Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Role of Environmental Stimuli in Hominid Origins

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Paleoanthropology

Abstract

Environmental stimuli have influenced the evolution of hominins and other mammals at the levels of ontogeny, organismal adaptation, and speciation. The review refers to some agreement which has emerged – as well as to persistent debates – on the issue of environmental linkages to hominin adaptation. Current hypotheses which link physical change, adaptation, and speciation in general and in hominins in particular are discussed (including hypotheses on the role of ecological specialization and generalization, the coordinated stasis and variability selection hypotheses, habitat theory, and the turnover pulse hypothesis). Some persistent debates are revisited (such as on the current status of the savanna hypothesis and on whether or not there was mammalian species’ turnover in the Turkana Basin during the Plio-Pleistocene). The relation of hominin evolution to the recent finding of several turnover pulses coincident with global cooling trends in the 10 Ma to recent record of all African larger mammals is considered. One example of hypotheses which address issues of environmental stimuli of ontogenetic evolution is the heterochrony pulse hypothesis: the generative properties shared among lineages can result not only in coherence of morphological changes but also in a strongly nonrandom timing of heterochrony events, as diverse lineages respond in parallel by similar kinds of heterochrony to the same environmental changes. The discussion includes cases in hominins and other mammals of evolutionary increase in body size by prolongation of growth and attendant “shuffling” of body proportions including relative increase in brain volume, namely, encephalization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 949.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 1,099.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abbate E, Sagri M (2012) Early to Middle Pleistocene Homo dispersals from Africa to Eurasia: geological, climatic and environmental constraints. Quat Int 267:3–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aifa T, Feinberg H, Derder EM (2003) Magnetostratigraphic constraints on the duration of the marine communications interruption in the Western Mediterranean during the upper Messinian. Geodiversitas 25:617–631

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen JA (1877) The influence of physical conditions in the genesis of species. Radic Rev 1:108–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrews P, O’Brien EM (2000) Climate, vegetation, and predictable gradients in mammal species richness in southern African mammals. J Zool (Lond) 251:205–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold SJ, Alberch P, Csanyi V, Dawkins RC, Emerson R, Fritzsche B, Horder TJ, Maynard-Smith J, Starck M, Vrba ES, Wagner GP, Wake DB (1989) How do complex organisms evolve? In: Wake DB, Roth G (eds) Complex organismal functions: integration and evolution in vertebrates. Wiley, Chichester, pp 403–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Asfaw P, White T, Lovejoy O, Latimer B, Simpson S, Suwa G (1999) Australopithecus garhi: a new species of early hominid from Ethiopia. Science 284:629–635

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ashton KG, Tracy MC, de Queiroz A (2000) Is Bergmann’s rule valid for mammals? Am Nat 156:390–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azanza B, Alberdi MT, Prado JL (2000) Large mammal turnover pulses correlated with latest Neogene glacial trends in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Geological Society Special Publication 181:161–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker PT (1988) Human adaptability. In: Harrison GA, Tanner JM, Pilbeam DR, Baker PT (eds) Human biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 439–544

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker RR (1978) The evolutionary ecology of animal migration. Hadder and Stoughton, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnosky AD (1986) Big game extinction caused by Late Pleistocene climatic change: Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus) in Ireland. Quatern Res 25:128–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnosky AD (2001) Distinguishing the effects of the Red Queen and Court Jester on Miocene mammal evolution in the northern Rocky Mountains. J Vertebr Paleontol 21:162–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bedaso ZK, Wynn JG, Alemseged Z, Geraads D (2013) Dietary and paleoenvironmental reconstruction using stable isotopes of herbivore tooth enamel from middle Pliocene Dikika, Ethiopia: implication for Australopithecus afarensis habitat and food resources. J Hum Evol 64:21–38

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Behrensmeyer AK, Todd NE, Potts R, McBrinn GE (1997) Late Pliocene faunal turnover in the Turkana Basin, Kenya and Ethiopia. Science 278:637–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger LR, de Ruiter DJ, Churchill SE, Schmid P, Carlson KJ, Dirks PHGM, Kibii JM (2010) Australopithecus sediba: a new species of Homo-like australopith from South Africa. Science 328:195–204

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bergmann C (1846) Über die Verhältnisse der Wärmeökonomie der Thiere zu ihrer Grösse. Göttinger Studien 31:595–708

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernor RL, Lipscomb D (1995) A consideration of Old World hipparionine horse phylogeny and global abiotic processes. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 164–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Bobé R (2011) Fossil mammals and paleoenvironments in the Omo-Turkana Basin. Evol Anthropol 20:254–263

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bobé R, Behrensmeyer AK (2004) The expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa in relation to mammalian evolution and the origin of the genus Homo. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol Special Issue 207:399–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnefille R (2010) Cenozoic vegetation, climate changes and hominid evolution in tropical Africa. Global Planet Change 72:390–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnefille R, Potts R, Chalie F, Jolly D, Peyron O (2004) High-resolution vegetation and climate change associated with Pliocene Australopithecus afarensis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:12125–12129

    Google Scholar 

  • Brain CK (1981a) The evolution of man in Africa: was it a consequence of Cainozoic cooling? Annex Transv Geol Soc S Afr 84:1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Brain CK (1981b) The hunters or the hunted? An introduction to African cave taphonomy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Brain CK (2001) Do we owe our intelligence to a predatory past? Seventieth James McArthur lecture on the evolution of the human brain. American Museum of Natural History, New York, pp 1–32

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brett CE, Baird GC (1995) Coordinated stasis and evolutionary ecology of Silurian to Middle Devonian faunas in the Appalachian Basin. In: Erwin DH, Anstey RL (eds) New approaches to speciation in the fossil record. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 285–315

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown FH (1995) The potential of the Turkana Basin for paleoclimatic reconstruction in East Africa. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 319–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown FH, Feibel CS (1991) Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and palaeogeography of the Koobi Fora Formation. In: Harris JM (ed) Koobi Fora research project. The fossil ungulates: geology, fossil artiodactyls, and palaeoenvironments, vol 3. Clarendon, Oxford, pp 1–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown F, Harris J, Leakey R, Walker A (1985) Early Homo erectus skeleton from West Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 316:788–792

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brunet M, Guy F, Pilbeam D et al (2002) A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature 418:801

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunet M, Guy F, Boisserie JR et al (2004) ‘Toumai’, Late Miocene of Chad, the new earliest member of the human branch. Comptes Rendus Palevol 3:277–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunet M, Guy F, Pilbeam D, Lieberman DE, Likius A, Mackaye HT, Ponce de León MS, Zollikofer CPE, Vignaud P (2005) New material of the earliest hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad. Nature 434:752–755

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burckle LH (1995) Current issues in paleoclimatology. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 3–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke K (1996) The African plate. S Afr J Geol 99:341–409

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadman A, Rayner RJR (1989) Climatic change and the appearance of Australopithecus africanus in the Makapansgat sediments. J Hum Evol 18:107–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carson HL, Hardy DE, Spieth HT, Stone WS (1970) The evolutionary biology of the Hawaiian Drosophilidae. In: Hecht MK, Steere WC (eds) Essays in evolution and genetics in honor of Theodosius Dobzhansky. Appleton Century Crofts, New York, pp 437–543

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Cerling TE, Harris JM, MacFadden BJ, Leakey MG, Quade J, Eisenmann V, Ehleringer JR (1997) Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Nature 389:153

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cerling TE, Levin NE, Quade J, Wynn JG, Fox DL, Kingston JD, Klein RG, Brown FH (2010) Comment on the paleoenvironment of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 328:1105

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cerling TE, Wynn JG, Andanje SA, Bird MI, Korir DK, Levin NE, Mace W, Macharia AN, Quade J, Remien CH (2011) Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years. Nature 476:51–56

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cerling TE, Manthi FK, Mbua EN et al (2013) Stable isotope-based diet reconstructions of Turkana Basin hominins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:10501–10506

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke RJ, Tobias PV (1995) Sterkfontein member 2 foot bones of the oldest South African hominid. Science 269:521–524

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clemens SC, Murray DW, Prell WL (1996) Nonstationary phase of the Plio-Pleistocene Asian monsoon. Science 274:943–948, the growth of NH ice sheets over the past 3.5 million years weakens the Asian summer monsoon and increases the aridity of subtropical Asia and eastern Africa

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen AS, Stone JR, Beuning KRM, Park LE, Reinthal PN, Dettmar D, Scholz CA, Johnsor TC, King JW, Talbot MR, Brown ET, Ivory SJ (2007) Ecological consequences of early Late Pleistocene megadroughts in tropical Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104:16422–16427

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cole JM, Goldstein SL, deMenocal PB, Hemming SR, Grousset FE (2009) Contrasting compositions of Saharan dust in the eastern Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation and African Humid Period. Earth Planet Sci Lett 278:257–266

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cole JM, Goldstein SL, deMenocal PB, Hemming SR, Grousset FE (2012) Erratum to contrasting compositions of Saharan dust in the eastern Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation and African Humid Period. Earth Planet Sci Lett 355:352–352

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Coppens Y (1975) Evolution des Hominides et de leur environnement au cours du Plio-Pleistocene dans la basse vallee de l'Omo en Ethiopie. Comptes Rendus Acad Sc Paris Serie D 281:1693–1696

    Google Scholar 

  • Coppens Y (1988–1989) Hominid evolution and the evolution of the environment. Ossa 14:157–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Count EW (1947) Brain and body weight in man. Ann N Y Acad Sci 46:993–1122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dart R (1925) Australopithecus africanus: the man-ape of South Africa. Nature 115:195–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. John Murray, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis SJ (1981) The effects of temperature change and domestication on the body size of Late Pleistocene to Holocene mammals of Israel. Paleobiology 7:101–114

    Google Scholar 

  • de Heinzelin J, Clark JD, White T, Hart W, Renne P, WoldeGabriel G, Beyene Y, Vrba ES (1999) Environment and behavior of 2.5-million-year-old Bouri hominids. Science 284:625–629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DeGusta D, Vrba E (2003) A method for inferring paleohabitats from the functional morphology of bovid astragali. J Archaeol Sci 30:1009–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal PB (2004) African climate change and faunal evolution during the Plio-Pleistocene. Earth Planet Sci Lett 220:3–24

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal PB (2008) Africa on the edge. Nat Geosci 1:650–651

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal PB (2011) Climate and human evolution. Science 331:540–542

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal P, Bloemendal J (1995) Plio-Pleistocene subtropical African climate variability and the paleoenvironment of hominid evolution: a combined data-model approach. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 262–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Denys C, Chorowicz J, Tiercelin JJ (1987) Tectonic and environmental control on rodent diversity in the Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the African Rift System. In: Frostick LE, Renault RW, Reid I, Tiercelin JJ (eds) Sedimentation in the African rifts, vol 25, Geological Society Special Papers Publication. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London, pp 363–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirks PHGM, Kibii JM, Kuhn BF, Steininger C, Churchill SE, Kramers JD, Pickering R, Farber DL, Meriaux AS, Herries AIR, King GCP, Berger LR (2010) Geological setting and age of Australopithecus sediba from southern Africa. Science 328:205–208

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Donges JF, Donner RV, Trauth MH, Marwan N, Schellnhuber HJ, Kurths J (2011) Nonlinear detection of paleoclimate-variability transitions possibly related to human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:20422–20427

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dupont LM, Leroy SA (1995) Steps towards drier climatic conditions in North-Western Africa during the Upper Pliocene. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 289–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebinger CJ (1989) Tectonic development of the western branch of the East African Rift System. Bull Geol Soc A 101:885–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge N (1979) Alternative approaches to evolutionary theory. Bull Carnegie Natur Hist 13:7–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge N, Gould SJ (1972) Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. In: Schopf TJM (ed) Models in paleobiology. WH Freeman, San Francisco, pp 82–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk D (1980) Hominid brain evolution: the approach from paleoneurology. Yearb Phys Anthropol 23:93–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falkner F, Tanner JM (eds) (1986) Human growth: a comprehensive treatise, vol 1 and 2. Plenum Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Feibel CS (1997) Debating the environmental factors in hominid evolution. GSA Today 7:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley RA (1994) Speciation, extinction and climatic change in hominid evolution. J Hum Evol 26:275–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frostick LE, Renaut RW, Reid I, Tiercelin JJ (eds) (1986) Sedimentation in the African Rift, vol 25, Geological Society Special Papers Publication. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Futuyma DJ (1979) Evolutionary biology. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabow SL (1977) Population structure and the rate of hominid brain evolution. J Hum Evol 6:643–665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia F, Conesa G, Munch P, Cornee JJ, Saint Martin JP, Andre JP (2004) Evolution of Melilla-Nador basin (NE Morocco) littoral environments during late Messinian between 6.0 and 5.77 Ma. Geobios 37:23–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ (1974) The evolutionary significance of “bizarre” structures: antler size and skull size in the ‘Irish Elk’, Megaloceras giganteus. J Evol 28:191–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ (1977) Ontogeny and phylogeny. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham RW, Lundelius EL (1984) Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions. In: Martin PS, Klein RG (eds) Quaternary extinctions, a prehistoric revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 223–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Grine FE (1981) Trophic differences between gracile and robust australopithecines. S Afr J Sci 77:203–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Grine FE (1986) Dental evidence for dietary differences in Australopithecus and Paranthropus. J Hum Evol 15:783–822

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulick JT (1872) On the variation of species as related to their geographical distribution, illustrated by the Achatinellidae. J Nat 6:222–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie RD (1984) Alaskan megabucks, megabulls, and megarams: the issue of Pleistocene gigantism. Bull Carnegie Mus Nat Hist 8:482–510

    Google Scholar 

  • Hafner JC, Hafner MS (1988) Heterochrony in rodents. In: McKinney ML (ed) Heterochrony in evolution: a multidisciplinary approach. Plenum Press, New York, pp 217–235

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Haile-Selassie Y (2001) Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 412:178–181

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haile-Selassie Y, Gen S, White T (2009) Hominidae. In: Haile-Selassie Y, WoldeGabriel G (eds) Ardipithecus kadabba: Late Miocene evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, vol 2, The Middle Awash. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 159–236

    Google Scholar 

  • Haile-Selassie Y, Saylor BZ, Deino A, Levin NE, Alene M, Latimer BM (2012) A new hominin foot from Ethiopia shows multiple Pliocene bipedal adaptations. Nature 483:565–569

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hall BK (2001) Organic selection: proximate environmental effects on the evolution of morphology and behaviour. J Biol Philos 16(2):215–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haq BU, Worsley TR, Burckle LH, Douglas RG, Keigwin LD, Opdyke ND, Savin SM, Sommer MA, Vincent E, Woodruff F (1980) Late Miocene marine carbon-isotopic shift and synchroneity of some phytoplanktonic biostratigraphic events. Geology 8:427–431

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Haq BU, Hardenbol J, Vail PR (1987) Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic. Science 235:1156–1167

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harcourt-Smith WEH, Aiello LC (2004) Fossils, feet and the evolution of human bipedal locomotion. J Anat 204:403–416

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hare PE (1980) Organic geochemistry of bone and its relation to the survival of bone in the natural environment. In: Hill AP, Behrensmeyer AK (eds) Fossils in the making. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 208–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris JM, Brown FH, Leakey MG (1988) Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Pliocene and Pleistocene localities west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Contrib Sci Nat Hist Mus Los Angel County 399:1–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatley T, Kappelman J (1980) Bears, pigs and Plio-Pleistocene hominids: a case for the exploitation of belowground food resources. Hum Ecol 8:371–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haug GH, Tiedemann R, Zahn R, Ravelo AC (2001) Role of Panama uplift on oceanic freshwater balance. Geology 29:207–210

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hays JD, Imbrie J, Shackelton NJ (1976) Variations in the earth’s orbit: pacemaker of the ice ages. Science 194:1121–1132

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heintz A, Garutt VE (1965) Determination of the absolute age of the fossil remains of mammoth and wooly rhinoceros from the permafrost in Siberia by the help of radiocarbon (C14). Nor Geol Tidsskr 45:73–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernández Fernández M, Vrba ES (2005) Rapoport effect and biomic specialization in African mammals: revisiting the climatic variability hypothesis. J Biogeogr 32:903–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill A (1995) Faunal and environmental change in the Neogene of East Africa: evidence from the Tugen Hills sequence, Baringo District, Kenya. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 178–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodell DA, Warnke DA (1991) Climatic evolution of the Southern-Ocean during the Pliocene Epoch from 4.8 million to 2.6 million years ago. Quat Sci Rev 10(2–3):205–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodell DA, Benson RH, Kent DV, Boersma A, Rakic-el Bied K (1994) Magnetostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and stable isotope stratigraphy of an Upper Miocene drill core from the Salé Briqueterie (northwestern Morocco): a high resolution chronology for the Messinian Stage. Paleoceanography 9:835–855

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman A (1989) Arguments on evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann RR (1973) The Ruminant Stomach. East African Monographs in Biology, vol 2. East African Literature Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya

    Google Scholar 

  • Holloway RL (1970) New endocranial values for the australopithecines. Nature 227:199–200

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway RL (1972) New australopithecine endocast SK 1585, from Swartkrans, South Africa. Am J Phys Anthropol 37:173–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway RL (1978) Problems of brain endocast interpretation and African hominid evolution. In: Jolly CJ (ed) Early hominids of Africa. Duckworth, London, pp 217–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Holloway RL, Broadfield DC, Yuan MS (2003) Morphology and histology of chimpanzee primary visual striate cortex indicate that brain reorganization predated brain expansion in early Hominid evolution. Anat Rec A: Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol 273A:594–602

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holt A, Cheek D, Mellits E, Hill D (1975) Brain size and the relation of the primate to the nonprimate. In: Cheek D (ed) Foetal and postnatal cellular growth: hormones and nutrition. Wiley, New York, pp 23–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsu KJ, Montadert L, Bernoulli D, Cita MB, Erickson A, Garrison RE, Kidd RB, Mèlierés F, Müller C, Wright R (1977) History of the Mediterranean salinity crisis. Nature 267:399–403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jolly CJ (1970) The seed eaters: a new model of hominid differentiation based on baboon analogy. Man 5:5–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennett J (1995) A review of polar climatic evolution during the Neogene based on the marine sediment record. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 49–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimbel WH (1991) Species, species concepts and hominid evolution. J Hum Evol 20:355–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimbel WH (1995) Hominid speciation and Pliocene climatic change. In: Vrba E, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 426–437

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimbel WH, Johanson DC, Rak Y (1994) The first skull and other new discoveries of Australopithecus afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia. Nature 368:449–451

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kimbel WH, Lockwood CA, Ward CV, Leakey MG, Rak Y, Johanson DC (2006) Australopithecus anamensis ancestral to A. afarensis? A case of anagenesis in the hominin fossil record. J Hum Evol 51:134–152

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kingston JD, Harrison T (2006) Isotopic dietary reconstructions of Pliocene herbivores at Laetoli: implications for early hominin paleoecology. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 243:272–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kingston JD, Marino BD, Hill A (1994) Isotopic evidence for Neogene hominid paleoenvironments in the Kenya Rift Valley. Science 264:955–959

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kitchell JA, Clark DL, Gombos AM (1986) The selectivity of mass extinction: causal dependency between life history and survivorship. Palios 1:504–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein RG, Edgar B (2002) The dawn of human culture. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Koops J (1986) Multiphasic growth curve analysis. Growth 50:169–177

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kurten B (1959) On the bears of the Holsteinian Interglacial. Stockh Contrib Geol 2:73–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey MD (1971) Olduvai Gorge volume 3: excavations in beds 1 and 2 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey MG, Harris JM (eds) (2003) Lothagam, the dawn of humanity in eastern Africa. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey MD, Hay RL (1979) Pliocene footprints in the Laetoli Beds at Laetoli, Northern Tanzania. Nature 278:317–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey MG, Feibel C, McDougall I, Ward C, Walker A (1995) New four-million-year-old hominid species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya. Nature 376:565–571

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey MG, Feibel CS, Bernor RL, Harris JM, Cerling TE, Stewart KM, Storrs GW, Walker A, Werdelin L, Winkler AJ (1996) Lothagam: a record of faunal change in the late Miocene of East Africa. J Vertebr Paleontol 16:556–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebatard AE, Bourles DL, Duringer P, Jolivet M, Braucher R, Carcaillet J, Schuster M, Arnaud N, Monie P, Lihoreau F, Likius A, Mackaye HT, Vignaud P, Brunet M (2008) Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Australopithecus bahrelghazali: Mio-Pliocene hominids from Chad. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:3226–3231

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee-Thorp JA, Sponheimer M, Passey BH, de Ruiter DJ, Cerling TE (2010) Stable isotopes in fossil hominin tooth enamel suggest a fundamental dietary shift in the Pliocene. Phil Trans R Soc B-Biol Sci 365:3389–3396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin NE, Simpson SW, Quade J, Cerling TE (2008) Herbivore enamel carbon isotopic composition and the environmental context of Ardipithecus at Gona, Ethiopia. Geol Soc Am Spec Pap 446:215–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman BS (1999) Turnover pulse in trilobites during the Acadian orogeny. Virginia M Mus Nat Hist Spec Publ 7:99–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Louchart A, Wesselman H, Bumenschine RJ, Hlusko LJ, Njau JK, Jackson K, Black MT, Asnake M, White TD (2009) Taphonomic, avian, and small-vertebrate indicators of Ardipithecus ramidus habitat. Science 326:66e1–66e4

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maier-Reimer E, Mikolajewicz U, Crowley T (1990) Ocean general circulation model sensitivity experiment with an open Central American isthmus. Paleoceanography 5:349–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maloyi GMO (ed) (1972) Comparative physiology of desert animals. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Marlow JR, Lange CB, Wefer G, Rosell-Mele A (2000) Upwelling intensification as part of the Pliocene-Pleistocene climate transition. Science 290:2288–2291

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J (1987) How to model evolution. In: Dupre J (ed) The latest on the best, A Bradford Book. The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 119–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1942) Systematics and the origin of species. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1963) Animal species and evolution. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McHenry HM (1982) The pattern of human evolution: studies on bipedalism, mastication, and encephalization. Ann Rev Anthropol 11:151–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKee JK (1993) Formation and geomorphology of caves in calcareous tufas and implications for the study of the Taung fossil deposits. Trans R Soc S Afr 48:307–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mein P, Pickford M (2006) Late miocene micromammals from the Lukeino formation (6.1 to 5.8 ma), Kenya. Bull Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon 751:183–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Meiri S, Dayan T (2003) On the validity of Bergmann’s rule. J Biogeogr 30:331–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller KG, Kominz MA, Browning JV, Wright JD, Mountain GS, Katz ME, Sugarman PJ, Cramer BS, Christie-Blick N, Pekar SF (2005) The phanerozoic record of global sea-level change. Science 310:1293–1298

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamishi M, Kato E, Kojima Y, Itoigawa N (1998) Carrying and washing of grass roots by free-ranging Japanese macaques at Katsuyama. Folia Primatologia 69:35–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niemitz C (2000) A theory on the evolution of the habitual orthograde human bipedalism. The Amphibische Generalistentheorie. Anthropol Anz 60:3–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Oboussier H (1979) Evolution of the brain and phylogenetic development of African Bovidae. S Afr J Zool 14:119–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Owen-Smith N (2013) Contrasts in the large herbivore faunas of the southern continents in the late Pleistocene and the ecological implications for human origins. J Biogeogr 40:1215–1224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partridge TC, Maud RR (1987) Geomorphic evolution of southern Africa since the Mesozoic. S Afr J Geol 90:179–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Partridge TC, Granger DE, Caffee MW, Clarke RJ (2003) Lower Pliocene hominid remains from Sterkfontein. Science 300:607–612

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paterson L (1976) An introduction to the ecology and zoo-geography of the Okavango Delta. In: Youngman F (ed) Proceedings of the symposium on the Okavango Delta and its future utilization. Okavango Wildlife Society, Johannesburg, pp 55–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson HEH (1978) More evidence against speciation by reinforcement. S Afr J Sci 74:369–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson HEH (1982) Perspective on speciation by reinforcement. S Afr J Sci 78:53–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering R, Dirks PHGM, Jinnah Z, de Ruiter DJ, Churchill SE, Herries AIR, Woodhead JD, Hellstrom JC, Berger LR (2011) Australopithecus sediba at 1.977 Ma and implications for the origins of the genus Homo. Science 333:1421–1423

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pickford M (1991) What caused the first steps towards the evolution of walkie-talkie primates? Origine(s) de la bipédie chez les hominidés (Cahiers de Paléoanthropologie). Editions du CNRS, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickford M, Senut B, Gommery D, Treil J (2002) Bipedalism in Orrorin tugenensis revealed by its femora. Comptes Rendus Palevol 1:191–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts R (1998a) Variability selection in hominid evolution. Evol Anthropol 7:81–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts R (1998b) Environmental hypotheses of hominin evolution. Am J Phys Anthropol 41:93–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts R (2012) Evolution and environmental change in early human prehistory. Annu Rev Anthropol 41:151–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preuschoft H (2004) Mechanisms for the acquisition of habitual bipedality: are there biomechanical reasons for the acquisition of upright posture? J Anat 204:363–384

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raia P, Piras P, Kotsakis T (2005) Turnover pulse or Red Queen? Evidence from the large mammal communities during the Plio-Pleistocene of Italy. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 221:293–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramberg L, Hancock P, Lindholm M, Meyer, Ringrose S, Sliva J, Van As J, VanderPost C (2006) Species diversity of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Aquat Sci 68:310–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratnam J, Bond WJ, Fensham RJ, Hoffmann WA, Archibald S, Lehmann CER, Anderson MT (2011) When is a ‘forest’ a savanna, and why does it matter? Glob Ecol Biogeogr 20:653–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rayner RJ, Moon BP, Masters JC (1993) The Makapansgat australopithecine environment. J Hum Evol 24:219–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed KE (1997) Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene. J Hum Evol 32:289–322

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson JT (1963) Adaptive radiation in the australopithecines and the origin of man. In: Howell FC, Bourlière F (eds) African ecology and human evolution. Publs Anthrop Viking Fund 36:385–416

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossignol-Strick M (1985) Mediterranean quaternary sapropels, an immediate response of the African monsoon to variation of insolation. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 49:237–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossignol-Strick M, Paterne M, Bassinot FC, Emeis K-C, De Lange GJ (1998) An unusual mid-Pleistocene monsoon period over Africa and Asia. Nature 392:269–272

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruddiman WF, Raymo ME (1988) Northern hemisphere climate regimes during the last 3 million years: possible tectonic connections. Phil Trans Roy Soc London B Series 318:411–430

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruddiman WF, Raymo M, McIntyre A (1986) Matuyama 41,000-year cycles: North Atlantic Ocean and northern hemisphere ice sheets. Earth Planet Sci Lett 80:117–129

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruvolo M (1997) Genetic diversity in hominoid primates. Ann Rev Anthropol 26:215–540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawada Y, Pickford M, Senut B, Itaya T, Hyodo M, Miura T, Kashine C (2002) The age of Orrorin tugenensis, an early hominid from the Tugen Hills, Kenya. Comptes Rendus Palevol 1:293–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schefuss E, Schouten S, Jansen JHF, Sinninghe Damste JS (2003) African vegetation controlled by tropical sea surface temperatures in the mid-Pleistocene period. Nature 422:418–421

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scholz CH, Koczynski TA, Hutchins DG (1976) Evidence of incipient rifting in Southern Africa. Geophys J R Astr Soc 44:135–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scholz CA, Johnson TC, Cohen AS, King JW, Peck JA, Overpeck JT, Talbot MR (2007) East African megadroughts between 135 and 75 thousand years ago and bearing on early-modern human origins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:16416–16421

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Semaw S, Renne P, Harris JWK, Feibel CS, Bernor RL, Fesseha N, Mowbray K (1997) 2.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 385:333–336

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Semaw S, Simpson SW, Quade J, Renne PR, Butler RF, McIntosh WC, Levin N (2005) Early Pliocene hominids from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 433:301–305

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Senut B (2006) Bipedalism and climate. Comptes Rendus Palevol 5:89–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Senut B, Pickford M, Gommery D, Mein P, Cheboi K, Coppens Y (2001) First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya). Comptes Rendus Acad Sc Paris Serie II Fascicule A, Sciences de la terre et des Planètes 332:137–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton NJ (1995) New data on the evolution of Pliocene climatic variability. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 242–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Shultz S, Nelson E, Dunbar RIM (2012) Hominin cognitive evolution: identifying patterns and processes in the fossil and archaeological record. R Soc Phil Trans Biol Sci 367:2130–2140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Signor PW, Lipps JH (1982) Sampling bias, gradual extinction patterns and catastrophes in the fossil record. Geol Soc Am Spec Pap 190:291–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson GG (1953) The major features of evolution. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair ARE (1977) The African Buffalo. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Sponheimer M, Alemseged Z, Cerling TE, Grine FE, Kimbel WH, Leakey MG, Lee-Thorp JA (2013) Isotopic evidence of early hominin diets. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:10513–10518

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley SM (1985) Climatic cooling and Plio-Pleistocene mass extinction of molluscs around margins of the Atlantic. S Afr J Sci 81:266

    Google Scholar 

  • Stebbins L (1950) Variation and evolution in plants. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens GC (1989) The latitudinal gradient in geographical range: how so many species coexist in the tropics. Am Nat 133:240–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stringer CB (1995) The evolution and distribution of later Pleistocene human populations. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 524–531

    Google Scholar 

  • Summerfield MA (1996) Tectonics, geology, and long-term landscape development. In: Adams WM, Goudie AS, Orme AR (eds) The physical geography of Africa. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 1–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Swisher CC, Curtis GH, Jacob T, Getty AG, Suprijo A (1994) Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263:1118–1121

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall I (1997a) Paleoanthropology and evolutionary theory. In: Ember CR, Ember M, Peregrine PN (eds) Research frontiers in anthropology, vol 3. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, pp 325–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall I (1997b) Out of Africa again and again? Sci Am 276:46–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall I (1999) Rethinking human evolution. Scientific American January:56–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall I (2000) Once we were not alone. Archaeology July/August:22–25

    Google Scholar 

  • van Dam J, Aziz HA, Sierra MAA, Hilgen FJ, Ostende LWVDH, Lourens LJ, Mein P (2006) Long-period astronomical forcing of mammal turnover. Nature 443:687–691

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van der Merwe NJ, Masao FT, Bamford MK (2008) Isotopic evidence for contrasting diets of early hominins Homo habilis and Australopithecus boisei of Tanzania. S Afr J Sci 104:153–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Valen L (1973) A new evolutionary law. J Evol Theory 1:1–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Verhaegen M, Puech PF, Munro S (2002) Aquarboreal ancestors? Trends Ecol Evol 17:212–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1974) Chronological and ecological implications of the fossil Bovidae at the Sterkfontein Australopithecine Site. Nature 256:19–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1975) Some evidence of chronology and palaeoecology of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai from the fossil Bovidae. Nature 254:301–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1980) Evolution, species and fossils: how does life evolve? S Afr J Sci 76:61–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1985a) Ecological and adaptive changes associated with early hominid evolution. In: Delson E (ed) Ancestors: the hard evidence. Alan R Liss, New York, pp 63–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1985b) Environment and evolution: alternative causes of the temporal distribution of evolutionary events. S Afr J Sci 81:229–236

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1987a) Ecology in relation to speciation rates: some case histories of Miocene_Recent mammal clades. Evol Ecol 1:283–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1987b) A revision of the Bovini (Bovidae) and a preliminary revised checklist of Bovidae from Makapansgat. Palaeontol Afr 26:33–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1988) Late Pliocene climatic events and hominid evolution. In: Grine FE (ed) The evolutionary history of the Robust Australopithecines. Aldine Publishing Company, New York, pp 405–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1989a) The environmental context of the evolution of early hominids and their culture. In: Bonnichsen R, Sorg MH (eds) Bone modification. Publication of the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Orono, pp 27–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1989b) Levels of selection and sorting, with special reference to the species level. Oxf Surv Evol Biol 6:111–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1992) Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory. J Mammal 73:1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1995a) Species as habitat specific, complex systems. In: Masters JC, Lambert DM, Spencer HG (eds) The recognition of species: speciation and the recognition concept. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp 3–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1995b) On the connections between paleoclimate and evolution. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 24–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1995c) The fossil record of African antelopes (Mammalia, Bovidae) in relation to human evolution and paleoclimate. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 385–424

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1996) Climate, heterochrony, and human evolution. J Anthropol Res 52:1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1998a) (Monograph) New fossils of Alcelaphini and Caprinae (Bovidae, Mammalia) from Awash, Ethiopia, and phylogenetic analysis of Alcelaphini. Palaeontol Afr 34:127–198

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (1998b) Multiphasic growth models and the evolution of prolonged growth exemplified by human brain evolution. J Theor Biol 190:227–239

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (2000) Major features of neogene mammalian evolution in Africa. In: Partridge TC, Maud R (eds) Cenozoic geology of Southern Africa. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 277–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (2004) Ecology, evolution, and development: perspectives from the fossil record. In: Hall BK, Pearson RD, Muller GB (eds) Environment, development, and evolution. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, pp 85–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES (2005) Mass turnover and heterochrony events in response to physical change. Paleobiology 31:157–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES, DeGusta D (2004) Do species populations really start small? New perspectives from the Late Neogene fossil record of African mammals. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 359:285–293

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES, Gould SJ (1986) The hierarchical expansion of sorting and selection: sorting and selection cannot be equated. Paleobiology 12:217–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES, Schaller GB (2000) Phylogeny of Bovidae (Mammalia) based on behavior, glands and skull morphology. In: Vrba ES, Schaller GB (eds) Antelopes, deer, and relatives: fossil record, behavioral ecology, systematics, and conservation. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 203–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) (1995) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Wake DB, Larson A (1987) Multidimensional analysis of an evolutionary lineage. Science 238:42–48

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Washburn SL (1960) Tools and human evolution. Sci Am 203:63–75

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wesselman HB (1995) Of mice and almost-men. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 356–368

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard MJ (2003) Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • White TD, Suwa G, Asfaw B (1994) Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature 371:306–312

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White TD, Ambrose SH, Suwa G, Su DF, DeGusta D, Bernor RL, Boisserie J-R (2009) Macrovertebrate Paleontology and the Pliocene Habitat of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 326:87–93

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White TD, Asfaw B, Beyene Y, Haile-Selassie Y, Lovejoy CO, Suwa G, WoldeGabriel G (2009) Ardipithecus ramidus and the paleobiology of early hominids. Science 326:75–86

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White TD, Ambrose SH, Suwa G, WoldeGabriel G (2010) Response to comment on the paleoenvironment of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 328:1105

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams GC (1966) Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • WoldeGabriel G, White TD, Suwa G, Renne P, de Heinzelin J, Hart WK, Heiken G (1994) Ecological and temporal placement of early Pliocene hominids at Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature 371:330–333

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • WoldeGabriel G, Ambrose SH, Barboni D, Bonnefille R, Bremond L, Currie B, DeGusta D (2009) The geological, isotopic, botanical, invertebrate, and lower vertebrate surroundings of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science 326:65. doi:10.1126/science.1175817

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wood B (1995) Evolution of the early hominin masticatory system: mechanisms, events, and triggers. In: Vrba ES, Denton GH, Partridge TC, Burckle LH (eds) Paleoclimate and evolution with emphasis on human origins. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 438–448

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood B, Leakey M (2011) The Omo-Turkana Basin fossil hominins and their contribution to our understanding of human evolution in Africa. Evol Anthropol 20:264–292

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wood B, Richmond BG (2000) Human evolution: taxonomy and paleobiology. J Anat 197:19–60

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wood B, Strait D (2003) Patterns of resource use in early Homo and Paranthropus. J Hum Evol 46:119–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright S (1932) The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding, and a selection in evolution. Proc VIth Int Congr Genet 1:356–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright S (1967) Comments on the preliminary working papers of Eden and Waddington. In: Moorehead PS, Kaplan MM (eds) Mathematical challenges to the Neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. The Wistar Institute Symposium No 5 Philadelphia, pp 117–120

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208109, New Haven, CT, 06520-8109, USA

    Elisabeth S. Vrba

Authors
  1. Elisabeth S. Vrba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elisabeth S. Vrba .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Anthropologie, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany

    Winfried Henke

  2. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA

    Ian Tattersall

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Vrba, E.S. (2015). Role of Environmental Stimuli in Hominid Origins. In: Henke, W., Tattersall, I. (eds) Handbook of Paleoanthropology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39979-4_47

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation