Human Paleobiology

ISBN-13: 9780521451604 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 366 str.

Robert B. Eckhardt; C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor; R. A. Foley

Opis

Human Paleobiology provides a unifying framework for the study of past and present human populations to a range of changing environments. It integrates evidence from studies of human adaptability, comparative primatology, and molecular genetics to document consistent measures of genetic distance among subspecies, species, and other taxonomic groupings. These findings support the interpretation of human biology in terms of fewer number of populations characterized by higher levels of genetic continuity than previously hypothesized. Using this as a basis, Robert Eckhardt goes on to analyze problems in human paleobiology including phenotypic differentiation, patterns of species range expansion, and phyletic succession in terms of the patterns and processes still observable in extant populations. This book will be a challenging and stimulating read for students and researchers interested in human paleobiology or evolutionary anthropology.

Recenzje

Review of the hardback: '… in this seminal text, he certainly succeeds in establishing the framework by which biological anthropologists, and particularly palaeoanthropologists, can gain more useful insights from our fossilised past.' The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Spis treści

Preface; 1. Palaeobiology: present perspectives on the past; 2. Constancy and change: taxonomic uncertainty in a probabilistic world; 3. A century of fossils; 4. About a century of theory; 5. Human adaptability present and past; 6. Primate patterns of diversity and adaptation; 7. Hominid phylogeny: morphological and molecular measures of diversity; 8. Plio-Pleistocene hominids: the paleobiology of fragmented populations; 9. Character state velocity in the emergence of more advanced hominids; 11. Paleobiological perspectives on modern human origins; 12. The future of the past; References.