Oldest Homo and Pliocene biogeography of the Malawi Rift

Schrenk, Friedemann; Bromage, Timothy G.; Betzler, Christian; Ring, Uwe; Juwayeyi, Yusuf M.

doi:10.1038/365833a0

Cited by 139 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The East African Rift Valley in Kenya is structurally developed across the Anza Graben in the Turkana Basin, an area famous for its record of primate evolution extending from Oligocene through Pleistocene Wood and Leakey, 2011). In the Rift Valley of Malawi, fossils of Permian, Early Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene age lie in close proximity (Clark et al, 1989;Colin and Jacobs, 1990;Gomani, 1997Gomani, , 2005Jacobs et al, 1990Jacobs et al, , 1992Jacobs et al, , 1993Jacobs et al, , 1996Jacobs et al, , 2005cKruger et al, 2015;Schrenk et al, 1993). In the nearby Rukwa Basin of Tanzania, within the Rift Valley, a variety of fossils, including fish, crocodyliforms, dinosaur eggshell and bones, a Cretaceous mammal, and Oligocene primates and other mammals are found (Gorscak et al, 2014;Gottfried et al, 2004Gottfried et al, , 2009Krause et al, 2003;O'Connor et al, 2010;Roberts et al, 2004Roberts et al, , 2010Roberts et al, , 2012Sertich and O'Connor, 2014;Stevens et al, 2008Stevens et al, , 2013.…”

Section: The Mesozoic Formation Of Africa and The General Distributiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Gondwana Africa and the vertebrate history of the Angolan Atlantic Coast

Jacobs¹,

Polcyn²,

Mateus³

et al. 2016

MMV

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Section: The Mesozoic Formation Of Africa and The General Distributiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Gondwana Africa and the vertebrate history of the Angolan Atlantic Coast

Jacobs¹,

Polcyn²,

Mateus³

et al. 2016

MMV

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“…KNM-ER 1470 has a comparatively flat face, a large cranial capacity, and generally larger dentition, while KNM-ER 1813 has overall smaller dentition, cranial capacity and face compared to KNM-ER 1470 (Lieberman et al, 1996). The differences between these two specimens have led to the assertion by multiple researchers (Wood 1992;Schrenk et al 1993 (Schrenk, 2013). In order to test the validity of the suggestion that these two morphs should represent distinct species, Wood (1991) performed a character analysis on the early Homo fossils from Koobi Fora.…”

Section: Evidence For the Validity Of Homo Rudolfensismentioning

confidence: 99%

“What’s in a Name?” <i>The Taxonomy & Phylogeny of Early</i> Homo

Galway‐Witham

2016

Papers From the Institute of Archaeology

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“…Members E-G of the Shungura Formation in the Omo Valley have produced fragmentary Homo-like dental and mandibular material between 2.4 and 2.3 Ma (Boisserie et al, 2008;Suwa et al, 1996). A mandible with Homo-like dentition in a heavy corpus (UR 501) was found in northern Malawi and has been attributed to H. rudolfensis (Bromage, Schrenk, & Zonneveld, 1995;Schrenk et al, 1993Schrenk et al, , 2008.…”

Section: F U R Th Er Ev I D En Ce Of Ea R Ly Ho M Omentioning

confidence: 99%

EarlyHomoand the role of the genus in paleoanthropology

Villmoare

2018

American J Phys Anthropol

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The history of the discovery of early fossils attributed to the genus Homo has been contentious, with scholars disagreeing over the generic assignment of fossils proposed as members of our genus. In this manuscript I review the history of discovery and debate over early Homo and evaluate the various taxonomic hypotheses for the genus. To get a sense of how hominin taxonomy compares to taxonomic practice outside paleoanthropology, I compare the diversity of Homo to genera in other vertebrate clades. Finally, I propose a taxonomic model that hews closely to current models for hominin phylogeny and is consistent with taxonomic practice across evolutionary biology. K E Y W O R D Searly Homo, genus, taxonomy | I N TR ODU C TI ONThe recent discovery of hominin fossils proposed as candidates for early members of the genus Homo (Berger et al., 2010;Leakey et al., 2012;Villmoare et al., 2015) has renewed debate on the taxonomy of our genus (Anton, Potts, & Aiello, 2014;Berger et al., 2012;Collard & Wood, 2015; Hawks et al., 2015;Kimbel & Villmoare, 2016;Schwartz & Tattersall, 2015). Here I review the history of discovery and debate for early members of our genus, and follow with a discussion of how the taxonomic rank of genus has been, and might be, applied to the human lineage. have now, as it appears to me, satisfactorily shown that not only in its general, but equally so in its particular characters, has the fossil under consideration the closest affinity to the apes" (King, 1864, pp. 96-97).In his 1863 lecture he proposed the taxonomic assignment "Homo Neanderthalensis" (sic), out of a sense of conservatism (largely based on the absence of preserved facial anatomy), but in 1864, in his published analysis of the vault, he reconsidered: "In that paper I called the fossil by the name Homo Neanderthalensis; but I now feel strongly inclined to believe that it is not only specifically but generically distinct from Man" (King, 1864, p. 96).However, the practice of applying the generic name Homo for newly discovered hominin fossils from Europe was largely retained (Wood, 2000) so that by 1907, when a hominin jaw was discovered in sand mines outside the village of Mauer, Germany, the species was designated H. heidelbergensis (Schoetensack, 1908) without controversy. The generic assignment was based largely on the human-like characteristics of the dentition, even though the lack of a chin and overall robusticity clearly placed the jaw outside the limits of known human variation (Harvati, 2007;MacCurdy, 1909;Smith Woodward, 1925). Subsequent attempts to transfer the specimen to the genus Paleoanthropus (Bonarelli, 1909;McKown & Keith, 1939) were not adopted by the scientific community. Discoverers felt relatively free to assign specific distinction to new discoveries, leading to the proliferation of fossil species in Homo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -for example, H. mousteriensis, H. primigenius, H. antiquus, H. spelaeus, H. rhodesiensis, H. soloensis, and so forth. (Harvati, 2007;MacCurdy, 1908MacCurdy, ,...

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Oldest Homo and Pliocene biogeography of the Malawi Rift

Cited by 139 publications

References 10 publications

Post-Gondwana Africa and the vertebrate history of the Angolan Atlantic Coast

Post-Gondwana Africa and the vertebrate history of the Angolan Atlantic Coast

“What’s in a Name?” <i>The Taxonomy & Phylogeny of Early</i> Homo

EarlyHomoand the role of the genus in paleoanthropology

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