of remains statistically and use hierarchical clustering on principal components analysis (HCPC) to group the highest-density spots at these sites based on a number of spatial variables. The results of this approach show that despite sharing a similar inhomogeneous pattern, anthropogenic sites and assemblages where carnivores played the main role display fundamentally different spatial features. Both types of spatial distributions also show statistical differences from modern hunter-gatherer campsites. Additional taphonomic particularities and differing formation processes of the analyzed accumulations also appear reflected in the classifications. This promising approach reveals crucial distinctions in spatial imprints related to site formation and agents’ behavior, prompting further exploration of advanced spatial statistical techniques for characterizing archaeological intra-site patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a time of accelerated biological extinctions that has the potential to mirror past mass extinction events. However, the rarity of mass extinctions and the restructuring of diversity they cause complicate direct comparisons between the current extinction crisis and earlier events. Among animals, turtles (Testudinata) are one of few groups that have both a rich fossil record and sufficiently stable ecological and functional roles to enable meaningful comparisons between the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (∼66 Ma) and the ongoing wave of extinctions. Here we analyze the fossil record of the entire turtle clade and identify two peaks in extinction rates over their evolutionary history. The first coincides with the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition, reflecting patterns previously reported for other taxa. The second major extinction event started in the Pliocene and continues until now. This peak is detectable only for terrestrial turtles and started much earlier in Africa and Eurasia than elsewhere. On the basis of the timing, geography, and functional group of this extinction event, we postulate a link to co-occurring hominins rather than climate change as the cause. These results lend further support to the view that negative biodiversity impacts were already incurred by our ancestors and related lineages and demonstrate the severity of this continued impact through human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The length of time it takes to experimentally make one-sided choppers, as found in the fossil record, bears a linear relationship to the knapping process of fabricating them. In addition, this temporal frame appears to be related to human heart rates measured as beats per minute, which act as a physiological metronome. We achieved these observations, assuming that any paleolithic one-sided chopper has the information needed to estimate, quantitatively, the number of strikes on it. The experimental data allow us to establish the total timing needed for the standard fabricating of any one-sided chopper. We discuss issues derived from these experimental results, showing the evolution of human neurological abilities from 2.4 million years ago to the Modern period via the duration of time needed for making one chopper to that needed to play a 19th-century music score on a piano. Given that the neuronal and physiological distance between both actions differs by a factor of 6, we propose the concept of “technome” to measure human evolution by using methodological homogeneous metrics applied to these two human technologic objects: the chopper and the piano.

Retracing human cognitive origins started out at the systems level with the top-down interpretation of archaeological records spanning from man-made artifacts to endocasts of ancient skulls. With emerging evolutionary genetics and organoid technologies, it is now possible to deconstruct evolutionary processes on a molecular/cellular level from the bottom-up by functionally testing archaic alleles in experimental models. The current challenge is to complement these approaches with novel strategies that allow a holistic reconstruction of evolutionary patterns across human cognitive domains. We argue that computational neuroarcheology can provide such a critical mesoscale framework at the brain network-level, linking molecular/cellular (bottom-up) to systems (top-down) level data for the correlative archeology of the human mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Lower Paleolithic, the interaction between hominins and elephants through the medium of lithic tools is testified by numerous sites in Africa, Europe, and Asia. This interaction ensured hominins a large source of food and of knappable raw material, bone. The availability of the huge package of resources represented by these animals had a deep impact on hominins behavior and their strategies of exploitation of the landscape. This article, for the first time, documents this behavior with a spatial and chronological viewpoint. At the Late Lower Paleolithic site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Rome), the outstanding in situ find of a quite entire carcass of Palaeoloxodon antiquus surrounded by lithic tools of small dimensions allowed us to explore the relation between the elephant, fatally entrapped in muddy sediments, and the hominins that exploited its carcass with their lithic toolkit. The application of an integrated approach including technology, refitting, use-wear, residues, and spatial analyses to the study of the small tools allowed us to unveil the activities carried out around the elephant in a timeline. As a result, hominins exploited the carcass for meat and fat possibly in more than one time and selected the area of the carcass as an atelier to knap and possibly cache their lithic products for future use. These data introduce the intriguing suggestion that the carcass was, besides a source of food and raw material, also a landmark for humans in the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrametric spaces are widely used to depict evolutionary times in phylogenetic trees since they assume that every population/species is located at the tips of bifurcating branches of the same length. The discrete branching of ultrametric trees permits the measurement of distances between pairs of individuals that are proportional to their divergence time. Here the traditional ultrametric concept of bifurcating and divergent phylogenetic tree is overturned and a new type of non-ultrametric diagram is introduced. The objective of this study is the description of gene flows in branching species/populations in terms of converging trees instead of bifurcating trees. To provide an operational example, the paleoanthropological issue of the date of Neanderthal genome's introgression in non-African humans is examined. Neanderthals and ancient humans are not anymore two species that exchange chunks of DNA, rather become a single, novel cluster of extant hominins that must be considered by itself. The novel converging, non-ultrametric phylogenetic trees permit the calibration of molecular clocks with a twofold benefit. When the date of the branching of two population/species from a common ancestor is known, the novel approach allows to calculate the time of subsequent introgressions. On the contrary, when the date of the introgression between two population/species is known, the novel approach allows to detect the time of their previous branching from a common ancestor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The length of time it takes to experimentally make one-sided choppers, as found in the fossil record, bears a linear relationship to the knapping process of fabricating them. In addition, this temporal frame appears to be related to human heart rates measured as beats per minute, which act as a physiological metronome. We achieved these observations, assuming that any paleolithic one-sided chopper has the information needed to estimate, quantitatively, the number of strikes on it. The experimental data allow us to establish the total timing needed for the standard fabricating of any one-sided chopper. We discuss issues derived from these experimental results, showing the evolution of human neurological abilities from 2.4 million years ago to the Modern period via the duration of time needed for making one chopper to that needed to play a 19th-century music score on a piano. Given that the neuronal and physiological distance between both actions differs by a factor of 6, we propose the concept of "technome" to measure human evolution by using methodological homogeneous metrics applied to these two human technologic objects: the chopper and the piano. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of language's components, including communicating symbolic meaning, have neurobiological roots that go back millions of years in evolutionary time. The intersection with the human social survival strategy spawned additional adaptive meaning systems. Under conditions threatening survival in socially oriented human groups, extra-language meaning systems co-opted and adapted to facilitate unity, including the early formats of the arts. They would have percolated into cultural practice for this social purpose and ultimately survival. With evolutionary pressures tapping into biologically inherited, physiologically functioning sensory-motor pathways, anchored specifically in rhythm cognition and motor synchrony output, initial art practice conveyed symbolic group cohesion through communal, all-inclusive synchronously moving dance formations and rhythmically produced vocal or percussion sounds. As with the sounds of language in the deep past, and numerous other cultural behaviors, such nonmaterial early art formats would not have left marks in the archeological record but their evolutionary driven practice would have contributed to adaptive genetic factors woven into brain-behavior evolution. Their practice is likely to have well predated unearthed art-related objects. Consolidation of evidence and notions from language evolution, genetics, human physiology, comparative animal communication, archeology, and climate history in the distant past of early humans in Africa supports the evolutionary driven practice of initial nonmaterial art formats conveying symbolic expressions optimizing group survival. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language Psychology > Comparative Psychology.

The present article introduces Zanadamu, a comprehensive geo-temporal-referenced dataset that amalgamates all published stable isotope carbon and oxygen measurements on tooth enamel from African hominins, dated between 4.4 and 0.005 Ma. Zanadamu serves as a research tool for investigating hominin evolution by facilitating the examination of how different hominin species explored food resources and interacted with their local paleoenvironments. The dataset is structured in a machine-readable format, and its metadata organization allows for facile statistical analyses and comparisons with other types of isotopic records, including ancient and modern humans and other primates. Zanadamu is part of the AfriArch data initiative, which aims at compiling datasets for the study of ancient Africa. This an active initiative, and we strive to update Zanadamu as novel data becomes available.

As a species, we have reached a tipping point for Earth derived from our unsustainable resource use. While conservation efforts occurred early in human civilization, it was not until 1980 that the full force of environmental destruction, including the Santa Barbara oil spill in the 1970s, culminated in the new discipline of conservation biology focused on the biosphere. Similarly, conservation paleobiology, named two decades later, brings the unique perspective of the fossil record to conservation efforts, uniting biosphere and geosphere scientists. To date, conservation history does not include paleontological or geological perspectives. Further, each discipline has a different benchmark—near time—for when Earth’s ecosystems were modified by humans. Accordingly, the history of conservation efforts leading up to conservation biology and conservation paleobiology was examined from a geological and ecological framework. To provide a benchmark for near time, the hominin record and their geo-environmental modifications were also examined and revealed that by the start of the Holocene, all continents except ice-covered Antarctica and Greenland had human-modified ecosystems. Therefore, near time is dispensable when the Holocene Epoch is universally understood and precisely defined as a time when H. sapiens dominated environments. Lastly, a conservation corps is urgently needed, following the long tradition of F.D. R.’s Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and J.F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps of the 1960s, to promote a global network connecting all students and practitioners of conservation disciplines to focus on biotic resilience, recovery, and solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental problems.

Recent advances in neurobiology, paleontology, and paleogenetics allow us to associate changes in brain size and organization with three main “moments” of increased behavioral complexity and, more speculatively, language development. First, Australopiths display a significant increase in brain size relative to the great apes and an incipient extension of postnatal brain development. However, their cortical organization remains essentially similar to that of apes. Second, over the last 2 My, with two notable exceptions, brain size increases dramatically, partly in relation to changes in body size. Differential enlargements and reorganizations of cortical areas lay the foundation for the “language-ready” brain and cumulative culture of later Homo species. Third, in Homo sapiens, brain size remains fairly stable over the last 300,000 years but an important cerebral reorganization takes place. It affects the frontal and temporal lobes, the parietal areas and the cerebellum and resulted in a more globular shape of the brain. These changes are associated, among others, with an increased development of long-distance—horizontal—connections. A few regulatory genetic events took place in the course of this hominization process with, in particular, enhanced neuronal proliferation and global brain connectivity.

Copyright of Journal of the Serbian Archaeological Society is the property of Serbian Archaeological Society / Srpsko Arheolosko Drustvo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For more than 70 y researchers have looked to baboons (monkeys of the genus Papio) as a source of hypotheses about the ecology and behavior of early hominins (early human ancestors and their close relatives). This approach has undergone a resurgence in the last decade as a result of rapidly increasing knowledge from experimental and field studies of baboons and from archeological and paleontological studies of hominins. The result is a rich array of analogies, scenarios, and other stimuli to thought about the ecology and behavior of early hominins. The main intent here is to illustrate baboon perspectives on early hominins, with emphasis on recent developments. This begins with a discussion of baboons and hominins as we know them currently and explains the reasons for drawing comparisons between them. These include occupation of diverse environments, combination of arboreal and terrestrial capabilities, relatively large body size, and sexual dimorphism. The remainder of the paper illustrates the main points with a small number of examples drawn from diverse areas of interest: diet (grasses and fish), danger (leopards and crocodiles), social organization (troops and multilevel societies), social relationships (male–male, male–female, female–female), communication (possible foundations of language), cognition (use of social information, comparison of self to others), and bipedalism (a speculative developmental hypothesis about the neurological basis). The conclusion is optimistic about the future of baboon perspectives on early hominins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstructing diet can offer an improved understanding toward the origin and evolution of modern humans. However, the diet of early modern humans in East Asia is poorly understood. Starch analysis of dental calculus is harmless to precious fossil hominins and provides the most direct evidence of plant food sources in early modern human dietary records. In this paper, we examined the starch grains in dental calculus from Fuyan Cave hominins in Daoxian (South China), which were the earliest modern humans in East Asia. Our results reveal the earliest direct evidence of a hominin diet made of acorns, roots, tubers, grass seeds, and other yet-unidentified plants in marine isotope stage 5 between 120 and 80 ka. Our study also provides the earliest evidence that acorns may have played an important role in subsistence strategies. There may have been a long-lasting tradition of using these plants during the Late Pleistocene in China. Plant foods would have been a plentiful source of carbohydrates that greatly increased energy availability to human tissues with high glucose demands. Our study provides the earliest direct consumption of carbohydrates-rich plant resources from modern humans in China for the first time. In addition, it also helps elucidate the evolutionary advantages of early modern humans in the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the evolutionary change of allometries in the relative size of the two main cranial modules (neurocranium and splanchnocranium) in the five living hominid species and a diverse sample of extinct hominins. We use six standard craniometric variables as proxies for the length, width and height of each cranial module. Factor analysis and two-block partial least squares (2B-PLS) show that the great apes and modern humans share a pervasive negative ontogenetic allometry in the neurocranium and a positive one in the splanchnocranium. This developmental constraint makes it possible to interpret the cranial heterochronies in terms of ontogenetic scaling processes (i.e., extensions or truncations of the ancestral ontogenetic trajectory) and lateral transpositions (i.e., parallel translations of the entire trajectory starting from a different shape for a given cranial size). We hypothesize that ontogenetic scaling is the main evolutionary modality in the australopithecines while in the species of Homo it is also necessary to apply transpositions. Both types of processes are coordinated in Homo, which result in an evolutionary trend toward an increase in brain size and in the degree of paedomorphosis from the earliest habilines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreting and understanding morphological variation within the fossil hominin record represent one of the major challenges in palaeoanthropology. The lack of a consensual definition of the species concept in palaeontology, together with the fragmentary nature of the fossil record, greatly impact our understanding of the fossil hominin taxonomic diversity. Historical debates around the fossil remains attributed to Australopithecus in southern Africa is an emblematic example of the influence of those questions on our understanding of human evolution. Since the earliest discoveries, scientific papers have been reporting a high degree of morphological variation within this assemblage. Since then, subsequent excavations have confirmed this outstanding variation. While some authors interpret this variation as a proof of the presence of more than one Australopithecus species, others explore alternative hypotheses to tentatively explain this variation. Far from being anecdotical, this presumed taxonomic diversity within the genus Australopithecus would substantially modify our grasp of speciation processes within Plio-Pleistocene hominins. In this synthesis, I describe the factors that play a role in morphological variation before going through the history of discoveries and studies that raised concerns and questions about the diversity within southern African Australopithecus and investigating the factors that may explain this conundrum.

This article studies the evolutionary change of allometries in the relative size of the two main cranial modules (neurocranium and splanchnocranium) in the five living hominid species and a diverse sample of extinct hominins. We use six standard craniometric variables as proxies for the length, width and height of each cranial module. Factor analysis and two-block partial least squares (2B-PLS) show that the great apes and modern humans share a pervasive negative ontogenetic allometry in the neurocranium and a positive one in the splanchnocranium. This developmental constraint makes it possible to interpret the cranial heterochronies in terms of ontogenetic scaling processes (i.e., extensions or truncations of the ancestral ontogenetic trajectory) and lateral transpositions (i.e., parallel translations of the entire trajectory starting from a different shape for a given cranial size). We hypothesize that ontogenetic scaling is the main evolutionary modality in the australopithecines while in the species of Homo it is also necessary to apply transpositions. Both types of processes are coordinated in Homo, which result in an evolutionary trend toward an increase in brain size and in the degree of paedomorphosis from the earliest habilines.

The impact of Late Pleistocene climatic oscillations, volcanism and the diverse terrain of the Armenian Highlands affected hominin population dynamics and movements through the region. To test different scenarios for the period 50–25 ka regarding expansion, adaptive response, intra-population interactions and extinction, we need local on-site paleoclimatic data found in association with hominin occupations. However, this approach has been hampered by the dearth and highly uneven spatiotemporal recovery of paleoclimatic data from prehistoric sites across the region. In this study, we analyze multiple assemblages of fossil micromammals from the Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) Lusakert-1 rockshelter (two fossil-yielding strata; <55 ka) and Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) Aghitu-3 Cave (four fossil-yielding strata; ∼39–24 ka) using geometric morphometric-aided taxonomy, to quantify the representation of different species among the abundant and diverse arvicoline genera (Microtus and Chionomys ; mean = 58% of assemblages). We combined this approach with quantitative species-level paleoclimatic reconstructions (Bioclimatic Model; 14 rodent taxa) to determine changes in habitat composition as well as temperature and precipitation shifts during the Late Middle–Early Upper Paleolithic. Taphonomic analysis was conducted to establish isotaphonomy among the assemblages. The analysis shows higher than present-day absolute temperatures for the series of occupations at both Lusakert-1 and Aghitu-3, making it unlikely that hominin activity at the sites coincided with extreme cold-climate phases. A multivariate comparison of the taxonomic abundances (genus level) across a wider sample of regional Middle Paleolithic (MP) and Upper Paleolithic (UP) cave sites (Hovk-1, Kudaro-1, Mezmaiskaya, Satsurblia and Dzudzuana) indicates the possibility of cold-period occupation at only two of the sites, Mezmaiskaya Layers 3 and 2 and Kudaro-1 Layer 3. We surmise that the manufacturers of LMP lithic industries in the Caucasus were well adapted to these challenging environments, thus undermining arguments that rapid climate change through the LMP/EUP period could alone have determined the course of population dynamics in this region. • Microfauna proxies enable direct site-to-site climate comparison. • Rodent taxonomy was improved through the Geometric morphometrics. • Interdisciplinary approach characterizes paleoecology in Lusakert-1 and Aghitu-3. • Higher temperatures observed in Lusakert-1 and Aghitu-3 than present-day. • Multivariate analysis suggests limited cold-period occupations in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chip scars in fossil teeth are a lasting evidence that bears on human evolution. Chip dimensions in posterior teeth of hominins, apes and white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) are measured from published occlusal images. The results are plotted as D / D m vs. h / D m , where h , D and D m denote indent distance, chip width and mean tooth crown diameter. The hominin species follow a similar pattern where D / D m monotonically increases up to h / D m ≈ 0.3. The behavior for the apes is characterized by two phases. In the first, h / D m monotonically increases up to h / D m ≈ 0.26 while in the second (h / D m ≈ 0.26 to 0.42), D / D m experiences a drastic change in behavior. The interpretation of chip morphology is assisted by results from controlled spherical indentation tests on extracted human molars. This study shows that in addition to the commonly recognized chipping due to cusp loading, a chip may also initiate from the inner wall of the tooth's central fossa. Accordingly, it is suggested that the chipping in hominins generally initiates from a (worn) cusp while that in apes involves cusp loading up to h / D m ≈ 0.26 and fossa loading thereafter. The behavior for T. pecari is much similar to that of the apes. The fossa chipping is facilitated by a consumption of hard, large-size diet (e.g., plants, roots, barks and nuts) and presence of broad central fossa, conditions that are met in apes. Finally, a simple expression for the critical chipping force P ch due to fossa loading is developed. • Chipping in hominins generally occurs by cusp loading, that in apes also include fossa loading. • A wide fossa breadth or sharp cusps enable fossa type chipping. • It is recommended that chipping prevalence data be given in terms of normalized chip width D / D m vs. indent distance h / D m. • Enamel wear tends to increase chipping frequency and reduce chip size. • The scope of this work can be enhanced by additional good-resolution tooth images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longstanding debate in hominin taxonomy is that between "lumpers" and "splitters." We argue that both approaches assume an unrealistically static model of speciation. Speciation is an extended process, of which fossils provide a record. Fossils should be interpreted in a more dynamic framework than is the norm. We introduce the process‐based approach (PBA), in which we suggest that "splitters" recognize and name units at an earlier stage of speciation than "lumpers" do. The "determinants" of speciation can control the rate at which population isolates form, or the rate at which these complete the speciation process, or both. Embedded in the PBA, differences between existing lumped and split taxonomies are a heuristic tool to study these processes. We apply the PBA to show that not all hominin populations reached later stages of the speciation process and that populations have a disproportionate likelihood of doing so from ∼3.1 to ∼1.5 Ma. We outline and discuss resulting new research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a cross-comparative examination of how tropical forested islands were populated by humans. It first describes the unique ecological conditions of these environments, how they fluctuated during glacial cycles, and the challenges and affordances they provided people. The paper then explores the global archaeological record, classifying modes of colonisation that led insular tropical forests to be populated. These modes include terrestrial colonisation followed by insularisation (Mode A), maritime colonisation followed by major landmass reconfiguration (Mode B), maritime colonisation of uninhabited islands that always remained insular (Mode C), and maritime colonisation of already inhabited islands (Mode D). Finally, the paper discusses how, amongst Homo sapiens, ongoing dynamism between human adaptive behaviours and environmental flux stimulated processes of diversification, specialisation, and connectivity in these crucial ecologies; by contrast, archaic hominins like Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, and Homo luzonensis may have found changes associated with forest expansion and insularity extremely challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review palaeoenvironmental applications of stable isotope analysis to Late Pleistocene archaeological sites across Southeast Asia (SEA), a region critical to understanding the evolution of Homo sapiens and other co-existing Late Pleistocene (124–11.7 ka) hominins. Stable isotope techniques applied to archaeological deposits offer the potential to develop robust palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, to contextualise the occupational and non-occupational history of a site. By evaluating the published research in this field, we show that sediments, guano, tooth enamel, speleothem and biomolecular material such as leaf waxes have great potential to provide site-specific palaeoenvironmental records and local and catchment-scale landscape context to hominin dispersal in the region. However, stable isotope techniques used in these contexts are in their infancy in SEA, and the diagenetic controls associated with hot and humid environments that typify the region are not yet fully understood. Additionally, availability of sources of stable isotopes varies between sites. Nonetheless, even the limited research currently available shows that stable isotope analyses can aid in developing a better understanding of the role of the environment on the nature and timing of dispersals of our species eastwards into SEA and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1995, 15 new species have been described in the hominin clade (including all forms closer to extant humans than to extant chimpanzees and bonobos). Through an approach combining epistemology and the philosophy of science, this note shows that the diversity of hominins is not only a matter of quantification, but also a biological and anthropological issue. Through a review of the history of debates on past human diversity and an analysis of the different biases that influence assessments of the number of hominin species, this note puts forward several avenues to update the theoretical framework of palaeoanthropology, by proposing a critique of the bush-like model of evolution in favour of a reticulate model, by bringing out the philosophical assumptions underlying the systematic description of new hominin species and through a discussion on the specifically anthropological dimension of past human diversity.

Objectives: The morphological characteristics of the thumb are of particular interest due to its fundamental role in enhanced manipulation. Despite its possible importance regarding this issue, the body of the first metacarcapal (MC1) has not been fully characterized using morphometrics. This could provide further insights into its anatomy, as well as its relationship with manipulative capabilities. Hence, this study quantifies the shape of the MC1's body in the extant Homininae and some fossil hominins to provide a better characterization of its morphology. Materials and methods: The sample includes MC1s of modern humans (n = 42), gorillas (n = 27), and chimpanzees (n = 30), as well as Homo neanderthalensis, Homo naledi, and Australopithecus sediba. 3D geometric morphometrics were used to quantify the shape of MC1's body. Results: The results show a clear distinction among the three extant genera. H. neanderthalensis mostly falls within the modern human range of variation. H. naledi varies slightly from modern humans, although also showing some unique trait combination, whereas A. sediba varies to an even greater extent. When classified using a discriminant analysis, the three fossils are categorized within the Homo group. Conclusion: The modern human MC1 is characterized by a distinct suite of traits, not present to the same extent in the great apes, that are consistent with an ability to use forceful precision grip. This morphology was also found to align very closely with that of H. neanderthalensis. H. naledi shows a number of human‐like adaptations, while A. sediba presents a mix of both derived and more primitive traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When considering the pan-African process of human evolution in the Pleistocene it is important to review our understanding of climate on a regional scale, including heterogeneity due to regional variability in the relative strengths of forcing mechanisms. Research in the Kuruman Hills at the southern edge of the Kalahari in South Africa has recently provided new insights into the complexity and distinctiveness of southern African palaeoclimate. Here we compare these records, obtained from Kathu Pan, Wonderwerk Cave, and Mamatwan Mine, focusing on the presence of water bodies from c. 2 million years before present to the end of the Pleistocene. Through the synthesis of multiple proxies we create a picture of localized water availability as it would have affected hominin adaptation. These records are then framed within a larger discussion of regional climate and environmental change. The emerging record from the southern Kalahari suggests that the distribution of zones of rainfall seasonality varied significantly throughout the Pleistocene and a hominin presence is particularly found in association with wetter phases which supported lakes, springs and pans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are a part of the complex system of life. This consists of a multitude of feedbacks among all parts of living systems. In the case of human origins, many feedbacks became positive rather than homeostatic, thus producing self-amplifying effects in basic morphological and behavioural characteristics of emerging humans: erect bipedalism, social structure, tool-making, food procurement and environmental management, symbolic communication, sexuality, extended childhood, and mental capacities. These, plus many other human characteristics, changed gradually, though at varying rates, over the last 6 million years, producing directional variation in extant morphological and behavioural characteristics of what are considered modern humans. The change through time and geographic space of those characteristics is an ongoing dynamic process, thus it is futile to pose essentialist questions about the precise date and place of the modern human origins. Modernity is a process, not an endpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a century's work in the UNESCO Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, there has been no systematic consideration of the area's full foodplant regime when palaeo-scientists try to reconstruct past hominin dietary ecologies. Here we present the first inventory of human-foraged foodplants currently growing in the Cradle of Humankind and discuss the time depth of the relative biomes, showing that some of the plant regimes may well have been available for hominin foraging throughout the Quaternary. We list 223 taxa, highlighting the most species-rich foodplant families in the Cradle, such as the Poaceae, Apocynaceae, and Fabaceae. Our results show an almost equal availability of edible fruits, leaves, and underground/underwater storage organs (USOs) in the Cradle's foodplant population, supporting work suggesting diet specialization or flexible foraging strategies for the Cradle's hominins. Whereas it was thought that human geophyte and/or USO consumption was particularly high on the Cape Fynbos landscape during the middle-late Pleistocene, the richness of USO plant foods growing in the Cradle—most of them non-geophytic in their growth forms (thus without specialized/modified storage systems such as tubers, corms, rhizomes or bulbs)—demonstrates that such resources were probably also abundantly available to inland hominin populations. We suggest that future dietary reconstructions for the Cradle's hominins may benefit from working with the known foodplant population presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the way paleoanthropologists conceive of bipedalism has changed considerably. If bipedalism was once thought to be a unique characteristic, specific to the hominin lineage and marking its origin, the hypothesis of its anatomical and behavioral diversity, envisaged since the 1960s, is now widely accepted. With a history and philosophy of science angle, this article aims to analyze the contribution of primatology to the transformation of the theoretical framework used in paleoanthropology to think about the evolution of bipedalism. While fossil discoveries are often presented as the driving force of theoretical change in this discipline, we show that studies on primate locomotor diversity have also played a fundamental role in deconstructing certain interpretative schemes frequently used in the analysis of hominin fossil remains. Through our epistemological approach, we show how the innovative methodologies used in primatology can constitute conceptual and analytical tools that can be mobilized in paleoanthropology. These tools make it possible to free this field from a certain anthropocentrism based on the equivalence between biped and hominin and consequently to propose new hypotheses concerning the origin and evolution of bipedalism.