ARCH08038 2019 Human Evolution

This module introduces students to the basic principles of human evolution. Beginning with the very first organisms on earth it follows the evolutionary pathway that has led to the diverse range of species present on earth today, before focusing in on the ancestors and close relatives of modern humans. The module considers the genetic and physical evidence for these developments as well as examining the evidence for cultural development.

Primate dentitions vary widely both between genera and between species within a genus. This book is a comparative dental anatomy of the teeth of living non-human primates that brings together information from many disciplines to present the most useful and comprehensive database possible in one consolidated text. The core of the book consists of comparative morphological and metrical descriptions with analyses, reference tables and illustrations of the permanent dentitions of 85 living primate species to establish a baseline for future investigations. The book also includes information on dental microstructure and its importance in understanding taxonomic relationships between species, data on deciduous dentitions, prenatal dental development and ontogenetic processes, and material to aid age estimation and life history studies. Primate Dentition will be an important reference work for researchers in primatology, dental and physical anthropology, comparative anatomy and dentistry as well as vertebrate paleontology and veterinary science.

Hard to find

The evolutionary emergence of each facet of human language can be viewed as a 'transition'. This book explores how different transitions took place, their preconditions, and their consequences. Among the questions it addresses are: what physiological and psychological differences between us and other animals lie at the heart of our superior capacity for language? Was the pre-linguistic period of humankind characterized by words without syntax, syntax without meaning, gesture without speech, or all, or none, of these? Once a community is ready and able to develop language, what internal and external factors trigger its emergence? How are we to interpret the archaeological evidence of early tool-making abilities, relative to the presence, or absence, of language? In what social circumstances could language have avoided being immediately harnessed for deception, so that it became too dangerous and unreliable to be of value? Was the universal form of language determined by pre-existing psychological capabilities, or by natural constraints in communication? Has language finished evolving? If not, how different were linguistic structures used by our early ancestors from those that we use today? This investigation into one of the enduring mysteries of humankind brings together original contributions from linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists, biologists, primatologists, and researchers in artificial intelligence. They offer the reader up-to-the-minute debates in the field of language evolution.

Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle.

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Dragon Bone Hill Researching the famous fossil site of Dragon Bone Hill in China, scientists Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon retell the story of the cave's unique species of early human, Homo erectus. Full description

In crystal-clear style Robbins Burling presents the most convincing account of the origins of language ever published. He traces language back to its earliest origins, charts the course of its development, and gives a unified picture of the sweep of language evolution.

The Complete World of Human Evolution Human domination of our earth is now so complete that it is easy to forget how recently our role in the history of our planet began: the earliest apes evolved around 20 million years ago, yet Homo Sapiens has existed for a mere 160,000 years. Full description

An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Anatomy An anthropologist and an anatomist have combined their skills in this book to provide the essentials of anatomy and the means to apply these to investigations into hominid form and function. Full description

Rethinking the Human Revolution Arising from a conference Rethinking the Human Revolution reconsiders all of the central issues in modern human behavioural, cognitive, biological and demographic origins in the light of new information and new theoretical perspectives which have emerged over the past twenty years of intensive research in this field. Full description

Nature

Science

Journal of Human Evolution

http://humanorigins.si.edu/

https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution

https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/science/human-evolution/

None

Timetable as a 2 hour block in the archaeology lab (theory and practical) to maximise interactive mode of delivery of theory and practical and allow access to replica materials.