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How the family started: Origins of hominids
Author(s) -
Ward Carol
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.293.1
Subject(s) - australopithecus , hominidae , bipedalism , extant taxon , arboreal locomotion , biology , evolutionary biology , clade , human evolution , taxon , morphology (biology) , homo sapiens , zoology , paleontology , biological evolution , phylogenetics , geography , habitat , ecology , archaeology , biochemistry , genetics , gene
The transition to committed bipedality is a key characteristic of hominins. Fossil evidence documenting hominin origins has grown substantially, but much of our understanding of the earliest members of the Australopithecus‐human clade still comes from Au. afarensis. Understanding selective pressures shaping Australopithecus requires knowledge of its ancestral morphology. Here I compare evidence from Miocene and Pliocene hominoids and consider the implications of their morphology for reconstructing the ancestral hominin morphology. Data indicate high levels homoplasy among hominoids, and that ancestral hominins likely differed from extant great apes in important ways, such as pelvis, lumbar and hand proportions. However, some characteristic of extant apes are likely primitive. Homoplasy is common and involved different experiments in exploiting arboreal habitats. So rather than thinking about progressive stages leading towards Australopithecus from an ancestral taxon like Proconsul through one like a modern great ape or not, we need to refocus efforts to explore the detailed similarities and differences among extant and extinct apes, and the diversity of their locomotor adaptations. Research supported by NSF and LSB Leakey Foundation.