scholarly journals Measures of maturation in early fossil hominins: events at the first transition from australopiths to early Homo

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150234 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Christopher Dean
Keyword(s):  
Growth Period ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Dental Maturation ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Early Homo ◽  
Incremental Growth ◽  
Fossil Hominins

An important question in palaeoanthropology is whether, among the australopiths and the first fossil hominins attributed to early Homo , there was a shift towards a more prolonged period of growth that can be distinguished from that of the living great apes and whether between the end of weaning and the beginning of puberty there was a slow period of growth as there is in modern humans. Evidence for the pace of growth in early fossil hominins comes from preserved tooth microstructure. A record of incremental growth in enamel and dentine persists, which allows us to reconstruct tooth growth and compare key measures of dental maturation with modern humans and living great apes. Despite their diverse diets and way of life, it is currently difficult to identify any clear differences in the timing of dental development among living great apes, australopiths and the earliest hominins attributed to the genus Homo . There is, however, limited evidence that some early hominins may have attained a greater proportion of their body mass and stature relatively earlier in the growth period than is typical of modern humans today. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

scholarly journals Upright walking has driven unique vascular specialization of the hominin ilium

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e12240
Author(s):  
Dexter Zirkle ◽  
Richard S. Meindl ◽  
C. Owen Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Anterior Inferior Iliac Spine ◽  
Canal System ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Fossil Hominins ◽  
Report Analysis ◽  
The Mean ◽  
African Great Apes

Background A novel physis in hominins modulates broadening and shortening of the ilium. We report analysis of a vascular canal system whose origin may be associated with this physis and which appears to be also unique to hominins. Its presence is potentially identifiable in the fossil record by its association with a highly enlarged foramen that is consistently present in modern humans and hominin fossils. Methods We measured the diameter of this foramen in humans, fossil hominins, and African great apes and corrected for body size. Results The mean relative human foramen diameter is significantly greater than those of either Pan or Gorilla. Moreover, eight of the nine values of the Cohen’s d for these differences in ratios are highly significant and support the ordering of magnitudes: Pan < Gorilla < Homo. The relative foramen diameter of A.L. 288-1 is above the 75th percentile of all other hominoids and at the high end of humans. The foramen is also present in ARA-VP-6/500. Conclusions We posit that the presence and significant enlargement of this foramen in fossils can reasonably serve as an indicator that its anterior inferior iliac spine emerged via the unique hominin physis. The foramen can therefore serve as an indicator of hominin iliac ontogenetic specialization for bipedality in fossil taxa.

scholarly journals Shared Pattern of Endocranial Shape Asymmetries among Great Apes, Anatomically Modern Humans, and Fossil Hominins

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e29581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Balzeau ◽  
Emmanuel Gilissen ◽  
Dominique Grimaud-Hervé
Keyword(s):  
Great Apes ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Fossil Hominins

scholarly journals Recent origin of low trabecular bone density in modern humans

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 366-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habiba Chirchir ◽  
Tracy L. Kivell ◽  
Christopher B. Ruff ◽  
Jean-Jacques Hublin ◽  
Kristian J. Carlson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Trabecular Bone ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Human Skeleton ◽  
Trabecular Density ◽  
Fossil Hominins

Humans are unique, compared with our closest living relatives (chimpanzees) and early fossil hominins, in having an enlarged body size and lower limb joint surfaces in combination with a relatively gracile skeleton (i.e., lower bone mass for our body size). Some analyses have observed that in at least a few anatomical regions modern humans today appear to have relatively low trabecular density, but little is known about how that density varies throughout the human skeleton and across species or how and when the present trabecular patterns emerged over the course of human evolution. Here, we test the hypotheses that (i) recent modern humans have low trabecular density throughout the upper and lower limbs compared with other primate taxa and (ii) the reduction in trabecular density first occurred in early Homo erectus, consistent with the shift toward a modern human locomotor anatomy, or more recently in concert with diaphyseal gracilization in Holocene humans. We used peripheral quantitative CT and microtomography to measure trabecular bone of limb epiphyses (long bone articular ends) in modern humans and chimpanzees and in fossil hominins attributed to Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus/early Homo from Swartkrans, Homo neanderthalensis, and early Homo sapiens. Results show that only recent modern humans have low trabecular density throughout the limb joints. Extinct hominins, including pre-Holocene Homo sapiens, retain the high levels seen in nonhuman primates. Thus, the low trabecular density of the recent modern human skeleton evolved late in our evolutionary history, potentially resulting from increased sedentism and reliance on technological and cultural innovations.

scholarly journals From action to language: comparative perspectives on primate tool use, gesture and the evolution of human language

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1585) ◽  
pp. 4-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Steele ◽  
Pier Francesco Ferrari ◽  
Leonardo Fogassi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Fossil Hominins

The papers in this Special Issue examine tool use and manual gestures in primates as a window on the evolution of the human capacity for language. Neurophysiological research has supported the hypothesis of a close association between some aspects of human action organization and of language representation, in both phonology and semantics. Tool use provides an excellent experimental context to investigate analogies between action organization and linguistic syntax. Contributors report and contextualize experimental evidence from monkeys, great apes, humans and fossil hominins, and consider the nature and the extent of overlaps between the neural representations of tool use, manual gestures and linguistic processes.

scholarly journals The transition to foraging for dense and predictable resources and its impact on the evolution of modern humans

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis W. Marean
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Rivers And Lakes ◽  
Broad Spectrum Revolution ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Empirical Record

Scientists have identified a series of milestones in the evolution of the human food quest that are anticipated to have had far-reaching impacts on biological, behavioural and cultural evolution: the inclusion of substantial portions of meat, the broad spectrum revolution and the transition to food production. The foraging shift to dense and predictable resources is another key milestone that had consequential impacts on the later part of human evolution. The theory of economic defendability predicts that this shift had an important consequence—elevated levels of intergroup territoriality and conflict. In this paper, this theory is integrated with a well-established general theory of hunter–gatherer adaptations and is used to make predictions for the sequence of appearance of several evolved traits of modern humans. The distribution of dense and predictable resources in Africa is reviewed and found to occur only in aquatic contexts (coasts, rivers and lakes). The palaeoanthropological empirical record contains recurrent evidence for a shift to the exploitation of dense and predictable resources by 110 000 years ago, and the first known occurrence is in a marine coastal context in South Africa. Some theory predicts that this elevated conflict would have provided the conditions for selection for the hyperprosocial behaviours unique to modern humans. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

scholarly journals Intra-individual metameric variation expressed at the enamel-dentine junction of lower post-canine dentition of South African fossil hominins and modern humans

2017 ◽  
Vol 163 (4) ◽  
pp. 806-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Pan ◽  
John Francis Thackeray ◽  
Jean Dumoncel ◽  
Clément Zanolli ◽  
Anna Oettlé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Fossil Hominins

scholarly journals Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzanne Singels ◽  
Alastair J Potts ◽  
Karen J Esler ◽  
Richard M Cowling ◽  
Curtis W Marean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Underground Storage ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Return Rates ◽  
Storage Organs ◽  
Minimal Effort

Underground storage organs (USOs) serve as a staple source of carbohydrates for many hunter-gatherer societies and they feature prominently in discussions of diets of early modern humans. While the way of life of hunter-gatherers in South Africa’s Cape is no longer in existence, there is extensive ethnographic, historical and archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherers’ use of such plants as foodstuffs. This is to be expected, given that the Cape supports the largest concentration of plants with USOs globally. The southern Cape is the location of several Middle Stone Age sites that are highly significant to research on the origins of behaviourally modern humans, and this provided the context for our research. Here we evaluate the foraging potential of USOs by identifying how abundant edible biomass is in a coastal setting of the southern Cape, how easily it is gathered, and how nutritious it is. We staged a range of foraging events to provide an indication of the potential return rates for selected USOs when a forager is likely to be naïve about foraging for them. Nearly all of the sites sampled (83%) contained edible USOs, and the edible biomass can be highly concentrated in space. The edible USO biomass fell within the range of biomass observed in areas supporting extant hunter-gatherer communities. The six USO species we assessed for nutritional content contained between 40-228 calories/100 g. They also grow near the soil surface, mostly in sandy soils, and were gathered with minimal effort. Some 50% of the foraging events conducted yielded enough calories to meet the daily requirements of a hunter-gatherer of small stature within 2 hours. Thus, we demonstrate that USOs are a readily available source of carbohydrates in the southern Cape landscape and that they likely played a critical role in providing food for early humans.

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