A Companion to Paleoanthropology

by Begun, David R.

• ISBN13: 9781118332344
• ISBN10: 1118332342
• Edition: 1st
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2013-01-14
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

A Companion to Paleoanthropology presents a compendium of readings from leading scholars in the field that define our current knowledge of the major discoveries and developments in human origins and human evolution, tracing the fossil record from primate and hominid origins to the dispersal of modern humans across the globe.

• Represents an accessible state-of-the-art summary of the entire field of paleoanthropology, with an overview of hominid taxonomy
• Features articles on the key discoveries in ape and human evolution, in cranial, postcranial and brain evolution, growth and development
• Surveys the breadth of the paleontological record from primate origins to modern humans
• Highlights the unique methods and techniques of paleoanthropology, including dating and ecological methods, and use of living primate date to reconstruct behavior in fossil apes and humans

Author Biography

David Begun is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. A paleoanthropologist with 30 years of experience in the analysis of fossil apes, Begun’s current research focuses on the relationships between European and African fossil and living great apes and the origin of the African apes and humans.  He has published numerous articles and book chapters on that topic, and on the description and analysis of fossils from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Table of Contents

Contents

1. Introduction
David R. Begun

2. History
Matthew R. Goodrum

Part I. Background to Paleoanthropology

Section 1. Method and theory

3. Human Systematics
David S. Strait

4. Experimental Approaches to Musculoskeletal Function
Matthew J. Ravosa, Kimberly A. Congdon and Rachel A. Menegaz

5. Multivariate Quantitative Methods in Paleoanthropology
Michael A. Schillaci and Philipp Gunz

6. Growth, Development and Life History in Hominin Evolution
Jay Kelley and Debra Bolter

Section 2. Anatomical regions

7. Cranial Evolution in the Apes
Brian T. Shea

8. Hominid Brain Evolution
Thomas Schoenemann

9. Hominin diets
Peter S. Ungar and Matt Sponheimer

10. Origin and Evolution of Human Postcranial Anatomy
Brian G. Richmond and Kevin G. Hatala

Section 3. Environment and behavior

11. Multiproxy Paleoecology.  Reconstructing evolutionary context in paleoanthropology
Kaye E. Reed

12. Reconstructing Social Behavior from Fossil Evidence
J. Michael Plavcan

13. Geochronology
Alan L. Deino

14. The Origins and Evolution of Technology
Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth

Section 4. Genetics and race

15. Genetic perspectives on ape and human evolution
Todd R. Disotell

16. The Genetics of Morphology
Richard J. Sherwood and Dana L. Duren

17. Paleoanthropology and Race
Milford H. Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari

Part II. The fossil record

Section 5. Paleogene primates

18. Primate Origins
Mary T. Silcox

19. Anthropoid Origins
K. Christopher Beard

20. Catarrhine origins
Terry Harrison 

Section 6. Neogene/Quaternary hominoids

21. The Miocene Hominoid Radiations
David R. Begun

22. Before Australopithecus. The Earliest Hominins
Scott W. Simpson

23. Australopithecus and Kenyanthropus
Carol V. Ward and Ashley S. Hammond

24. Paranthropus
Bernard Wood and Kes Schroer

Section 7. The age of Homo

25. Earliest Homo
Friedemann Schrenk

26. Homo erectus and related taxa
Susan C. Antón

27. The Middle Pleistocene Record. On the Ancestry of Neandertals, Modern Humans and Others
Jean-Jacques Hublin

28. Neanderthals
Katerina Harvati

29. Modern human origins
Mark Collard and Mana Dembo

30. Homo floresiensis
William L. Jungers