ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
A synthesis of the theories and concepts of early human evolution.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- BiomarkerProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Diversity-dependent speciation and extinction in hominins.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Comparative Genomic Analysis of Warthog and Sus Scrofa Identifies Adaptive Genes Associated with African Swine Fever.Biology · 2023Article
- Evolution of cortical geometry and its link to function, behaviour and ecology.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Baboon perspectives on the ecology and behavior of early human ancestors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Factors influencing terrestriality in primates of the Americas and Madagascar.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- The climate and vegetation backdrop to hominin evolution in Africa.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Harsh environments promote alloparental care across human societies.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- The Evolutionary Radiation of Hominids: a Phylogenetic Comparative Study.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Testing for a facultative locomotor mode in the acquisition of archosaur bipedality.Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- Out of Africa by spontaneous migration waves.PloS one · 2019Article
- Evolutionary justifications for human reproductive limitations.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2018Review
- Correlates and catalysts of hominin evolution in Africa.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2017Article
- Why are there so many explanations for primate brain evolution?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Exercise, oxidants, and antioxidants change the shape of the bell-shaped hormesis curve.Redox biology · 2017Article
- Acquisition of terrestrial life by human ancestors influenced by forest microclimate.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Network analysis of the hominin origin of Herpes Simplex virus 2 from fossil data.Virus evolution · 2017Article
- New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins.eLife · 2016Article
- The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Current evidence suggests that many of the major events in hominin evolution occurred in East Africa. Hence, over the past two decades, there has been intensive work undertaken to understand African palaeoclimate and tectonics in order to put together a coherent picture of how the environment of Africa has varied over the past 10 Myr. A new consensus is emerging that suggests the unusual geology and climate of East Africa created a complex, environmentally very variable setting. This new understanding of East African climate has led to the pulsed climate variability hypothesis that suggests the long-term drying trend in East Africa was punctuated by episodes of short alternating periods of extreme humidity and aridity which may have driven hominin speciation, encephalization and dispersals out of Africa. This hypothesis is unique as it provides a conceptual framework within which other evolutionary theories can be examined: first, at macro-scale comparing phylogenetic gradualism and punctuated equilibrium; second, at a more focused level of human evolution comparing allopatric speciation, aridity hypothesis, turnover pulse hypothesis, variability selection hypothesis, Red Queen hypothesis and sympatric speciation based on sexual selection. It is proposed that each one of these mechanisms may have been acting on hominins during these short periods of climate variability, which then produce a range of different traits that led to the emergence of new species. In the case of Homo erectus (sensu lato), it is not just brain size that changes but life history (shortened inter-birth intervals, delayed development), body size and dimorphism, shoulder morphology to allow thrown projectiles, adaptation to long-distance running, ecological flexibility and social behaviour. The future of evolutionary research should be to create evidence-based meta-narratives, which encompass multiple mechanisms that select for different traits leading ultimately to speciation.
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