3. Fossil hominins

Abstract

‘Fossil hominins: their discovery and context’ discusses what the hominin fossil record consists of, how it is discovered and recovered, and how it and its context are investigated, which includes the processes of dating fossils and reconstructing past environments. It reviews the evidence that can be used to investigate what the 6–8 million-year-old hominin clade looks like. How much of it can be reconstructed by looking at variation in modern humans, and what needs to be investigated by searching for, finding, and then interpreting fossil and archaeological evidence? How do researchers decide where to look for new fossil sites, and how do they date any fossils they find at those sites?