The strategy of paleoanthropology: Early African hominids annual luncheon address: AAPA 1996.

Discoveries of fossil hominids, particularly at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in the late 1950s and early 1960s served as an important catalyst for stimulating the multi-interdisciplinary approach which now characterizes African paleoanthropology. While discovery of fossil hominids will always play a central role, it is the strategic implementation of a diverse set of inquiries which promises to generate the most rewarding and comprehensive details of how we became human. Field work by the Omo Research Expedition and the Koobi Fora Research Project contributed significantly to development of the strategy of paleoanthropology, emphasizing integration of specialists from geology, biology and the social sciences. In Ethiopia the ongoing Hadar Research Project has applied the integrated, multidimensional strategy of paleoanthropology resulting in important additions to our understanding of early hominid origins. The pace of fossil hominid discoveries is picking up in Africa, and there is every reason to believe that major contributions to human evolutionary studies will be forthcoming. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]