Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
which seeks to understand the early development of
anatomically modern human
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
s, a process known as
hominization
Hominization, also called anthropogenesis, refers to the process of becoming human, and is used in somewhat different contexts in the fields of paleontology and paleoanthropology, archaeology, philosophy, and theology.
Paleontology
, paleoanthro ...
, through the reconstruction of evolutionary
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
lines within the family
Hominidae
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ea ...
, working from biological evidence (such as
petrified
In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...
skeletal remains,
bone fragments, footprints) and cultural evidence (such as
stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...
s, artifacts, and settlement localities).
The field draws from and combines
primatology
Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse Academic discipline, discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medici ...
,
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
,
biological anthropology
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an e ...
, and
cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...
. As technologies and methods advance,
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
plays an ever-increasing role, in particular to examine and compare DNA structure as a vital tool of research of the evolutionary kinship lines of related species and genera.
Etymology
The term paleoanthropology derives from Greek palaiós (παλαιός) "old, ancient", ánthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος) "man, human" and the suffix -logía (-λογία) "study of".
Hominoid taxonomies
Hominoids are a primate superfamily, the hominid family is currently considered to comprise both the
great ape
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
lineages and human lineages within the
hominoid
Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...
superfamily. The "
Homininae
Homininae (), also called "African hominids" or "African apes", is a subfamily of Hominidae. It includes two tribes, with their extant as well as extinct species: 1) the tribe Hominini (with the genus ''Homo'' including modern humans and numerou ...
" comprise both the human lineages and the
African ape lineages. The term "African apes" refers only to
chimpanzees
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative the ...
and
gorilla
Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...
s. The terminology of the immediate biological family is currently in flux. The term "hominin" refers to any genus in the human tribe (Hominini), of which ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' (modern humans) is the only living specimen.
History
18th century
In 1758
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
introduced the name ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' as a species name in the 10th edition of his work ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
'' although without a scientific description of the species-specific characteristics.
Since the great apes were considered the closest relatives of human beings, based on morphological similarity, in the 19th century, it was speculated that the closest living relatives to humans were
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
s (genus ''
Pan'') and gorilla (genus ''
Gorilla
Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...
''), and based on the natural range of these creatures, it was surmised that humans shared a
common ancestor
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...
with
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n apes and that
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s of these ancestors would ultimately be found in Africa.
19th century
The science arguably began in the late 19th century when important discoveries occurred that led to the study of
human evolution
Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...
. The discovery of the
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Thomas Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
's ''
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature
''Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature'' is an 1863 book by Thomas Henry Huxley, in which he gives evidence for the evolution of humans and apes from a common ancestor. It was the first book devoted to the topic of human evolution, and discusse ...
'', and
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
's ''
The Descent of Man
''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
'' were both important to early paleoanthropological research.
The modern field of paleoanthropology began in the 19th century with the discovery of "
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
man" (the eponymous skeleton was found in 1856, but there had been finds elsewhere since 1830), and with evidence of so-called
cave men. The idea that humans are similar to certain
great ape
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
s had been obvious to people for some time, but the idea of the biological evolution of species in general was not legitimized until after
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
published ''
On the Origin of Species
''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'' in 1859.
Though Darwin's first book on evolution did not address the specific question of human evolution—"light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history," was all Darwin wrote on the subject—the implications of evolutionary theory were clear to contemporary readers.
Debates between
Thomas Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The storie ...
and
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Owe ...
focused on the idea of human evolution. Huxley convincingly illustrated many of the similarities and differences between humans and apes in his 1863 book ''
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature
''Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature'' is an 1863 book by Thomas Henry Huxley, in which he gives evidence for the evolution of humans and apes from a common ancestor. It was the first book devoted to the topic of human evolution, and discusse ...
''. By the time Darwin published his own book on the subject, ''
Descent of Man
''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biolo ...
'', it was already a well-known interpretation of his theory—and the interpretation which made the theory highly controversial. Even many of Darwin's original supporters (such as
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...
and
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
) balked at the idea that human beings could have evolved their apparently boundless mental capacities and moral sensibilities through
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...
.
Asia
Prior to the general acceptance of Africa as the root of genus ''Homo'', 19th-century naturalists sought the origin of humans in Asia. So-called "dragon bones" (fossil bones and teeth) from Chinese apothecary shops were known, but it was not until the early 20th century that German paleontologist,
Max Schlosser, first described a single human tooth from
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. Although Schlosser (1903) was very cautious, identifying the tooth only as "?''Anthropoide g. et sp. indet''?," he was hopeful that future work would discover a new anthropoid in China.
Eleven years later, the Swedish geologist
Johan Gunnar Andersson
Johan Gunnar Andersson (3 July 1874 – 29 October 1960)"Andersson, Johan Gunnar" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 385. was a Sweden, Swedish arc ...
was sent to China as a mining advisor and soon developed an interest in "dragon bones". It was he who, in 1918, discovered the sites around
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
, a village about 50 kilometers southwest of Beijing. However, because of the sparse nature of the initial finds, the site was abandoned.
Work did not resume until 1921, when the Austrian paleontologist,
Otto Zdansky
Otto Karl Josef ZdanskyKatharina KniefacOtto Karl Josef Zdansky// Memorial Book of National Socialism at the University of Vienna (28 November 1894, Vienna – 26 December 1988, Uppsala) was an Austrian paleontologist.
Biography
He graduate ...
, fresh with his doctoral degree from Vienna, came to Beijing to work for Andersson. Zdansky conducted short-term excavations at Locality 1 in 1921 and 1923, and recovered only two teeth of significance (one premolar and one molar) that he subsequently described, cautiously, as "?''Homo sp.''" (Zdansky, 1927). With that done, Zdansky returned to Austria and suspended all fieldwork.
News of the fossil hominin teeth delighted the scientific community in Beijing, and plans for developing a larger, more systematic project at Zhoukoudian were soon formulated. At the epicenter of excitement was
Davidson Black
Davidson Black, FRS (July 25, 1884 – March 15, 1934) was a Canadian paleoanthropologist, best known for his naming of ''Sinanthropus pekinensis'' (now ''Homo erectus pekinensis''). He was Chairman of the Geological Survey of China and a ...
, a Canadian-born anatomist working at
Peking Union Medical College
Peking Union Medical College (), founded in 1906, is a selective public medical college based in Dongcheng, Beijing, China. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Double First Class University Plan
The World First Class University and First ...
. Black shared Andersson’s interest, as well as his view that central Asia was a promising home for early humankind. In late 1926, Black submitted a proposal to the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
seeking financial support for systematic excavation at Zhoukoudian and the establishment of an institute for the study of human biology in China.
The
Zhoukoudian Project
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
came into existence in the spring of 1927, and two years later, the
Cenozoic Research Laboratory The Cenozoic Research Laboratory () of the Geological Survey of China was established within the Peking Union Medical College in 1928 by Canadian paleoanthropologist Davidson Black and Chinese geologists Ding Wenjing and Weng Wenhao for the rese ...
of the Geological Survey of China was formally established. Being the first institution of its kind, the Cenozoic Laboratory opened up new avenues for the study of paleogeology and paleontology in China. The Laboratory was the precursor of the
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name suggest ...
(IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Science, which took its modern form after 1949.
The first of the major project finds are attributed to the young Swedish paleontologist,
Anders Birger Bohlin
Dr. Anders Birger Bohlin (26 March 1898 – 28 November 1990) was a Swedes, Swedish palaeontologist. As well as his work on dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, Bohlin was part of the group that established the existence of Peking Man ''(Sinanthr ...
, then serving as the field advisor at
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
. He recovered a left lower molar that Black (1927) identified as unmistakably human (it compared favorably to the previous find made by Zdansky), and subsequently coined it ''
Sinanthropus pekinensis''. The news was at first met with skepticism, and many scholars had reservations that a single tooth was sufficient to justify the naming of a new type of early hominin. Yet within a little more than two years, in the winter of 1929,
Pei Wenzhong
PEI or Pei may refer to:
Places
*Matecaña International Airport, Pereira, Colombia, IATA code PEI
*Pei County (沛县), Jiangsu, China
*Pei Commandery (沛郡), a commandery in Chinese history
*Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada
* Pei, ...
, then the field director at Zhoukoudian, unearthed the first complete calvaria of
Peking Man
Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudi ...
. Twenty-seven years after Schlosser’s initial description, the antiquity of early humans in East Asia was no longer a speculation, but a reality.
Excavations continued at the site and remained fruitful until the outbreak of the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
in 1937. The decade-long research yielded a wealth of faunal and lithic materials, as well as hominin fossils. These included 5 more complete calvaria, 9 large cranial fragments, 6 facial fragments, 14 partial mandibles, 147 isolated teeth, and 11 postcranial elements—estimated to represent as least 40 individuals. Evidence of fire, marked by ash lenses and burned bones and stones, were apparently also present, although recent studies have challenged this view.
Franz Weidenreich
Franz Weidenreich (7 June 1873 – 11 July 1948) was a Jewish German anatomist and physical anthropology, physical anthropologist who studied evolution.
Life and career
Weidenreich studied at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in Strasbourg whe ...
came to Beijing soon after Black’s untimely death in 1934, and took charge of the study of the hominin specimens.
Following the loss of the Peking Man materials in late 1941, scientific endeavors at Zhoukoudian slowed, primarily because of lack of funding. Frantic search for the missing fossils took place, and continued well into the 1950s. After the establishment of the
People’s Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in 1949, excavations resumed at Zhoukoudian. But with political instability and social unrest brewing in China, beginning in 1966, and major discoveries at
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human ev ...
and East Turkana (
Koobi Fora
Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language:
...
), the paleoanthropological spotlight shifted westward to East Africa. Although China re-opened its doors to the West in the late 1970s, national policy calling for self-reliance, coupled with a widened language barrier, thwarted all the possibilities of renewed scientific relationships. Indeed, Harvard anthropologist K. C. Chang noted, "international collaboration (in developing nations very often a disguise for Western domination) became a thing of the past" (1977: 139).
Africa
1920s – 1940s
The first paleoanthropological find made in Africa was the 1921 discovery of the
Kabwe 1
Kabwe 1 (also called the Broken Hill skull, Rhodesian Man) is a Middle Paleolithic fossil assigned by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1921 as the type specimen for ''Homo rhodesiensis'', now mostly considered a synonym of ''Homo heidelbergensis''.Hubl ...
skull at
Kabwe (Broken Hill), Zambia. Initially, this specimen was named ''
Homo rhodesiensis
''Homo rhodesiensis'' is the species name proposed by Arthur Smith Woodward (1921) to classify Kabwe 1 (the "Kabwe skull" or "Broken Hill skull", also "Rhodesian Man"), a Middle Stone Age fossil recovered from a cave at Broken Hill, or Kabwe, No ...
''; however, today it is considered part of the species ''
Homo heidelbergensis
''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' in ...
''.
In 1924 in a limestone quarry at
Taung
Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. The name means ''place of the lion'' and was named after Tau, the King of the Barolong. ''Tau'' is the Tswana word for lion.
Education
High,Secondary and Middle Schools ...
, Professor
Raymond Dart
Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of ''Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct homi ...
discovered a remarkably well-preserved juvenile specimen (face and brain endocast), which he named ''
Australopithecus africanus
''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfonte ...
'' (''Australopithecus'' meaning "Southern Ape"). Although the brain was small (410 cm³), its shape was rounded, unlike the brain shape of chimpanzees and gorillas, and more like the shape seen in modern humans. In addition, the specimen exhibited short
canine teeth
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened howeve ...
, and the anterior placement of the
foramen magnum
The foramen magnum ( la, great hole) is a large, oval-shaped opening in the occipital bone of the skull. It is one of the several oval or circular openings (foramina) in the base of the skull. The spinal cord, an extension of the medulla oblon ...
was more like the placement seen in modern humans than the placement seen in chimpanzees and gorillas, suggesting that this species was
bipedal
Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' 'double' ...
.
All of these traits convinced Dart that the Taung child was a bipedal human ancestor, a transitional form between ape and human. However, Dart's conclusions were largely ignored for decades, as the prevailing view of the time was that a large brain evolved before bipedality. It took the discovery of additional australopith fossils in Africa that resembled his specimen, and the rejection of the
Piltdown Man hoax, for Dart's claims to be taken seriously.
In the 1930s, paleontologist
Robert Broom
Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow.
From 1903 to 1910, he ...
discovered and described a new species at
Kromdraai
Kromdraai Conservancy is a protected conservation park located to the south-west of Gauteng province in north-east South Africa. It is in the Muldersdrift area not far from Krugersdorp.
Etymology
Its name is derived from Afrikaans meaning "Cro ...
, South Africa. Although similar in some ways to Dart's ''Australopithecus africanus'', Broom's specimen had much larger cheek teeth. Because of this difference, Broom named his specimen ''
Paranthropus robustus
''Paranthropus robustus'' is a species of robustness (morphology), robust australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene, Early and possibly Middle Pleistocene, Middle Pleistocene of the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, about 2.27 to 0.87 (or, mo ...
'', using a new genus name. In doing so, he established the practice of grouping
gracile australopiths in the genus ''Australopithecus'' and
robust
Robustness is the property of being strong and healthy in constitution. When it is transposed into a system, it refers to the ability of tolerating perturbations that might affect the system’s functional body. In the same line ''robustness'' ca ...
australopiths in the genus ''
Paranthropus
''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: ''Paranthropus robustus, P. robustus'' and ''P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it is sometimes considered to be sy ...
.'' During the 1960s, the robust variety was commonly moved into ''Australopithecus''. A more recent consensus has been to return to the original classification of ''Paranthropus'' as a separate genus.
1950s – 1990s
The second half of the twentieth century saw a significant increase in the number of paleoanthropological finds made in Africa. Many of these finds were associated with the work of the
Leakey family
The Leakey family is a British and Kenyan family consisting of a number of notable military figures, agricultural scientists and archaeologists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally a family from Somerset and Devon in south-west England in the ...
in eastern Africa. In 1959,
Mary Leakey
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A pro ...
's discovery of the Zinj fossin (
OH 5
''Paranthropus boisei'' is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959, and described by h ...
) at
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human ev ...
, Tanzania, led to the identification of a new species, ''
Paranthropus boisei
''Paranthropus boisei'' is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959, and described by h ...
''. In 1960, the Leakeys discovered the fossil
OH 7
OH 7 (Olduvai Hominid № 7), also nicknamed "Johnny's Child", is the type specimen of ''Homo habilis''. The fossils were discovered on November 4, 1960 in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by Jonathan and Mary Leakey. The remains are dated to approximate ...
, also at Olduvai Gorge, and assigned it to a new species, ''
Homo habilis
''Homo habilis'' ("handy man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.31 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly ...
''. In 1972, Bernard Ngeneo, a fieldworker working for
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...
, discovered the fossil KNM-ER 1470 near
Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana (), formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. B ...
in Kenya. KNM-ER 1470 has been interpreted as either a distinct species, ''
Homo rudolfensis
''Homo rudolfensis'' is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2 million years ago (mya). Because ''H. rudolfensis'' coexisted with several other hominins, it is debated what specimens can be confide ...
'', or alternatively as evidence of
sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...
in ''
Homo habilis
''Homo habilis'' ("handy man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.31 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly ...
''.
In 1967, Richard Leakey reported the earliest definitive examples of anatomically modern ''Homo sapiens'' from the site of
Omo Kibish
The Omo Kibish Formation or simply Kibish Formation is a geological formation in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. It is named after the nearby Omo River (Ethiopia), Omo River and is subdivided into four members known as Members I-IV. ...
in Ethiopia, known as the
Omo remains
The Omo remains are a collection of homininThis article quotes historic texts that use the terms 'hominid' and 'hominin' with meanings that may be different from their modern usages. This is because several revisions in classifying the great apes h ...
. In the late 1970s, Mary Leakey excavated the famous
Laetoli footprints
Laetoli is a pre-historic site located in Enduleni ward of Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region, Tanzania. The site is dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its Hominina footprints, preserved in volcanic ash. The site of the Laetoli foo ...
in Tanzania, which demonstrated the antiquity of bipedality in the human lineage.
In 1985, Richard Leakey and Alan Walker discovered a specimen they called the
Black Skull
KNM-WT 17000 (also known as "The Black Skull") is a fossilized adult skull of the species ''Paranthropus aethiopicus''. It was discovered in Lake Turkana, West Turkana, Kenya by Alan Walker (anthropologist), Alan Walker in 1985. Estimated to be ...
, found near Lake Turkana. This specimen was assigned to another species, ''
Paranthropus aethiopicus
''Paranthropus aethiopicus'' is an extinct species of robust australopithecine from the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.7–2.3 million years ago. However, it is much debated whether or not ''Paranthropus'' is an invali ...
''. In 1994, a team led by
Meave Leakey
Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has ...
announced a new species, ''
Australopithecus anamensis
''Australopithecus anamensis'' is a hominin species that lived approximately between 4.2 and 3.8 million years ago and is the oldest known ''Australopithecus'' species, living during the Plio-Pleistocene era.
Nearly one hundred fossil specimens ...
'', based on specimens found near Lake Turkana.
Numerous other researchers have made important discoveries in eastern Africa. Possibly the most famous is the
Lucy skeleton, discovered in 1973 by
Donald Johanson
Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...
and
Maurice Taieb
Maurice Taieb (22 July 1935 – 23 July 2021) was a French geologist and paleoanthropologist. He discovered the Hadar formation, recognized its potential importance to paleoanthropology and founded the International Afar Research Expedition (I ...
in Ethiopia's
Afar Triangle
The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; th ...
at the site of
Hadar. On the basis of this skeleton and subsequent discoveries, the researchers came up with a new species, ''
Australopithecus afarensis
''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...
''.
In 1975,
Colin Groves
Colin Peter Groves (24 June 1942 – 30 November 2017) was a British-Australian biologist and anthropologist. Groves was Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
Education
Born in Englan ...
and
Vratislav Mazák
Vratislav Mazák (; 22 June 1937 – 9 September 1987) was a Czech biologist who specialized in paleoanthropology, mammalogy and taxonomy. He was also a painter, often illustrating his books about animals and men.
Born at Kutná Hora, he was a pr ...
announced a new species of human they called ''
Homo ergaster
''Homo ergaster'' is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether ''H. ergaster'' constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' is an ongoin ...
''. ''Homo ergaster'' specimens have been found at numerous sites in eastern and southern Africa.
In 1994, Tim D. White announced a new species, ''
Ardipithecus ramidus
''Ardipithecus ramidus'' is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago (mya). ''A. ramidus'', unlike modern hominids, has adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedality) and life in ...
'', based on fossils from Ethiopia.
In 1999, two new species were announced.
Berhane Asfaw
Berhane Asfaw (Amharic: በርሃነ አስፋው) (born August 22, 1954 in Gondar, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian paleontologist of Rift Valley Research Service, who co-discovered human skeletal remains at Herto Bouri, Ethiopia later classified as ...
and
Tim D. White
Tim D. White (born August 24, 1950) is an American paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for leading the team which discovered Ardi, the type specimen of ''Ardipithe ...
named ''
Australopithecus garhi
''Australopithecus garhi'' is a species of australopithecine from the Bouri Formation in the Afar Region of Ethiopia 2.6–2.5 million years ago (mya) during the Early Pleistocene. The first remains were described in 1999 based on several skele ...
'' based on specimens discovered in Ethiopia's
Awash valley
The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
. Meave Leakey announced a new species, ''
Kenyanthropus platyops
''Kenyanthropus'' is a hominin genus identified from the Lomekwi site by Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 to 3.2 million years ago during the Middle Pliocene. It contains one species, ''K. platyops'', but may also include the 2 million year ol ...
'', based on the cranium KNM-WT 40000 from Lake Turkana.
21st century
In the 21st century, numerous fossils have been found that add to current knowledge of existing species. For example, in 2001,
Zeresenay Alemseged
Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged (born 4 June 1969) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist who was the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, United States. He recently joined the faculty of the Un ...
discovered an ''Australopithecus afarensis'' child fossil, called
Selam, from the site of Dikika in the Afar region of Ethiopia. This find is particularly important because the fossil included a preserved
hyoid bone
The hyoid bone (lingual bone or tongue-bone) () is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies between the base of the mandible and the third cervical vertebr ...
, something rarely found in other paleoanthropological fossils but important for understanding the evolution of speech capacities.
Two new species from southern Africa have been discovered and described in recent years. In 2008, a team led by
Lee Berger
Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He is best known for his discovery of the '' Australopithecus sediba'' type site, Malapa; his leade ...
announced a new species, ''
Australopithecus sediba
''Australopithecus sediba'' is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a partial adult female skeleton, the para ...
'', based on fossils they had discovered in Malapa cave in South Africa.
In 2015, a team also led by Lee Berger announced another species, ''
Homo naledi
'' Homo naledi'' is an extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimen ...
'', based on fossils representing 15 individuals from the
Rising Star Cave system
The Rising Star cave system (also known as Westminster or Empire cave) is located in the
Malmani dolomites, in Bloubank River valley, about southwest of Swartkrans, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. Recreat ...
in South Africa.
New species have also been found in eastern Africa. In 2000,
Brigitte Senut
Brigitte Senut (27 January 1954, Paris) is a French paleoprimatologist and paleoanthropologist and a professor at the National Museum of Natural History, Paris. She is a specialist in the evolution of great apes and humans.
Life and work
Senu ...
and
Martin Pickford
Martin Pickford was lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and honorary affiliate at the Département Histoire de la Terre in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Muséum national d'Histoire. ...
described the species ''
Orrorin tugenensis
''Orrorin tugenensis'' is a postulated early species of Homininae, estimated at and discovered in 2000. It is not confirmed how ''Orrorin'' is related to modern humans. Its discovery was used to argue against the hypothesis that australopithecin ...
'', based on fossils they found in Kenya. In 2004,
Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye (born 23 February 1961) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-''Homo sapiens'' hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys.Mangels, John (20 ...
announced that some specimens previously labeled as ''Ardipithecus ramidus'' made up a different species, ''
Ardipithecus kadabba
''Ardipithecus kadabba'' is the scientific classification given to fossil remains "known only from teeth and bits and pieces of skeletal bones", originally estimated to be 5.8 to 5.2 million years old, and later revised to 5.77 to 5.54 million ye ...
''.
In 2015, Haile-Selassie announced another new species, ''
Australopithecus deyiremeda'', though some scholars are skeptical that the associated fossils truly represent a unique species.
Although most hominin fossils from Africa have been found in eastern and southern Africa, there are a few exceptions. One is ''
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
''Sahelanthropus tchadensis'' is an extinct species of the Homininae (African apes) dated to about , during the Miocene epoch. The species, and its genus ''Sahelanthropus'', was announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed ''T ...
'', discovered in the central African country of Chad in 2002. This find is important because it widens the assumed geographic range of early hominins.
Renowned paleoanthropologists
*
Robert Ardrey
Robert Ardrey (October 16, 1908 – January 14, 1980) was an American playwright, screenwriter and science writer perhaps best known for ''The Territorial Imperative'' (1966). After a Broadway and Hollywood career, he returned to his academic tr ...
(1908–1980)
*
Lee Berger
Lee Rogers Berger (born December 22, 1965) is an American-born South African paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. He is best known for his discovery of the '' Australopithecus sediba'' type site, Malapa; his leade ...
(1965–)
*
Davidson Black
Davidson Black, FRS (July 25, 1884 – March 15, 1934) was a Canadian paleoanthropologist, best known for his naming of ''Sinanthropus pekinensis'' (now ''Homo erectus pekinensis''). He was Chairman of the Geological Survey of China and a ...
(1884–1934)
*
Robert Broom
Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow.
From 1903 to 1910, he ...
(1866–1951)
*
Michel Brunet Michel Brunet may refer to:
* Michel Brunet (historian) (1917–1985), Canadian historian
* Michel Brunet (paleontologist) (born 1940), French paleontologist
* Michel Brunet (figure skater) (born 1970), Canadian skater
{{hndis, Brunet, Michel ...
(1940–)
*
J. Desmond Clark
John Desmond Clark (10 April 1916 – 14 February 2002) was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa.
Early life
Clark was born in London, but his childhood was spent in a hamlet in the Chiltern Hills of B ...
(1916–2002)
*
Carleton S. Coon
Carleton Stevens Coon (June 23, 1904 – June 3, 1981) was an American anthropologist. A professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer and professor at Harvard University, he was president of the American Association of ...
(1904–1981)
*
Raymond Dart
Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of ''Australopithecus africanus'', an extinct homi ...
(1893–1988)
*
Eugene Dubois
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
(1858–1940)
*
Johann Carl Fuhlrott
Prof. Dr. Johann Carl Fuhlrott (31 December 1803, Leinefelde, Germany – 17 October 1877, Wuppertal) was an early German paleoanthropologist. He is famous for recognizing the significance of the bones of Neanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen dis ...
(1803–1877)
*
Aleš Hrdlička
Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,[HRDLICKA, ALES ...](_blank)
(1869–1943)
*
Glynn Isaac
Glynn Llywelyn Isaac (19 November 1937 – 5 October 1985) was a South African archaeologist who specialised in the very early prehistory of Africa, and was one of twin sons born to botanists William Edwyn Isaac and Frances Margaret Leighto ...
(1937–1985)
*
Donald C. Johanson
Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...
(1943–)
*
Kamoya Kimeu
Kamoya Kimeu (1938 – 20 July 2022) was a Kenyan paleontologist and curator, whose contributions to the field of paleoanthropology were recognised with the National Geographic Society's LaGorce Medal and with an honorary doctorate of science deg ...
(1940–)
*
Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald
Gustav Heinrich Ralph (often cited as G. H. R.) von Koenigswald (13 November 1902 – 10 July 1982) was a German-Dutch paleontologist and geologist who conducted research on hominins, including ''Homo erectus''. His discoverie ...
(1902–1982)
*
Jeffrey Laitman
Jeffrey Todd Laitman, Ph.D. (born October 13, 1951) is an American anatomist and physical anthropologist whose science has combined experimental, comparative, and paleontological studies to understand the development and evolution of the human up ...
(1951–)
*
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...
(1903–1972)
*
Meave Leakey
Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has ...
(1942–)
*
Mary Leakey
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A pro ...
(1913–1996)
*
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...
(1944–2022)
* André Leroi-Gourhan (1911–1986)
* Kenneth Oakley (1911–1981)
* David Pilbeam (1940–)
* John T. Robinson (1923–2001)
* Jeffrey H. Schwartz (1948–)
* Chris Stringer (1947–)
* Ian Tattersall (1945–)
* Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955)
* Phillip V. Tobias (1925–2012)
* Erik Trinkaus (1948–)
* Alan Walker (anthropologist), Alan Walker (1938–2017)
*
Franz Weidenreich
Franz Weidenreich (7 June 1873 – 11 July 1948) was a Jewish German anatomist and physical anthropology, physical anthropologist who studied evolution.
Life and career
Weidenreich studied at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in Strasbourg whe ...
(1873–1948)
* Milford H. Wolpoff (1942–)
*
Tim D. White
Tim D. White (born August 24, 1950) is an American paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for leading the team which discovered Ardi, the type specimen of ''Ardipithe ...
(1950–)
* John D. Hawks
*
Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye (born 23 February 1961) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-''Homo sapiens'' hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys.Mangels, John (20 ...
(1961–)
* Sonia Harmand (1974–)
* Bernard Wood (geologist), Bernard Wood (1945–)
See also
* Dawn of Humanity, ''Dawn of Humanity'' (2015 PBS film)
* Human evolution
* List of human evolution fossils
* The Incredible Human Journey
* Timeline of human evolution
References
Further reading
* David R. Begun, ''A Companion to Paleoanthropology'', Malden, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
* Winfried Henke, Ian Tattersall (eds.), ''Handbook of Paleoanthropology'', Dordrecht, Springer, 2007.
External links
Paleoanthropology in the 1990s– Essays b
Becoming Human: Paleoanthropology, Evolution and Human OriginsDepartment of Human Evolution ~ Max Planck Institute, LeipzigHuman Timeline (Interactive)– Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).
{{Authority control
Paleoanthropology,
Anthropology
Biological anthropology