The following charts give a brief overview of several notable primate fossil finds relating to human evolution. As there are thousands of fossils, mostly fragmentary, often consisting of single bones or isolated teeth with complete skulls and skeletons rare,[1] this overview is not meant to be complete, but does show some of the most important finds. The fossils are arranged by approximate age as determined by radiometric dating and/or incremental dating. The species name represents current consensus, when there is no clear scientific consensus the other possible classifications are indicated; deprecated classifications may be found on the fossil's page. Most of the fossils shown are not considered direct ancestors to Homo sapiens but are closely related to direct ancestors and are therefore important to the study of the lineage.
[edit] 7 million - 5.3 million years old
[edit] 5.3 million - 2.58 million years old
[edit] Holocene
[edit] Abbreviations used in fossil catalog name
- AL - Afar Locality, Ethiopia
- ARA-VP - Aramis Vertebrate Paleontology, Ethiopia
- BOU-VP - Bouri Vertebrate Paleontology, Ethiopia
- ER - East (Lake) Rudolf, Kenya
- KGA - Konso-Gardula, Ethiopia
- KNM - Kenya National Museum
- KP - Kanapoi, Kenya
- OH - Olduvai Hominid, Tanzania
- SK - Swartkrans, South Africa
- Sts,Stw - Sterkfontein, South Africa
- TM - Transvaal Museum, South Africa
- TM - Toros-Menalla, Chad
- WT - West (Lake) Turkana, Kenya
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Gibbons, Ann. The First Human : The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestor. Anchor Books (2007). ISBN 978-1-4000-7696-3
- Hartwig, Walter, ed (2002. Reprinted 2004). The Primate Fossil Record. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-08141-2. http://books.google.com/?id=Ezm1OA_s6isC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hartwig+primate&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false .
- Johanson, Donald & Wong, Kate. Lucy's Legacy : The Quest for Human Origins. Three Rivers Press (2009). ISBN 978-0-307-39640-2
- Jones, Steve; Martin, Robert D.; Pilbeam, David R (Editors). (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46786-5 (Note: this book contains very useful, information dense chapters on primate evolution in general, and human evolution in particular, including fossil history).
- Leakey, Richard & Lewin, Roger. Origins Reconsidered : In Search of What Makes us Human. Little, Brown and Company (1992). ISBN 0-316-90298-5
- Lewin, Roger. Bones of Contention : Controversies in the Search for Human Origins. Penguin Books (1987). ISBN 0-14-022638-9
- Morwood, Mike & van Oosterzee, Penny. A New Human : The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the 'Hobbits' of Flores, Indonesia. Smithsonian Books (2007). ISBN 978-0-06-089908-0
- Oppenheimer, Stephen. Out of Eden : The Peopling of the World. Constable (2003). ISBN 1-84119-697-5
- Roberts, Alice. The Incredible Human Journey : The Story of how we Colonised the Planet. Bloomsbury (2009). ISBN 978-0-7475-9839-8
- Shreeve, James. The Neanderthal Enigma : Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins. Viking (1996). ISBN 0-670-86638-5
- Stringer, Chris. The Origin of Our Species. Allen Lane (2011). ISBN 978-1-846-14140-9
- Stringer, Chris & Andrews, Peter. The Complete World of Human Evolution. Thames & Hudson (2005). ISBN 0-500-05132-1
- Stringer, Chris & McKie, Robin. African Exodus : The Origins of Modern Humanity. Jonathan Cape (1996). ISBN 0-224-03771-4
- van Oosterzee, Penny. The Story of Peking Man. Allen & Unwin (1999). ISBN 1-86508-632-0
- Walker, Allan & Shipman, Pat. The Wisdom of the Bones : In Search of Human Origins. Weidenfeld and Nicholson (1996). ISBN 0-297-81670-5
- Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn : Recovering the Lost History of our Ancestors. Penguin Press (2006). ISBN 978-0715636589
- Weiss, M.L., & Mann, A.E (1985). 'Human Biology and Behaviour: An anthropological perspective (4th ed.). Boston: Little Brown. ISBN 978-0-673-39013-4 (Note: this book contains very accessible descriptions of human and non-human primates, their evolution, and fossil history).
- Wells, Spencer. The Journey of Man : A Genetic Odyssey. Allen Lane/The Penguin Press (2002). ISBN 0-713-99625-0
[edit] References
- Tattersall, Ian, Schwartz, Jeffery (2000). Extinct Humans. Westview Press, Boulder CO. ISBN 978-0-8133-3482-0.
- Larsen, Clark Spencer, Matter, Robert M, Gebo, Daniel L (1991). Human Origins: the fossil record. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL. ISBN 978-0-88133-575-0.
- "Smithsonian Human Origins Program". http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/. Retrieved 2006-08-29.
- "Prominent Hominid Fossils". http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- Grine, F.E; Jungers, W.L; Schultz, J. (1996). "Phenetic Affinities Among Early Homo Crania from East and South Africa". Journal of Human Evolution 30 (3): 189–225. doi:10.1006/jhev.1996.0019.
[edit] External links
.jpg)
_presented_at_Paleozoological_Museum_of_China.jpg)
.JPG)
