PALEOANTHROPOLOGY

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Just what am I doing here? Well, the focus of this page is Human Evolution. First of all as you will see, HTML is not my thing and I will not be quitting my day job to become a web designer anytime in the near future. Whenever possible I will post a paper covering a topic that is of interest to me. Topics will not be posted often during the school year...just not enough time in a day. I will do my best to keep the page interesting, while trying to keep the page readable by everyone (which can be a little difficult to do). I am not here to showcase my wit, I hope to be able to assist people in a study of Human Ancestors...maybe get them on the path to future more in depth studies. My specialty is The Neandertal "Enigma", if indeed Neandertals can truly be labelled an enigma anymore.

It seems that as of late the scientific community is beginning to see what many people like Chris Stringer, Steven Rosen and others have been saying for years. NEANDERTALS WERE A GENETIC DEAD END. There have been many recent publications involving Neandertal DNA research. Simply stated, the results of recent DNA studies show thet the DNA of Neandertals is not like that of modern human populations. Don't get me wrong, I am relieved to see that the community is coming around/has come around to the way I see the Neandertal enigma. My problem lies in the 'participants' of the experiment. A major problem with these new studies is the fact that rather than compare two contemporary groups (Anatomically Modern Homo. sapiens did coexist with Neandertals in the Levant for thousands of years)the researchers compared the DNA of MODERN POPULATIONS to Neandertals. "WHY" you may ask? DNA testing requires destroying the tissue used to extract the DNA from, therefore it was decided to use plentiful Modern human DNA. Interesting how scientists can operate is it not? Oh well, the results are very good, but I would really like to see a study based on contemporary populations.

UPDATE: July 29, 2003
New fossils from Herto in Ethiopia are, at ~160 000 yrs, the oldest known modern human fossils. The discoverers have assigned them to a new subspecies, Homo sapiens idaltu, and say that they are anatomically and chronologically intermediate between older archaic humans and more recent fully modern humans. Their age and anatomy is cited as strong evidence for the emergence of modern humans from Africa, and against the multiregional theory which argues that modern humans evolved in many places around the world.

Three skulls were found:

BOU-VP-16/1 is an almost complete adult cranium. It is large and robust, with a cranial capacity estimated at 1450 cubic centimetres, larger than most modern humans. The skull is long and high in lateral view, and White et al. (2003) list a number of features in which it is near or beyond the limit of modern humans (the occipital angle, mastoid height, palate breadth). Viewed from above, its length exceeds any from a sample of over 3000 modern humans, but one width measurement is below the modern human average. The brow ridge is not prominent and is within the modern human range.

BOU-VP-16/2 consists of portions of another adult cranium which appears to have been even larger than the previous specimen.

BOU-VP-16/5 consists of most of a skullcase from a child, probably about 6 or 7 years of age judging by its teeth.

The conclusion of the authors is that the Herto skulls "sample a population that is on the verge of anatomical modernity but not yet fully modern." They therefore assigned it to a new subspecies idaltu ('elder' in the local Afar language): "Because the Herto hominids are morphologically just beyond the range of variation seen in AMHS [anatomically modern Homo sapiens], and because they differ from all other known fossil hominids, we recognize them here as Homo sapiens idaltu, a new palaeosubspecies of Homo sapiens."

Chris Stringer (2003), however, in a commentary article, suggests that the skulls may not be distinctive enough to warrant a new subspecies name. Both anatomically and chronologically, the Herto skulls seem intermediate between earlier and more primitive skulls such as Bodo and Kabwe ('Homo rhodesiensis') and the first completely modern human skulls which are first found from about 115 000 years ago.

The authors' final conclusion is that "When considered with the evidence from other sites, this shows that modern human morphology emerged in Africa long before the Neanderthals vanished from Eurasia." Because of this, these finds have been generally seen as a setback for the Multiregional model of human evolution (which argues that modern humans evolved in geographically widespread areas of the world) and strong support for the competing Out Of Africa model (which argues that modern humans evolved in Africa and spread out from there, displacing any preexisting populations).

Click here to read an abridged and heavily simplified paper I wrote on neandertals as a freshman. The paper is a little clumsy, due to my modifications and streamlining..and desire to prevent it from being stolen by plagarists.

For you people who are looking for a few good books on the subject of Human Evolution try a few of the following Please remember that this is science: 'fact today..crap tomorrow.' read critically and do not ignore journal articles.

Reconstructing Human Origins by Glenn Conroy (moderate reading book if taken in small doses; great content $50 US)

The Fossil Trail by Ian Tattersaal (an easy enjoyable read great to get a feel for the area $14.95 US)

The Human Evolution Source Book
edited by Russel Ciochon and John Fleagle (not an east read! advanced topics are covered $60-$80 US)

Skeleton KeysBy Geffrey Schwartz (great book to learn human skeletal morphology $50-$70 US)

Body on Disk: The Muscles and Bones. Win/Mac CD ROM by Bryan Edwards Publishing.(available in medical bookstores $30-$40 US)

Prehistoric Europe. By: Champion. T, Gamble. C, Shennan. S, Whittle. A. (This book can be regarded as the bible of European Archaeology.)$50-$300 U.S. Depending on the edition.