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5 - Hominin evolution in Africa during the Quaternary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

By
Kristian J. Carlson  and
Sarah Edlund
Edited by
Jasper Knight  and
Stefan W. Grab
Jasper Knight
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Stefan W. Grab
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

During the Quaternary, the hominin evolutionary tree can be best characterised as bushy. Fossil discoveries in recent decades have shown that different hominin taxa co-existed more than was previously thought when Homo habilis was first deemed the earliest member of genus Homo. Such phylogenetic complexity at the origin of Homo is indicative of an adaptive radiation, in this case often attributed to a palaeoclimatic drying trend in Africa. Establishing evolutionary relationships amongst different taxa at the origins of Homo, and ultimately with the descendent species of one of them, Homo erectus, is made difficult by their mosaic of primitive and derived morphological characteristics. Linking these morphologies with coeval environmental change is made difficult by conflicting signals between regional palaeoclimate indicators. By the end of the Quaternary, hominin behavioural and cognitive changes arguably become more evident in the ‘evolving’ archaeological record of southern Africa than in its fossil record. New discoveries and new types of morphological analyses are clearly needed for sharpening phylogenetic resolution, particularly early in the Quaternary.

Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary Environmental Change in Southern Africa
Physical and Human Dimensions
 , pp. 67 - 87
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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