Title: Plio-Pleistocene hominids: the paleobiology of fragmented populations
Abstract: Plio-Pleistocene hominid populations occupied a narrow genetic zone bounded by the genomes of extant chimpanzees and humans (but only approximately, because no living populations can be expected to have gene pools that have remained unchanged over millions of years). Judged from our present vantage, the outcome of hominid evolution represents a great anatomical step across this narrow genetic transition zone. The one percent DNA sequence difference between humans and chimpanzees, objectively small even now, must have been virtually indiscernible when the earliest hominid populations diverged onto their independent evolutionary pathway six to eight million years ago. At the phenotypic level, however, the evolution of hominids from ancestral apes was swift and pronounced, resulting in lasting morphological remodeling of the postcranial skeleton for upright posture and bipedal locomotion, along with other changes in cranial and dental characters.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-09-28
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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