The Human Genus

1999/04/02 by Bernard Wood, Mark Collard · 21 citations
Social Sciences · Mathematics · Psychology · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Morphological variations and asymmetry #Primate Behavior and Ecology

paper · doi:10.1126/science.284.5411.65

openalex publication_date 1999/04/02 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

A general problem in biology is how to incorporate information about evolutionary history and adaptation into taxonomy. The problem is exemplified in attempts to define our own genus, Homo. Here conventional criteria for allocating fossil species to Homo are reviewed and are found to be either inappropriate or inoperable. We present a revised definition, based on verifiable criteria, for Homo and conclude that two species, Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis, do not belong in the genus. The earliest taxon to satisfy the criteria is Homo ergaster, or early African Homo erectus, which currently appears in the fossil record at about 1.9 million years ago.

Citations

• An Empirical Test of Bootstrapping as a Method for Assessing Confidence in Phylogenetic Analysis
• A New Species of The Genus Homo From Olduvai Gorge
• New partial skeleton of Homo habilis from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
• CONFIDENCE LIMITS ON PHYLOGENIES: AN APPROACH USING THE BOOTSTRAP
• TAXONOMIC CATEGORIES IN FOSSIL HOMINIDS
• The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: The Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution
• Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene
• The human cranium from Bodo, Ethiopia: evidence for speciation in the Middle Pleistocene?

Cited by

• Dental microwear and diets of African early Homo
• Growth, Development, and Life History throughout the Evolution ofHomo
• Genera of the human lineage
• New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages
• Did Meditating Make Us Human?
• The Vulture in the Sky and the Hominin on the Land: Three Million Years of Human–Vulture Interaction
• Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution
• African climate change and faunal evolution during the Pliocene–Pleistocene
• Human eating behaviour in an evolutionary ecological context
• Patterns of resource use in early Homo and Paranthropus
• Revising the recent evolutionary history of equids using ancient DNA
• Testing the taxonomic integrity of Paranthropus boisei sensu stricto
• The hunters and the hunted revisited
• ‘A tale of two taxa’
• EarlyHomoand the role of the genus in paleoanthropology
• Flaked stones and old bones: Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology
• Dental data challenge the ubiquitous presence of Homo in the Cradle of Humankind
• No sustained increase in zooarchaeological evidence for carnivory after the appearance of Homo erectus
• Brain Size Scaling and Body Composition in Mammals
• Homo ergaster [wikipedia]
• Homo habilis [wikipedia]