Tempo and mode in human evolution.
暂无分享,去创建一个
The quickening pace of paleontological discovery is matched by rapid developments in geochronology. These new data show that the pattern of morphological change in the hominid lineage was mosaic. Adaptations essential to bipedalism appeared early, but some locomotor features changed much later. Relative to the highly derived postcrania of the earliest hominids, the craniodental complex was quite primitive (i.e., like the reconstructed last common ancestor with the African great apes). The pattern of craniodental change among successively younger species of Hominidae implies extensive parallel evolution between at least two lineages in features related to mastication. Relative brain size increased slightly among successively younger species of Australopithecus, expanded significantly with the appearance of Homo, but within early Homo remained at about half the size of Homo sapiens for almost a million years. Many apparent trends in human evolution may actually be due to the accumulation of relatively rapid shifts in successive species.
[1] M. Leakey,et al. Laetoli : a Pliocene site in northern Tanzania , 1988 .
[2] P. Tobias,et al. The cranium and maxillary dentition of Australopithecus (Zinjanthropus) boisei , 1967 .
[3] R. Martin. HUMAN BRAIN EVOLUTION IN AN ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT , 1983 .
[4] G. Rightmire. The evolution of Homo Erectus , 1990 .
[5] B. MacFadden. The Horse Tree. (Book Reviews: Fossil Horses. Systematics, Paleobiology, and Evolution of the Family Equidae.) , 1994 .