Evolutionary Anthropology最新文献

{"title":"Fossil primate research at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology","authors":"Paul E. Morse","doi":"10.1002/evan.21934","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21934","url":null,"abstract":"During the first five days of November 2021, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology convened its 81st annual meeting ... not in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but on nearly 2000 personal and work computers spread around the globe. The Covid pandemic continues to impede many academic pursuits, and the virtual setting of this year's conference was simultaneously a refreshing opportunity to witness the scope and scale of cutting-edge vertebrate paleontology research that has persisted in spite of it, and another reminder of the limitations that still inhibit our traditional gatherings. The conference presentations covered numerous aspects of vertebrate evolution, with many that specifically addressed primate evolution or provided valuable context to interpretation of the primate fossil record. Presentations on primate fossils were not limited to early primates, but made valuable contributions to hominoid and hominin evolution as well. A highlight of the meeting was the opening public lecture by Yohannes Haile-Selassie (Arizona State University) that described his fieldwork and major mid-Pliocene hominin finds from the western Afar Rift. His talk, framed around the early evolution of Australopithecus, can still be viewed on the Society website (https:// vertpaleo.org/svp-public-lecture/). Over 15 years of fieldwork at Woranso-Mille has produced 110 vertebrate localities and >200 hominin fossils, including previously unrepresented skeletal elements of Australopithecus afarensis and the currently unassigned, bipedally adapted Burtele foot. Of particular interest and importance are the remains of Australopithecus deyiremeda, which alongside Kenyathropus platyops and revelatory new cranial fossils of Australopithecus anamensis demonstrating its contemporaneity with A. afarensis, show that the mid-Pliocene was a time of high hominin alpha diversity. These finds significantly contribute to understanding hominin evolution, both by showing that the older model of an anagenetic “trunk” leading to branching of the hominin tree in the late Pliocene is false, and by proving that there are still major hominin fossil finds waiting to be uncovered—even in heavily prospected areas such as the Afar Rift.","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21934","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39792957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Raising up African paleoanthropologists: An innovative Master's program at Turkana University College, Kenya","authors":"John Rowan, Peter Edome Akwee, Craig Feibel, Sonia Harmand, Gregory Henkes, Elisabeth Hildebrand, Jason Lewis, Patricia Princehouse, Nicholas Taylor, Isaiah Nengo","doi":"10.1002/evan.21933","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21933","url":null,"abstract":"Kenya is world-renowned for its extraordinary fossil and archeological collections that have disproportionately contributed to our understanding of human origins and evolution. Although Kenya boasts a small cadre of trained scientists at its universities and museums, relatively few Kenyan citizens have benefitted from advanced scientific training commensurate with the country's world-renowned scientific heritage. This inequity stems, in part, from a lack of relevant graduate programs in paleoanthropology (broadly defined, including the geological, fossil, and archeological records relevant to understanding human origins) at many eastern African institutions. Decades of research projects led by Western scientists favoring exploitative ‘data-mining’ approaches to field and laboratory studies over those that aimed to engage with and train local Kenyan researchers is another contributing factor. The consequences of exclusionary research practices are further amplified by the fact that most major conferences and almost all graduate programs in paleoanthropology are presently hosted in North America or Europe, where the expense of international travel, visa procurement, cultural barriers, and other issues present additional impediments to Kenyan participation. The legacy of minimal investment in paleoanthropological research and training at Kenyan institutions is evinced by the small number of the country's citizens that have obtained doctoral degrees in paleoanthropology. This will be harmful to paleoanthropology as a whole in the long run, as Kenya's museum network is expected to greatly expand following the devolution of museums to the countylevel as mandated by the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. Thus, there is a pressing need to train local scientists and heritage managers who will be tasked with the conservation and curation of thousands of irreplaceable fossils and artifacts that, while legally owned by Kenya, are internationally significant pieces of human history and prehistory. Generating a pool of heritage stewards who are scientifically and culturally knowledgeable will help to prevent inefficient or short-sighted curatorial practices and to advocate for governmental and popular support of the country's museum network. This will be key for safeguarding Kenya's fossil and archeological records and ensuring that these treasures are preserved for all future generations. With these factors in mind, in early 2018 a Master's of Science (M.Sc.) program in Human Evolutionary Biology (MHEB) was","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21933","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39863978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The seventh annual northeastern evolutionary primatologists (NEEP) meeting: Back in-person in Boston, MA!","authors":"Faye S. Harwell, Christian M. Gagnon, Warrenkevin B. Henderson","doi":"10.1002/evan.21932","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21932","url":null,"abstract":"The northeastern evolutionary primatologists (NEEP) meeting is an annual regional conference that provides the opportunity for undergraduate, graduate, and early career scientists to present their work and network with each other. All precautions were taken to ensure that primatology students and researchers could safely gather inperson at Boston University for the Seventh Annual NEEP Meeting. This year, Drs. Eva Garrett, Cheryl Knott, and Christopher Schmitt took on the challenge of hosting the conference and creating a sense of normalcy as the meeting returned to its traditional in-person format (Figure 1). As the keynote speaker, Dr. Martin Surbeck (Harvard University) started the conference by presenting his work with wild bonobos along with giving sage advice to the student researchers in the audience. As an adventurous field researcher, Surbeck began with the guidance, “do not assume, check!” When Surbeck began his research, bonobos were known for finding “peace through pleasure” in addition to being female dominant, peaceful, egalitarian, tolerant, and vegetarian. At the Lui Kotale study site, Surbeck and collaborators found a finger from an immature black mangabey in bonobo feces along with a nearby pelt of mangabey hair. This finding challenged the notion that meat eating in bonobos is rare and highlighted the need for more field studies of wild bonobos in order to delineate meaningful differences between bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans. Surbeck later discovered high male reproductive skew among bonobos, leading to questions regarding the attractiveness of males and the potential to monopolize mating opportunities with ovulating females. “Is there a 'Ryan Gosling' bonobo attracting all the ovulating female bonobos?” Surbeck asked the audience. By “zooming out” to see the bigger picture, Surbeck found there are large potential indirect fitness gains for mothers that promote their sons. Rather than females choosing their mates based on “attractive” male characteristics, high-ranking mothers (e.g., Queen Elizabeth as Surbeck suggested) seem to ensure their sons mate more often with ovulating females compared to other males. Collectively, these findings show that bonobos are not necessarily the egalitarian vegetarian ape species they are often assumed to be. Their seemingly tolerant and cooperative behaviors are far more complex than what initially meets the eye. Taking his own advice “to get out there,” Surbeck helped establish a bonobo field site at Kokolopori. From constructing a boat to finding a replacement tire in the middle of nowhere, his group faced arduous challenges at every stage of this journey. In collaboration with the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), Surbeck has overseen the Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project (KBRP) since 2016. Currently, Surbeck collaborates with his graduate students, post-docs, and colleagues to critically assess our conventional understanding of bonobo sexuality, tolerance, and cooperation as they s","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21932","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39760826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The evolutionary significance of human brown adipose tissue: Integrating the timescales of adaptation","authors":"Stephanie B. Levy,&nbsp;William R. Leonard","doi":"10.1002/evan.21930","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21930","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While human adaptability is regarded as a classical topic in anthropology, recent work provides new insight into metabolic adaptations to cold climates and the role of phenotypic plasticity in human evolution. A growing body of literature demonstrates that adults retain brown adipose tissue (BAT) which may play a role in non-shivering thermogenesis. In this narrative review, we apply the timescales of adaptation framework in order to explore the adaptive significance of human BAT. Human variation in BAT is shaped by multiple adaptive modes (i.e., allostasis, acclimatization, developmental adaptation, epigenetic inheritance, and genetic adaptation), and together the adaptive modes act as an integrated system. We hypothesize that plasticity in BAT facilitated the successful expansion of human populations into circumpolar regions, allowing for selection of genetic adaptations to cold climates to take place. Future research rooted in human energetics and biocultural perspectives is essential for understanding BAT's adaptive and health significance.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39728852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveling with Tinbergen: Four levels simplified to causes and consequences","authors":"Thore J. Bergman,&nbsp;Jacinta C. Beehner","doi":"10.1002/evan.21931","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21931","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 1963, Niko Tinbergen published his foundational manuscript identifying the four questions we ask in animal behavior—<i>how does the behavior emerge across the lifespan</i> (development); <i>how does it work</i> (mechanism); <i>how and why did it evolve</i> (evolution); and <i>why is it adaptive</i> (function). Tinbergen clarified that these ‘levels of analysis’ are complementary, not competing, thereby avoiding many fruitless scientific debates. However, the relationships among the four levels was never established. Here, we propose ‘leveling’ Tinbergen's questions to a single temporal timescale divided into <i>causes</i> (encompassing mechanism, development, and evolution) and <i>consequences</i> (encompassing function). Scientific advances now seamlessly link evolution, development, and mechanism into a continuum of ‘causes’. The cause–consequence distinction separates the processes that precede (and lead to) a behavior, from the processes that come after (and result from) a behavior. Even for past behaviors, the functional outcomes are (historical) consequences of the causes that preceded them.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21931","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39724048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Indigenous Economic Development","authors":"R. Anderson, Dianne W. Wingham, Robert J. Giberson, B. Gibson","doi":"10.1057/9780230609907_11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609907_11","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91280360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Resolving the “muddle in the middle”: The case for Homo bodoensis sp. nov.","authors":"Mirjana Roksandic,&nbsp;Predrag Radović,&nbsp;Xiu-Jie Wu,&nbsp;Christopher J. Bae","doi":"10.1002/evan.21929","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21929","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Recent developments in the field of palaeoanthropology necessitate the suppression of two hominin taxa and the introduction of a new species of hominins to help resolve the current nebulous state of Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) hominin taxonomy. In particular, the poorly defined and variably understood hominin taxa <i>Homo heidelbergensis</i> (both sensu stricto and sensu <i>lato</i>) and <i>Homo rhodesiensis</i> need to be abandoned as they fail to reflect the full range of hominin variability in the Middle Pleistocene. Instead, we propose: (1) introduction of a new taxon, <i>Homo bodoensis</i> sp. nov., as an early Middle Pleistocene ancestor of the <i>Homo sapiens</i> lineage, with a pan-African distribution that extends into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant); (2) that many of the fossils from Western Europe (e.g. Sima de los Huesos) currently assigned to <i>H</i>. <i>heidelbergensis</i> s.s. be reassigned to <i>Homo neanderthalensis</i> to reflect the early appearance of Neanderthal derived traits in the Middle Pleistocene in the region; and (3) that the Middle Pleistocene Asian fossils, particularly from China, likely represent a different lineage altogether.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/03/ec/EVAN-31-20.PMC9297855.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39566299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimating origination times from the early hominin fossil record","authors":"René Bobe,&nbsp;Bernard Wood","doi":"10.1002/evan.21928","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21928","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The age of the earliest recovered fossil evidence of a hominin taxon is all too often equated with that taxon's origination. However, the earliest known fossil record nearly always postdates, sometimes by a substantial period of time, the true origination of a taxon. Here we evaluate the first appearance records of the earliest potential hominins (<i>Sahelanthropus</i>, <i>Ardipithecus</i>, <i>Orrorin</i>), as well as of the genera <i>Australopithecus</i>, <i>Homo</i>, and <i>Paranthropus</i>, to illustrate the considerable uncertainty regarding the actual timing of origin of these taxa. By placing confidence intervals on the first appearance records of early hominin taxa, we can better evaluate patterns of hominin diversity, turnover, and potential correlations with climatic and environmental changes.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21928","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39530854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grit and consequence","authors":"Luke D. Fannin,&nbsp;Elzanne Singels,&nbsp;Karen J. Esler,&nbsp;Nathaniel J. Dominy","doi":"10.1002/evan.21927","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21927","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Grit is implicated in several biological phenomena—it wears teeth, it fractures teeth, it drives tooth evolution, it elicits complex manual manipulations—any one of which could be described as a central topic in evolutionary anthropology. But what is grit? We hardly know because we tend to privilege the consequences of grit (it is abrasive) over its formal features, all but ignoring crucial variables such as mineral composition, material properties, and particle geometry (size, angularity), not to mention natural variation in the habitats of primates and their food surfaces. Few topics have animated so much debate and invited such cool indifference at the same time. Our goal here is to shine a light on grit, to put a philosophical lens on the nature of our discourse, and to call attention to large empirical voids that should be filled and folded into our understanding of primate natural history and evolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39521984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drivers of insect consumption across human populations","authors":"Patricio Cruz y Celis Peniche","doi":"10.1002/evan.21926","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.21926","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Discussions regarding entomophagy in humans have been typically led by entomologists. While anthropologists devote much time to understanding diverse human subsistence practices, historical and cultural variation in insect consumption remains largely unexplained. This review explores the relation between variable ecologies, subsistence strategies, and social norms on insect consumption patterns across past and contemporary human populations. Ecological factors, such as the nutritional contribution of edible insects relative to those of other foraged or farmed resources available, may help explain variation in their consumption. Additionally, our evolved social learning strategies may help propagate social norms that prohibit or prioritize the consumption of some or all edible insects, independent of their profitability. By adopting a behavioral ecological and cultural evolutionary approach, this review aims to resolve current debates on insect consumption and provide directions for future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2021-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.21926","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39514586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}