Jeffrey Schwartz
University of Pittsburgh, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- University of Pittsburgh, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty Memberadd
- Evolutionary Biology, Human Evolution, Biology, Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleoanthropology, History of Science, and 24 morePhilosophy of Science, Human Anatomy (Biological Anthropology), Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Biblical Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, Osteology, Paleopathology, Biological Anthropology, Developmental Biology, Paleontology, Systematics (Taxonomy), Physical Anthropology, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Vertebrate Evolution, Theoretical biology, Geometric Morphometrics, Stone tools, Southeast Asian Archaeology, Australian Indigenous Archaeology, Lithic Analysis, Cladistics (Systematic Biology), Out Of Africa (Palaeolithic Archaeology), African Middle Stone Age, Carthage (Archaeology), and Evo-Devo (Developmental Biology)(Philosophy of Science, Human Anatomy (Biological Anthropology), Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Biblical Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, Osteology, Paleopathology, Biological Anthropology, Developmental Biology, Paleontology, Systematics (Taxonomy), Physical Anthropology, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Vertebrate Evolution, Theoretical biology, Geometric Morphometrics, Stone tools, Southeast Asian Archaeology, Australian Indigenous Archaeology, Lithic Analysis, Cladistics (Systematic Biology), Out Of Africa (Palaeolithic Archaeology), African Middle Stone Age, Carthage (Archaeology), and Evo-Devo (Developmental Biology))edit
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Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, and 15 moreHuman Evolution, Evolution, Medicine, Human, Cave, High Frequency, Food Waste, Humans, Late Pleistocene, Holocene, Fossils, Female, Male, Homo Sapiens, and Foot(Human Evolution, Evolution, Medicine, Human, Cave, High Frequency, Food Waste, Humans, Late Pleistocene, Holocene, Fossils, Female, Male, Homo Sapiens, and Foot)
(Human Evolution, Evolution, Medicine, Human, Cave, High Frequency, Food Waste, Humans, Late Pleistocene, Holocene, Fossils, Female, Male, Homo Sapiens, and Foot)
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Early hominin species were as diverse as other mammals
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Since the 1924 discovery of the Taung skull, a wealth of fossils has been recovered documenting the early evolution of the human lineage in Africa. Whatever a researcher’s hypotheses or conclusions, ultimately the science is about these... more
Since the 1924 discovery of the Taung skull, a wealth of fossils has been recovered documenting the early evolution of the human lineage in Africa. Whatever a researcher’s hypotheses or conclusions, ultimately the science is about these fossils. And over the last 80þ years, there have been more fossils found documenting human evolution than most people can any longer reasonably set to memory. Therefore, a book that compiles photographs and information about every published pre-Homo African hominid fossil would be extremely useful to all hominid paleontologists. With this thought in mind, I eagerly broke the spine on The Human Fossil Record Volume 4: Craniodental Morphology of Early Hominids (Genera Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Orrorin ), and Overview. As most readers are aware, this volume follows in a series of three other monographic treatments of hominid fossils: Volume 1, Terminology and Craniodental Morphology of Genus Homo (Europe); Volume 2, Craniodental Morphology of Genu...
We review the nonhylobatid hominoid fauna currently known from all significant Pleistocene sites in Vietnam. Almost all of the sample examined consists of isolated teeth. In a previous study of material from the cave of Tham Khuyen... more
We review the nonhylobatid hominoid fauna currently known from all significant Pleistocene sites in Vietnam. Almost all of the sample examined consists of isolated teeth. In a previous study of material from the cave of Tham Khuyen (Schwartz et al., 1994) we identified, but ...
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Reappraisal of the morphology of the type (and only) lower jaw of the Swiss middle Eocene primate “Adapis” priscus shows that it is wrongly attributed to the genus Adapis. Indeed, its closest affinities do not lie with other European... more
Reappraisal of the morphology of the type (and only) lower jaw of the Swiss middle Eocene primate “Adapis” priscus shows that it is wrongly attributed to the genus Adapis. Indeed, its closest affinities do not lie with other European primates of the early Tertiary, but rather with the North American genus Smilodectes, to which we transfer the species priscus. The presence in Europe of a species of Smilodectes emphasizes that the separation of the Eocene primate faunas of Europe is substantially less complete than generally believed.
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Species are historically differentiated entities that, osteologically, may be differentiated to inconveniently varying extents. Living Homo sapiens is a distinctive morphological entity that is easily distinguished in both cranial and... more
Species are historically differentiated entities that, osteologically, may be differentiated to inconveniently varying extents. Living Homo sapiens is a distinctive morphological entity that is easily distinguished in both cranial and postcranial morphology from all other living hominoids and from the vast majority of its fossil relatives. In this contribution, we offer several apparent cranial apomorphies of the living species, while recognizing that it is reasonable to expect some degree of overlap in the ranges of variation of individual characters among closely related species such as those within the genus Homo. No one aspect of morphological detail may be considered totally diagnostic within very close‐knit groups of this sort or, conversely, be regarded as blurring the identities of their components. Overlap in morphological detail may even be expected in cases where striking Gestalt differences exist between closely related species due to major developmental reorganization. As a result, while the morphological and, by extension, historical distinction between such highly differentiated species pairs as Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens is effectively unequivocal, in a nod to the intrinsic untidiness of biology the hominid fossil record does offer some instances that are much more difficult to interpret. In such cases, most, but not all, of the cranial apomorphies of living Homo sapiens, are present in individual fossil specimens or apparent populations. This is true, for example, of a set of variably dated and archeologically associated, as well as mostly incomplete, South African fossils (for example, Border Cave, Boskop, Fish Hoek, and most Klasies River Mouth specimens). These specimens very closely resemble living Homo sapiens in preserved overall cranial structure, but most conspicuously lack bipartite brows and fully developed human chin configurations. Whatever resolutions hominid systematists may reach in such cases, it is clear that to resort reflexively to such pernicious if convenient devices as “archaic Homo sapiens” only obscures any potential signals of systematic diversity in what is increasingly evidently a highly complex late Pleistocene hominid record.
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The ultimate goal of paleoanthropological studies is to develop the most accurate and exhaustive portraits possible of our extinct human relatives, and of the history by which we became what we are. This endeavor includes, in the first... more
The ultimate goal of paleoanthropological studies is to develop the most accurate and exhaustive portraits possible of our extinct human relatives, and of the history by which we became what we are. This endeavor includes, in the first place, the essential processes of establishing the basic parameters of hominid diversity, and of elucidating the potential evolutionary relationships among the components of that diversity. But our efforts clearly need to go farther than this; for the overall picture of human evolution is quite evidently incomplete without consideration of early hominid lifeways, and of how now-vanished hominid species interacted with their environments. Among the most important interactions of this kind is, unquestionably, feeding behavior and the expression of such behaviors in diet. For, at least short of breathing, feeding is the most fundamental of all the subsistence activities in which a terrestrial species can engage. And we will never be able to claim to understand the lifeways of ancient hominids without at least some insight into how they sustained themselves. Self-evident as these remarks might be, however, they should not be taken to imply that--especially among eurytopes such as hominids--diet can, or should ever be regarded as, monolithic, or as an intrinsic property of any species. Nor do they mean that we can ever look upon hominid populations as "adapted" to particular food resources. Indeed, primates in general are remarkably varied in the diets that may be chosen by different populations of the same species, both seasonally and geographically [see, for example, the review of dietary variation among Malagasy strepsirhines in Tattersall, 1982]. Rather, amongst most if not all-living primates that have been studied, it appears--not surprisingly--that the factor, which most importantly controls immediate dietary intake, is the spectrum of potential food resources available within the local environment. Not to put too fine a point on it, most primates are opportunists.
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p. 139-192 : ill. ; 26 cm.Bibliography: p. 190-192
Research Interests: Zoology, Biology, Systematics, Text, Lemurs, and 4 moreLemur, Theoretical Morphology (in Biology), Teeth, and Skull
Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Paleoanthropology, Paleontology, Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, and 15 moreHuman Evolution, Biology, Morphology, Morphogenesis, Medicine, Biological Sciences, Humans, Fossils, Neanderthal, Animals, Skull, Homo Sapiens, Biological evolution, Hominidae, and Medical and Health Sciences
... For these reasons, and because the early hominid dietary adaptation involved plant foods rather than meat (as Darwin had suggested), neither culture nor tool use played a role in his hominid-origins model (much to the apparent relief... more
... For these reasons, and because the early hominid dietary adaptation involved plant foods rather than meat (as Darwin had suggested), neither culture nor tool use played a role in his hominid-origins model (much to the apparent relief of some of the more paleontologically ...
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Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Paleoanthropology, Anthropology, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, and 14 moreDevelopmental Biology, Molecular Biology, History of Science, Molecular Systematics, Biology, Evolution, Physical Anthropology, Systematics, Darwinism, Bioanthropology, Molecular clock, Similarity, Biological Theory, and Dissimilarity
Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Paleontology, Anthropology, and 15 moreBiological Anthropology, Human Evolution, Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Biology, Morphology, Evolution, Palaeoanthropology, Medicine, Humans, Fossils, Animals, Homo Sapiens, Hominidae, and Origin
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The “packaging” of the diverse living world is untidy, with the result that there are no absolute criteria for recognizing in all contexts the bounded historical entities we call species. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that Homo... more
The “packaging” of the diverse living world is untidy, with the result that there are no absolute criteria for recognizing in all contexts the bounded historical entities we call species. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that Homo neanderthalensis is as clear-...
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Preface. PART 1: TERMINOLOGY AND CRANIODENTAL MORPHOLOGY OF GENUS HOMO. Descrptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Abbreviations Craniodental Morphology and Terminology. Maps. PART 2: SITE--BY--SITE ATLAS OF EUROPEAN HOMINID FOSSILS.... more
Preface. PART 1: TERMINOLOGY AND CRANIODENTAL MORPHOLOGY OF GENUS HOMO. Descrptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Abbreviations Craniodental Morphology and Terminology. Maps. PART 2: SITE--BY--SITE ATLAS OF EUROPEAN HOMINID FOSSILS. Introduction. Abri Pataud. Arago (Tautavel). Archi. Atapuerca: Gran Dolina. Atapuerca: Sima de los Huesos. Biache--Saint--Vaast. Bilzingsleben. Brno. Ceprano. Chancelade. Columberia (Bombarral). Combe--Capelle. Cro--Magnon. Dmanisi. Dolni Vestonice. Ehringsdorf (Weimar--Ehringsdorf). Engis. Feldhofer Grotto (Neanderthal). Figueira Brava. Fontechevade. Gibraltar: Devil's Tower. Gibraltar: Forbe's Quarry. Grimaldi Caves. Guattari (Monte Carlo). Hahnofersand. Hortus. Isturitz. Krapina Kulna. La Chapelle--aux--Saints. La Ferrassie. La Naulette. La Quina. Le Moustier. Mauer (Heidelberg). Mladec (Lautscherhole). Montmaurin. Ochoz. Pavlov. Pech de l'Aze. Petralona. Predmosti. Regourdou. Reilingen. Roc de Marsal. Saccopastore. Saint Cesaire. Sakajia. Scladina (Sclayn). Sipka. Spy. Steinheim. Subalyuk. Svitavka. Swanscombe. Velika Pecina. Verteszollos. Vindija. Vogelherd (Stetten). Zafarraya. Zlaty Kun.
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Preface. PART 1: INTRODUCTION. Descriptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Anatomical Terminology Figures. Abbreviations. Maps. Layout of Entries. PART 2: SITE ENTRIES. Allia Bay. Belohdelie. Chesowanja. Drimolen. Fejej. Hadar. Kanapoi.... more
Preface. PART 1: INTRODUCTION. Descriptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Anatomical Terminology Figures. Abbreviations. Maps. Layout of Entries. PART 2: SITE ENTRIES. Allia Bay. Belohdelie. Chesowanja. Drimolen. Fejej. Hadar. Kanapoi. Koobi Fora (East Turkana, East Rudolf). Kromdraai. Laetoli (Laetolil, Garusi). Lothagam. Lukeino. Maka. Makapansgat. Malema. Olduvai Gorge. Omo Valley, Lower (Shungura, Usno). Peninj (Lake Natron). Sterkfontein. Swartkrans. Tabarin (Tugen Hills). Taung (Taungs). Turkana, West (Lomekwi, Lokalalei, Nachukui). PART 3: HOMINID CRANIODENTAL MORPHOLOGIES: AN OVERVIEW. Introduction. Systematic Approach to the Hominid Fossil Record. The Family Hominidae and the Earliest Hominids. Operational Problems in the Alpha Taxonomy of the "Early Hominids". The "Australopiths" Southern Africa. Eastern Africa: The "Robusts". Other "Australopiths". Australopithecus Anamensis. Australopithecus Afarensis. "Early Homo". The Ubiquitous Homo Erectus: Species or Grab-Bag? Homo Erectus and Its Putative Relatives in Java. Putative Homo Erectus in China. Putative Homo Erectus from Africa. Putative Homo Erectus from Europe. Middle and Late Pleistocene Hominids of Europe. Early Middle Pleistocene Hominids. Homo Heidelbergensis and Its Putative Relatives. The Neanderthals and Related Forms. Homo Sapiens and "Archaic Homo Sapiens". Homo Sapiens and Suggested Close Relatives. Other Members of the "Archaic Homo Sapiens" Group from the Levant and Africa. Coda. Appendix.
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Definition of the genus Homo is almost as fraught as the definition of Homo sapiens. We look at the evidence for “early Homo,” finding little morphological basis for extending our genus to any of the ∼2.5–1.6-myr-old fossil forms assigned... more
Definition of the genus Homo is almost as fraught as the definition of Homo sapiens. We look at the evidence for “early Homo,” finding little morphological basis for extending our genus to any of the ∼2.5–1.6-myr-old fossil forms assigned to “early Homo” or Homo habilis/rudolfensis. We also point to heterogeneity among “early African Homo erectus,” and the lack of apomorphies linking these fossils to the Asian Homo erectus group, a cohesive regional clade that shows some internal variation, including brain size increase over time. The first truly cosmopolitan Homo species is Homo heidelbergensis, known from Africa, Europe, and China following 600 kyr ago. One species sympatric with it included the >500-kyr-old Sima de los Huesos fossils from Spain, clearly distinct from Homo heidelbergensis and the oldest hominids assignable to the clade additionally containing Homo neanderthalensis. This clade also shows evidence of brain size expansion with time; but although Homo neanderthalensis had a large brain, it left no unequivocal evidence of the symbolic consciousness that makes our species unique. Homo sapiens clearly originated in Africa, where it existed as a physical entity before it began (also in that continent) to show the first stirrings of symbolism. Most likely, the biological underpinnings of symbolic consciousness were exaptively acquired in the radical developmental reorganization that gave rise to the highly characteristic osteological structure of Homo sapiens, but lay fallow for tens of thousands of years before being “discovered” by a cultural stimulus, plausibly the invention of language.
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We review the fossil material from the Swiss middle Eocene site of Egerkingen allocated to Adapis sciureus and transferred to the new genus Microadapis. Three species at least are represented in this assemblage. Microadapis sciureus is... more
We review the fossil material from the Swiss middle Eocene site of Egerkingen allocated to Adapis sciureus and transferred to the new genus Microadapis. Three species at least are represented in this assemblage. Microadapis sciureus is represented only by the holotype, whose affinities appear to lie with the North American Smilodectes. Most of the original hypodigm is allocable to the new genus Simonsia, which does bear the affinities to Adapis suggested by earlier authors for sciureus. Two specimens are placed in the new genus, Chasselasia, which may be related to the extant galagids.
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Circum‐nasal and nasal cavity morphology add to the picture of the Sima de los Huesos specimens as, at one level, representing a distinct morph and, at another, displaying individual variation. They developed a robust, midline‐grooved,... more
Circum‐nasal and nasal cavity morphology add to the picture of the Sima de los Huesos specimens as, at one level, representing a distinct morph and, at another, displaying individual variation. They developed a robust, midline‐grooved, three‐dimensional spinal ridge lying anteriorly in the nasal cavity floor that was distended posteriorly over the nasal cavity floor, and, typically, an expansive, three‐dimensional patch of rugose bone on the nasal cavity wall where a conchal crest would otherwise lie. They vary, for example, in degree of topographic relief of the nasal cavity wall, expression of the spinal ridge, and development of nasal crests and fossae. Lacking an anterior nasal spine, Sima specimens differ from extant and most fossil Homo sapiens, some specimens attributed to H. heidelbergensis, and the Gran Dolina partial face, whose anterior nasal spine is a superoanterior distention of the nasoalveolar clivus, and also from Neanderthals, whose anterior nasal spine projects an...
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Preface to Volumes One and Two. PART 1. INTRODUCTION. Descriptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Anatomical Terminology Figures. Abbreviations. Maps. Layout of Entries. PART 2A. AFRICA. Bodo. Border Cave. Boskop. Cave of Hearths. Chemeron.... more
Preface to Volumes One and Two. PART 1. INTRODUCTION. Descriptive Protocol. Descriptive Format. Anatomical Terminology Figures. Abbreviations. Maps. Layout of Entries. PART 2A. AFRICA. Bodo. Border Cave. Boskop. Cave of Hearths. Chemeron. Dar es Soltane II. Eilye Springs. Eyasi. Fish Hoek. Florisbad. Guomde. Hadar. Haua Fteah. Jebel Irhoud. Kabwe. Klasies River Mouth. Koobi Fora. Laetoli (Ngaloba). Melka Kontoure. Nariokotome. Ndutu. Olduvai Gorge. Omo Kibish. Saldanha. Sale. Singa. Sterkfontein. Swartkrans. Thomas Quarry. Tighenif. Tuinplaas. Uraha. PART 2B. ASIA, WESTERN. Amud. Jebel Qafzeh. Kebara. Shanidar. Skhul. Tabun. Teshik-Tash. Zuttiyeh. PART 2C. ASIA, EASTERN, AND CENTRAL. Dali. Hexian. Jinniushan. Kedungbrubus. Lantian. Liujiang. Longgupo. Maba. Mojokerto. Narmada. Ngandong. Ngawi. Sambungmachan. Sangiran. Trinil. Wajak. Yuanmou. Yunxian. Zhoukoudian Lower Cave. Zhoukoudian Upper-Cave. PART 3. FOSSILS ATTRIBUTED TO GENUS HOMO: SOME GENERAL NOTES. "Early Homo". ...
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Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Classics, and 15 moreBioarchaeology, Biblical Studies, Physical Anthropology, Biblical Archaeology, Inference, Classical Mythology, Phoenician Punic Archaeology, Antiquity, Faunal Analysis, Human skeletal anatomy, Carthage, Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Ancient Carthage, History and Archaeology of Canaan, and Phoenician Punic Religion(Bioarchaeology, Biblical Studies, Physical Anthropology, Biblical Archaeology, Inference, Classical Mythology, Phoenician Punic Archaeology, Antiquity, Faunal Analysis, Human skeletal anatomy, Carthage, Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Ancient Carthage, History and Archaeology of Canaan, and Phoenician Punic Religion)
(Bioarchaeology, Biblical Studies, Physical Anthropology, Biblical Archaeology, Inference, Classical Mythology, Phoenician Punic Archaeology, Antiquity, Faunal Analysis, Human skeletal anatomy, Carthage, Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Ancient Carthage, History and Archaeology of Canaan, and Phoenician Punic Religion)
Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, History of Science, Biology, Evolution, and 15 moreEpigenetics, Medicine, Natural Selection, Biological Sciences, DNA, Humans, Mutation, Methylation, Animals, Medical Physiology, Biological evolution, Organism, Heat Shock Proteins, Environmental Exposure, and Medical and Health Sciences
Writing about the ‘Tophet’, a children's cemetery in Carthage, Smithet al.argued in these pages that the age distribution of the children peaks at 1–1.49 months, supplying “another link in the chain of evidence—funerary practices,... more
Writing about the ‘Tophet’, a children's cemetery in Carthage, Smithet al.argued in these pages that the age distribution of the children peaks at 1–1.49 months, supplying “another link in the chain of evidence—funerary practices, texts, iconography—that supports the interpretation of the Phoenician Tophets as ritual sites set aside for infant sacrifice” (2011: 871). In this they had challenged Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues, who previously argued (2010) that “skeletal remains from Punic Carthage do not support systematic sacrifice of infants”. Here Schwartzet al.restate their position forAntiquityreaders, showing that the verdict on the Phoenician practice of child sacrifice is, at best, not proven.
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The “packaging” of the diverse living world is untidy, with the result that there are no absolute criteria for recognizing in all contexts the bounded historical entities we call species. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that Homo... more
The “packaging” of the diverse living world is untidy, with the result that there are no absolute criteria for recognizing in all contexts the bounded historical entities we call species. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that Homo neanderthalensis is as clear-...
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Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Paleoanthropology, Anthropology, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, and 14 moreDevelopmental Biology, Molecular Biology, History of Science, Molecular Systematics, Biology, Evolution, Physical Anthropology, Systematics, Darwinism, Bioanthropology, Molecular clock, Similarity, Biological Theory, and Dissimilarity
Research Interests: Paleoanthropology, Paleontology, Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, Human Evolution, and 15 moreBiology, Morphology, Systematics, Morphogenesis, Medicine, Biological Sciences, Humans, Fossils, Neanderthal, Animals, Skull, Biological evolution, Hominidae, Species Specificity, and Medical and Health Sciences
The definition of the genus Homo is an important but under-researched topic. In this chapter, we show that interpretations of Homo have changed greatly over the last 150 years as a result of the incorporation of new fossil species, the... more
The definition of the genus Homo is an important but under-researched topic. In this chapter, we show that interpretations of Homo have changed greatly over the last 150 years as a result of the incorporation of new fossil species, the discovery of fossil evidence that changed our perceptions of its component species, and reassessments of the functional capabilities of species previously allocated to Homo. We also show that these changes have been made in an ad hoc fashion. Criteria for recognizing fossil specimens of Homo have been outlined on a number of occasions, but these criteria have generally not been explicitly derived from a genus concept. Rather, the course of action followed by most researchers has been to assign new specimens to Homo on the basis of a subset of the diagnostic traits that are considered to be key, and to then redefine the other traits of the genus in the light of the morphological and functional attributes of the new specimens. With a view to moving beyond this approach, in the next section of the chapter we outline six competing proposals for how genera should be defined and consider their impact on the species assigned to the genus Homo. Subsequently, we consider the pros and cons of the six genus concepts. We argue that three of them are impractical and/or internally inconsistent and the other three are useful. We go on to suggest that, while there is little to choose between the latter three concepts on theoretical grounds, the one put forward by Wood and Collard (1999) has practical advantages. In the last part of the chapter, we update Wood and Collard's (1999) review of genus Homo in the light of research published since their study appeared. We find that, on balance, the available evidence still supports their suggestion that Homo should be reconfigured such that it includes H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens but excludes H. habilis and H. rudolfensis. We also find that the proposed inclusion of the collection of Late Pleistocene specimens from the site of Liang Bua, Flores, in the genus Homo as a new species, H. floresiensis, is not compatible with Wood and Collard's (1999) definition of the genus Homo.
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Lordkipanidze et al . (Research Article, 18 October 2013, p. 326) conclude, from gross morphological comparisons and geometric-morphometric analysis of general shape, that the five hominid crania from Dmanisi in Georgia represent a single... more
Lordkipanidze et al . (Research Article, 18 October 2013, p. 326) conclude, from gross morphological comparisons and geometric-morphometric analysis of general shape, that the five hominid crania from Dmanisi in Georgia represent a single regional variant of Homo erectus . However, dental, mandibular, and cranial morphologies all suggest taxic diversity and, in particular, validate the previously named H. georgicus .
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For many years, the Neanderthals have been recognized as a distinctive extinct hominid group that occupied Europe and western Asia between about 200,000 and 30,000 years ago. It is still debated, however, whether these hominids belong in... more
For many years, the Neanderthals have been recognized as a distinctive extinct hominid group that occupied Europe and western Asia between about 200,000 and 30,000 years ago. It is still debated, however, whether these hominids belong in their own species, Homo neanderthalensis, or represent an extinct variant of Homo sapiens. Our ongoing studies indicate that the Neanderthals differ from modern humans in their skeletal anatomy in more ways than have been recognized up to now. The purpose of this contribution is to describe specializations of the Neanderthal internal nasal region that make them unique not only among hominids but possibly among terrestrial mammals in general as well. These features lend additional weight to the suggestion that Neanderthals are specifically distinct from Homo sapiens.