<i>Australopithecus garhi</i>
            : A New Species of Early Hominid from Ethiopia

Asfaw, Berhane; White, Tim D.; Lovejoy, Carly; Latimer, Bruce; Simpson, Scott W.; Suwa, Gen

doi:10.1126/science.284.5414.629

Cited by 432 publications

(248 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Presumably, this morphology was present in the common ancestor of the African great apes and early humans, along with rudimentary tool-using and symbolic behaviors. By the Late Pliocene, humans were relying on intensified cultural behaviors, particularly the use of stone tool technology in foraging and food processing (42,43).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Weaver

2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

176

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Human brain evolution involved both neurological reorganization and an increase in overall brain volume relative to body mass. It is generally difficult to draw functional inferences about the timing and nature of brain reorganization, given that superficial brain morphology recorded on fossil endocasts is functionally ambiguous. However, the cerebellum, housed in the clearly delineated posterior cranial fossa, is functionally and ontologically discrete. The cerebellum is reciprocally connected to each of 14 neocortical regions important to human cognitive evolution. Cerebellar volume varies significantly relative to overall brain volume among mammalian orders, as well as within the primate order. There is also significant diachronic variation among fossil human taxa. In the australopithecines and early members of the genus Homo, the cerebral hemispheres were large in proportion to the cerebellum, compared with other hominoids. This trend continued in Middle and Late Pleistocene humans, including Neandertals and CroMagnon 1, who have the largest cerebral hemispheres relative to cerebellum volume of any primates, including earlier and Holocene humans. In recent humans, however, the pattern is reversed; the cerebellum is larger with respect to the rest of the brain (and, conversely, the cerebral hemispheres are smaller with respect to the cerebellum) than in Late Pleistocene humans. The cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres appear to have evolved reciprocally. Cerebellar development in Holocene humans may have provided greater computational efficiency for coping with an increasingly complex cultural and conceptual environment.human evolution ͉ Plio-Pleistocene hominins ͉ Upper Paleolithic transition P aleoneurologists agree that increased encephalization is an important dynamic of human brain evolution. However, brain evolution involved more than brain expansion. It also involved reorganization to support specific, uniquely human cognitive tasks, including those involved in linguistic processing and a highly developed facility for manufacturing and manipulating tools. Nevertheless, despite more than a century of effort, there is little consensus about how and when such reorganization occurred.One approach to exploring functional reorganization of the brain in humans has been the analysis of impressions of the brain's surface convolutions (sulci and gyri) on the inner table of the endocranium. However, endocranial markings are notoriously difficult to identify reliably (1, 2). Even where the impressions are fairly clear, taphonomic processes may distort the evidence. In addition, the functional correlates of the brain's surface convolutions, especially in fossils, are literally superficial. Cognitive functions occur through internal connections among brain regions, as well as through the distribution of neuroreceptors that cannot be detected by examining the surface of the brain, let alone from endocranial markings. Therefore, functional inferences based on sulcal patterns are problematic.Another approach to endocran...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Weaver

2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

176

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“…2.5 Ma sediments in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia. 54 While it does not seem to be a member of the Paranthropus clade based on other aspects of its craniofacial morphology, it is too early to know how it is related to other hominins. Finally, most researchers accept that the derived morphology shared between Paranthropus and Homo, such as cranial base flexion, either evolved independently in the two lineages or was inherited from an as-yet undiscovered recent common ancestor of the Paranthropus and Homo clades.…”

Section: How Many Species?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boisei

Constantino

Wood

2007

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Many people assume that OH 5, the type specimen of Paranthropus boisei, collected in 1959, was the first evidence of that taxon to be found, but OH 3, recovered in 1955, predated the discovery of OH 5 by four years. Thus, Paranthropus boisei recently celebrated the equivalent of its fiftieth birthday. This review marks that milestone by examining the way our understanding of this taxon has changed during its fifty, or so, year history.

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“…bahrelghazali (Chad, about 3·5 Mya (72) ), Kenyanthropus platyops (Kenya, about 3·5 Mya (73) ), Au. garhi (Ethiopia, about 2·5 Mya (74) ) and Au. africanus (South Africa, about 2·9 -2·0 Mya (75) ).…”

Section: Human Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, cut marks on bone are easier ascribed to human utilisation than any nearby found fossilised fish bones or molluscan shells that only seldomly bear cut marks (260,261) and are often not even examined. Hence, while human remains are nearly always found in the vicinity of water and the fossil record of nearby found fish is extensive (74,262) , the exploitation of aquatic resources is difficult to relate to early man (263) .…”

Section: Archeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A multidisciplinary reconstruction of Palaeolithic nutrition that holds promise for the prevention and treatment of diseases of civilisation

2012

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Evolutionary medicine acknowledges that many chronic degenerative diseases result from conflicts between our rapidly changing environment, our dietary habits included, and our genome, which has remained virtually unchanged since the Palaeolithic era. Reconstruction of the diet before the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions is therefore indicated, but hampered by the ongoing debate on our ancestors' ecological niche. Arguments and their counterarguments regarding evolutionary medicine are updated and the evidence for the long-reigning hypothesis of human evolution on the arid savanna is weighed against the hypothesis that man evolved in the proximity of water. Evidence from various disciplines is discussed, including the study of palaeo-environments, comparative anatomy, biogeochemistry, archaeology, anthropology, (patho)physiology and epidemiology. Although our ancestors had much lower life expectancies, the current evidence does neither support the misconception that during the Palaeolithic there were no elderly nor that they had poor health. Rather than rejecting the possibility of ‘healthy ageing’, the default assumption should be that healthy ageing posed an evolutionary advantage for human survival. There is ample evidence that our ancestors lived in a land–water ecosystem and extracted a substantial part of their diets from both terrestrial and aquatic resources. Rather than rejecting this possibility by lack of evidence, the default assumption should be that hominins, living in coastal ecosystems with catchable aquatic resources, consumed these resources. Finally, the composition and merits of so-called ‘Palaeolithic diets’, based on different hominin niche-reconstructions, are evaluated. The benefits of these diets illustrate that it is time to incorporate this knowledge into dietary recommendations.

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Australopithecus garhi : A New Species of Early Hominid from Ethiopia

Cited by 432 publications

References 18 publications

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boisei

A multidisciplinary reconstruction of Palaeolithic nutrition that holds promise for the prevention and treatment of diseases of civilisation

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