The First Humans

This volume addresses the origin of the human genus Homo, a major transition in human evolution and associated with major changes in brain size, locomotion, and culture, but one with many unanswered questions. How many different species of Homo were there, and how were they interrelated? Are stone tools a characteristic of early Homo? What was their function? How does the use of stone tools relate to changes in the dentition and brain size? Did adaptations for long distance running first appear with the origin of this genus? How does this relate to its diet and cultural abilities.

"This volume addresses the origin of the human genus Homo, a major transition in human evolution and associated with major changes in brain size, locomotion, and culture, but one with many unanswered questions. How many different species of Homo were there, and how were they interrelated? Are stone tools a characteristic of early Homo? What was their function? How does the use of stone tools relate to changes in the dentition and brain size? Did adaptations for long distance running first appear with the origin of this genus? How does this relate to its diet and cultural abilities."

Retrospectives and Theoretical Perspectives.- Early Humans: Of Whom Do We Speak?.- Homo habilis-A Premature Discovery: Remembered by One of Its Founding Fathers, 42 Years Later.- Where Does the Genus Homo Begin, and How Would We Know?.- Craniodental Perspectives on Taxonomy and Systematics.- The Origin of Homo.- Comparisons of Early Pleistocene Skulls from East Africa and the Georgian Caucasus: Evidence Bearing on the Origin and Systematics of Genus Homo.- Phenetic Affinities of Plio-Pleistocene Homo Fossils from South Africa: Molar Cusp Proportions.- Postcranial Perspectives on Locomotion and Adaptation.- Evolution of the Hominin Shoulder: Early Homo.- Brains, Brawn, and the Evolution of Human Endurance Running Capabilities.- Interlimb Proportions in Humans and Fossil Hominins: Variability and Scaling.- Perspectives on Development, Diet and Behavior.- Growth and Development of the Nariokotome Youth, KNM-WT 15000.- Dental Evidence for Diets of Early Homo.- Origins and Adaptations of Early Homo: What Archeology Tells Us.- Environmental and Ecological Perspectives.- Plio-Pleistocene East African Pulsed Climate Variability and Its Influence on Early Human Evolution.- Tracking Ecological Change in Relation to the Emergence of Homo Near the Plio-Pleistocene Boundary.- Ecology of Plio-Pleistocene Mammals in the Omo-Turkana Basin and the Emergence of Homo.- Biogeochemical Evidence for the Environments of Early Homo in South Africa.- Summary Perspective on the Workshop.- The First Humans: A Summary Perspective on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo.