Early Homo And The Role Of The Genus In Paleoanthropology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Publication Title

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Publisher

Wiley-Liss Inc.

Volume

165

First page number:

72

Last page number:

89

Abstract

The history of the discovery of early fossils attributed to the genus Homo has been contentious, with scholars disagreeing over the generic assignment of fossils proposed as members of our genus. In this manuscript I review the history of discovery and debate over early Homo and evaluate the various taxonomic hypotheses for the genus. To get a sense of how hominin taxonomy compares to taxonomic practice outside paleoanthropology, I compare the diversity of Homo to genera in other vertebrate clades. Finally, I propose a taxonomic model that hews closely to current models for hominin phylogeny and is consistent with taxonomic practice across evolutionary biology. © 2018 American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Keywords

early Homo; genus; taxonomy

Language

English

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