Reconstructing human evolution: Achievements, challenges, and opportunities

2010/05/05 by Bernard Wood · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Biology #Clade #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Evolutionary biology #Fossil Record #Human evolution #Paleontology #Phylogenetics #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Systematics #Taxon #Taxonomy (biology) #Tree of life (biology) #Zoology

paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.1001649107

openalex publication_date 2010/05/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

This contribution reviews the evidence that has resolved the branching structure of the higher primate part of the tree of life and the substantial body of fossil evidence for human evolution. It considers some of the problems faced by those who try to interpret the taxonomy and systematics of the human fossil record. How do you to tell an early human taxon from one in a closely related clade? How do you determine the number of taxa represented in the human clade? How can homoplasy be recognized and factored into attempts to recover phylogeny?

Citations

• New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages
• Paranthropus boisei: Fifty years of evidence and analysis
• Ardipithecus ramidus and the Paleobiology of Early Hominids
• Early Hominids--Diversity or Distortion?
• AN AMPLIFICATION OF THE PHYLOGENETIC SPECIES CONCEPT
• The Biological Species Concept: A Critical Evaluation
• Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia
• Orrorin tugenensis Femoral Morphology and the Evolution of Hominin Bipedalism
• First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya)
• Australopithecus garhi : A New Species of Early Hominid from Ethiopia
• Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia
• Australopithecus sediba : A New Species of Homo -Like Australopith from South Africa
• A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa
• The Human Genus
• Neandertal DNA Sequences and the Origin of Modern Humans
• Relative limb strength and locomotion in Homo habilis
• Paranthropus boisei: An example of evolutionary stasis?
• Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya

Cited by

• Australopithecine [wikipedia]
• Australopithecus [wikipedia]

Related

• New perspectives on anthropoid origins
• The hominin fossil record: taxa, grades and clades
• Species, genera, and phylogenetic structure in the human fossil record: a modest proposal
• The latest steps of human evolution: What the hard evidence has to say about it?
• EarlyHomoand the role of the genus in paleoanthropology