Northern Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia). Archaeologists invoke a range of environmental and social explanations for lithic miniaturisation in other regions (i.e. One of the major technological changes during this time is the shift in emphasis from prepared-core based technologies to lithic miniaturization. We know little of human ways of life in southern Africa between 40-12 kcal BP, a period of considerable social, technological, and environmental change centred on the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)(c. In light of the above, rather than focusing exclusively on species means and unidirectional models, perspectives that emphasize spatio-temporal variability and phenotypic plasticity might be more fruitful frameworks for interpreting the evolution of body size in our genus. These results have implications for studies concerned with human dispersal and encephalization, and more generally for how we interpret the evolution and biology of our genus. 0.5 Mya d) selection against smaller body mass and stature occurred in the late Early and Middle Pleistocene, and e) there are no simple latitudinal trends in the variation of body size estimates within Middle and Late Pleistocene Homo in Europe. Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca Homo heidelbergensis), Neanderthals and modern humans after ca. Analyses of the body size estimates demonstrate that: a) the origins of the genus Homo are characterized by a significant increase in body size compared to australopithecines and paranthropines, but also feature abundant spatial and temporal variation within an enlarged size range b) members of Homo erectus/ergaster are marked by a diversification in body mass and stature rather than directional increase c) a consistent and universal increase in body size is only established in Middle Pleistocene hominins (e.g. This data set allows for a detailed assessment of body size evolution within the genus Homo and relative to earlier hominins. The body size estimates cover roughly four million years (4.1 Mya – 11 ka) and derive from African, European and Asian specimens, including several genera and species of hominins. We combine size estimates of hominin fossils from our own studies with other published data, resulting in the largest sample for a single study so far (n=319). In this paper we investigate taxonomic, spatial and temporal variation in two components of body size within the genus Homo: body mass and stature. Even though new body size data is now accumulating rapidly for various parts of the hominin record (Arsuaga et al., 2015 Grabowski et al., 2015 Will & Stock, 2015), no study comparable to the scope of Ruff et al. Broad temporal analyses of body size have highlighted the significant increase in body mass during the late Middle and Late Pleistocene (Ruff, 1997), and that brain size increases correspond closely with body mass increases throughout the Pleistocene (Grabowski, 2016). Recent analyses have demonstrated that body size within early Homo is spatially and temporally variable, only showing significant increase in the Koobi Fora region after 1.7 Mya (Will & Stock, 2015). In the meantime, the widely accepted interpretation that there was a major shift in body size with the origin of Homo ergaster/erectus when compared Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and australopithecines has come under criticism. Although the evolution of body size within the genus Homo is an important issue, the most influential large-scale studies have been performed over 20 years ago, with a recent interest in this issue only in the last few years. Body size is one of the most important determinants of the biology of a species, as it correlates with life history, energetic expenditure, diet, thermoregulation, and home range size, among other factors.
0 kommentar(er)
