Hominid Adaptations And Extinctions.
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Hominid Adaptations and Extinctions focuses on the period of 22 to 2.5 million years ago and synthesizes the information currently avaliable on hominid palaeobiology. From 24 to 8 million years ago a large and anatomically diverse number of ape species populated present-day Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. They occupied a wide range of habitats-evergreen forests, bamboo "jungles," swamps, woodlands, and open savannas. Ultimately, these ape populations gave rise to the earliest humans, some 4.5 million years ago. At about 8 million years ago, however, the ape population of the world collapsed, leaving the four relic populations of the great-ape groups we know today: orangutan, gorilla, chimpanzee, and humans. The hominid fossil record provides an excellent case study in the identification and documentation of evolutionary patterns and processes.
The book examines the record of the Neogene (Miocene and Pliocene) fossil apes: their adaptive trends, morphologies, and relationships to the environment; their evolution; and in many cases their extinctions. In so doing, it provides original insights into the evolution of our most distant and our most immediate fossil ancestors. It will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, biology, and palaeontology, and to all those interested in human and primate evolution and evolutionary studies in general.
About the Author
David Cameron is a research fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Histology at the University of Sydney and an associate member of the Centre for Archaeological Research at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Hominid Adaptations And Extinctions.,David Cameron,University of New South Wales Press,086840716X,Life Sciences - Biology - Developmental Biology,Life Sciences - Evolution,Paleontology,Science,Science/Mathematics
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