Hominid Adaptations and Extinctions

Looking at a period of history 22 to 2.5 million years ago, Hominid Adaptations synthesises the information currently available on hominid palaeobiology. It examines the record of the Neogene fossil apes: their adaptive trends, their morphologies and their relationships to the environment; their evolution and in many cases their extinctions. In so doing, it will provide original insights into the evolution of our most distant and our most immediate fossil ancestors.

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 ANU in Canberra. David is recognised as a world authority on hominid evolution, with his area of specialisation being the evolution of hominid facial morphologies through time. He has worked extensively on hominid fossils, as well as fossil surveys and excavations, in many countries, including Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Vietnam.

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: orang-utan, gorilla, chimpanzee and humans. The hominid (ape) fossil record provides an excellent case study in the identification and documentation of evolutionary patterns and processes.

Hominid Adaptations and Extinctions focuses on the Neogene (that is, Miocene and Pliocene) period of 22 to 2.5 million years ago and synthesises the information currently available on hominid palaeobiology. In brief, it examines the record of the Neogene fossil apes: their adaptive trends, their morphologies and their relationships to the environment; their evolution and in many cases their extinctions. In so doing, it will provide original insights into the evolution of our most distant and our most immediate fossil ancestors.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of Archaeology, Anthropology, Biology and Palaeontology. Additionally it will appeal to an educated lay audience interested in human and primate evolution, specifically, and evolutionary studies, in general, and would sit comfortably in the Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology sections of any bookshop.