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People often enjoy reading about where humans come from and how we developed into the unusual creatures we are today: upright-walking, omnivorous mammals who inhabit every continent (and who enjoy [...]

Have you ever wondered whether your own family history is more interesting and exotic than you think? Might you have a long-lost relative who was a circus performer, a pirate, [...]

Author(s): C. Ashley Norris [1]; Bernard J. Wood (corresponding author) [1] The silicate Earth is strongly depleted in moderately volatile elements (such as lead, zinc, indium and alkali elements) relative [...]

Recent [sup.142]Nd isotope data indicate that the silicate Earth (its crust plus the mantle) has a samarium to neodymium elemental ratio (Sm/Nd) that is greater than that of the supposed chondritic building blocks of the planet. This elevated Sm/Nd has been ascribed either to a 'hidden' reservoir in the Earth (1,2) or to loss of an early-formed terrestrial crust by impact ablation (3). Since removal of crust by ablation would also remove the heat-producing elements--potassium, uranium and thorium--such removal would make it extremely difficult to balance terrestrial heat production with the observed heat flow (3). In the 'hidden' reservoir alternative, a complementary low-Sm/Nd layer is usually considered to reside unobserved in the silicate lower mantle. We have previously shown, however, that the core is a likely reservoir for some lithophile elements such as niobium (4). We therefore address the question of whether core formation could have fractionated Nd from Sm and also acted as a sink for heat-producing elements. We show here that addition of a reduced Mercury-like body (or, alternatively, an enstatite-chondrite-like body) rich in sulfur to the early Earth would generate a superchondritic Sm/Nd in the mantle and an [sup.142]Nd/[sup.144]Nd anomaly of approximately +14 parts per million relative to chondrite. In addition, the sulfur-rich core would partition uranium strongly and thorium slightly, supplying a substantial part of the 'missing' heat source for the geodynamo., Terrestrial rocks were recently found to have higher ratios of radiogenic [sup.142]Nd to nonradiogenic [sup.144]Nd than do the chondritic meteorites generally supposed to be representative of the material from which [...]

Author(s): Bernard Wood Although not a palaeoanthropologist, Frank Brown played a major part in unveiling the story of human evolution. He devoted half a century to working out the complex [...]

The relationships among the living apes and modern humans have effectively been resolved, but it is much more difficult to locate fossil apes on the tree of life because shared [...]

This contribution reviews the evidence that has resolved the branching structure of the higher primate part of the tree of life and the substantial body of fossil evidence for human evolution. It considers some of the problems faced by those who try to interpret the taxonomy and systematics of the human fossil record. How do you to tell an early human taxon from one in a closely related clade? How do you determine the number of taxa represented in the human clade? How can homoplasy be recognized and factored into attempts to recover phylogeny? history | hominin doi/10.1073/pnas.1001649107

Bernard Wood explores a claim that our nearest cousins were our cognitive equals -- and that birds had a part to play in that.Bernard Wood explores a claim that our nearest cousins were our cognitive equals -- and that birds had a part to play in that., Author(s): Bernard WoodAuthor Affiliations:Trail of feathers to the Neanderthal mind The Neanderthal woman nicknamed Nana, reconstructed at the Gibraltar Museum, with feathers. [see PDF for image]Credit: S. Finlayson/Gibraltar National MuseumForensic [...]

The African Plio--Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved a distinctive craniofacial morphology that traditionally has been viewed as a dietary adaptation for feeding on either small, hard objects or on large volumes of food. A historically influential interpretation of this morphology hypothesizes that loads applied to the premolars during feeding had a profound influence on the evolution of australopith craniofacial form. Here, we test this hypothesis using finite element analysis in conjunction with comparative, imaging, and experimental methods. We find that the facial skeleton of the Australopithecus type species, A. africanus, is well suited to withstand premolar loads. However, we suggest that the mastication of either small objects or large volumes of food is unlikely to fully explain the evolution of facial form in this species. Rather, key aspects of australopith craniofacial morphology are more likely to be related to the ingestion and initial preparation of large, mechanically protected food objects like large nuts and seeds. These foods may have broadened the diet of these hominins, possibly by being critical resources that australopiths relied on during periods when their preferred dietary items were in short supply. Our analysis reconciles apparent discrepancies between dietary reconstructions based on biomechanics, tooth morphology, and dental microwear. evolution | face | finite element analysis | hominin | diet

The skeletal remains of a diminutive small-brained hominin found in Late Pleistocene cave deposits on the island of Flores, Indonesia were assigned to a new species, Homo floresiensis [Brown P, et al. (2004) A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431: 1055-1061]. A dramatically different interpretation is that this material belongs not to a novel hominin taxon but to a population of small-bodied modern humans affected, or unaffected, by microcephaly. The debate has primarily focused on the size and shape of the endocranial cavity of the type specimen, LB1, with less attention being paid to the morphological evidence provided by the rest of the LB1 cranium and postcranium, and no study thus far has addressed the problem of how scaling would affect shape comparisons between a diminutive cranium like LB1 and the much larger crania of modern humans. We show that whether or not the effects of its small cranial size are accounted for, the external cranial morphology of the LB1 cranium cannot be accommodated within a large global sample of normal modern human crania. Instead, the shape of LB1, which is shown by multivariate analysis to differ significantly from that of modern humans, is similar to that of Homo erectus sensu lato, and, to a lesser extent, Homo habilis. Our results are consistent with hypotheses that suggest the Liang Bua specimens represent a diminutive population closely related to either early H. erectus s. I. from East Africa and/or Dmanisi or to H. habilis. allometry | hominin phylogeny

Author(s): Bernard Wood [1] The fragile bones of infants rarely survive long enough to make it into the hominin fossil record. But if they do, they provide precious evidence about [...]

Author(s): Bernard J. Wood (corresponding author) [1]; Michael J. Walter [2]; Jonathan Wade [2] From observations of newly formed stars it appears that the Sun's planetary system formed from a [...]

Author(s): Bernard J. Wood (corresponding author) [1, 3]; Alex N. Halliday [2] Kelvin calculated the age of the Earth to be about 24 million years by assuming conductive cooling from [...]

Author(s): Guillaume Caro (corresponding author) [1]; Bernard Bourdon [1]; Bernard J. Wood [2]; Alexandre Corgne [3] Calculations of the energetics of terrestrial accretion indicate that the Earth was extensively molten [...]

Author(s): George R. Helffrich (corresponding author) [1, 2]; Bernard J. Wood [2] The Earth's mantle comprises 82% of its volume and 65% of its mass. It constitutes virtually all of [...]

We examined the biogeographic patterns implied by early hominid phylogenies and compared them to the known dispersal patterns of Plio-Pleistocene African mammals. All recent published phylogenies require between four and seven hominid dispersal events between southern Africa, eastern Africa, and the Malawi Rift, a greater number of dispersals than has previously been supposed. Most hominid species dispersed at the same time and in the same direction as other African mammals. However, depending on the ages of critical hominid specimens, many phylogenies identify at least one hominid species that dispersed in the direction opposite that of contemporaneous mammals. This suggests that those hominids may have possessed adaptations that allowed them to depart from continental patterns of mammalian dispersal.

Observation of the vestibular system of living primates and early hominids reveals that the bony labyrinth morphology explains the locomotor property and phylogenetic relationships of early hominids. The fossil hominids of Homo erectus explain the modern human semicircular canal morphology, which suggests its obligatory bipedal behavior. Australopithecus africanus exhibits a locomotor behavior of facultative bipedalism and arboreal climbing.

The earth's mantle is degassed along mid-ocean ridges, while rehydration and possibly recarbonation occurs at subduction zones. These processes and the speciation of C-H-O fluids in the mantle are related to the oxidation state of mantle peridotite. Peridotite xenoliths from continental localities exhibit an oxygen fugacity [(fo.sub.2)] range from -1.5 to + 1.5 log units relative to the FMQ (fayalite-magnetite-quartz) buffer. The lowest values are from zones of continental extension. Highly oxidized xenoliths ([fo.sub.2] greater than FMQ) come from regions of recent or active subduction (for example, Ichinomegata, Japan), are commonly amphibole-bearing, and show trace element and isotopic evidence of fluid-rock interaction. Peridotites from ocean ridges are reduced and have an average [fo.sub.2] of about -0.9 log units relative to FMQ, virtually coincident with values obtained from mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) glasses. These data are further evidence of the genetic link between MORB liquids and residual peridotite and indicate that the asthenosphere, although reducing, has [CO.sub.2] and [H.sub.2.O] as its major fluid species. Incorporation of oxidized material from subduction zones into the continental lithosphere produces xenoliths that have been asthenospheric and subduction signatures. Fluids in the lithosphere are also dominated by [CO.sub.2] and [H.sub.2.O], and native C is generally unstable. Although the occurrence of native C (diamond) in deep-seated garnetiferous xenoliths and kimberlites does not require reducing conditions, calculations indicate that high [Fe.sup.3.+] contents are stabilized in the garnet structure and that [fo.sub.2] decreases with increasing depth., THE MANTLE, REPRESENTING THAT VOLUME OF THE EARTH below the crust (10 to 40 km) and above the core (at 3200 km depth), may be presumed to have oxidation states [...]

Author(s): Bernard Wood (corresponding author) A single fossil can fundamentally change the way we reconstruct the tree of life. More than 75 years ago, Raymond Dart's description [1] of the [...]

Geologist who helped to build the timeline for the origins of humankind. Geologist who helped to build the timeline for the origins of humankind., Author(s): Bernard Wood Author Affiliations: Frank Brown (1943-2017) Frank Brown Credit: Thure Cerling Frank Brown Although not a palaeoanthropologist, Frank Brown played a major part in unveiling the story of [...]

A study of the partitioning between silicate crystals and their melts in 15 elements showed that partition coefficients can be predicted using the quantitative relationship between elasticity of the crystal lattice and its element partitioning characteristics. A model based on the size and elastic nature of the crystal was able to explain element partitioning behavior based on the physical aspects of the cation sites. The cation site also influenced the elasticity of the crystal while the linear function of cation charge made the partitioning properties similar to these of ionic crystals.

Recent research has cast doubt on the reliability of bones and teeth for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among higher primate species and genera. Herein, we investigate whether this problem is confined to hard tissues by examining the utility of higher primate soft-tissue characters for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships at low taxonomic levels. We use cladistic methods to analyze 197 soft-tissue characters for the extant hominoids and then compare the resulting phylogenetic hypotheses with the group's consensus molecular phylogeny, which is widely considered to be accurate. We show that the soft-tissue characters yield robust phylogenetic hypotheses that are compatible with the molecular phylogeny. Given the strength of the evidence for molecular phylogeny, these results indicate that, unlike craniodental hard-tissue characters, soft tissues are reliable for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among higher primate species and genera. Thus, in higher primates at least, some types of morphological data are more useful than others for phylogeny reconstruction.

Cladistic analysis of cranial and dental evidence has been widely used to generate phylogenetic hypotheses about humans and their fossil relatives. However, the reliability of these hypotheses has never been subjected to external validation. To rectify this, we applied identical methods to equivalent evidence from two groups of extant higher primates for whom reliable molecular phylogenies are available, the hominoids and papionins. We found that the phylogenetic hypotheses based on the craniodental data were incompatible with the molecular phylogenies for the groups. Given the robustness of the molecular phylogenies, these results indicate that little confidence can be placed in phylogenies generated solely from higher primate craniodental evidence. The corollary of this is that existing phylogenetic hypotheses about human evolution are unlikely to be reliable. Accordingly, new approaches are required to address the problem of hominin phylogeny.

Chewing is much like using a pestle and mortar, but upside down. Your jaw muscles supply the power and move your lower teeth (the pestle) up and across your upper [...]

The anatomy of three new fossils, including a face, lends support to the hypothesis that there were at least two parallel lineages early in the evolutionary history of our own [...]

The conventional wisdom of evolution has been challenged by O'Connell and colleagues, by suggesting that changes that led to the evolution of modern humans were initiated by systematic exploitation of subterranean food sources, and the recruitment of grandmothers. This comes from observations made in a study of the Hadza population living around Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, who still practise traditional foraging. Post-menopausal grandmothers were found to use foraged tubers to support both themselves and the children of their daughters, releasing the daughters to become pregnant again.

Developments in molecular biology have meant that events in the evolution of Homo sapiens can be recorded. Once the genetic code was deciphered this eliminated the need to depend on phenotypic proxies for information about propinquity. Gene frequencies were used in the first attempts to relate regional populations. It is hoped that new and more precise analytical methods will be developed, which will add accuracy and precision to attempts to trace modern human evolution.

Evidence exists of a link between the hominid group Paranthropus and stone tool manufacture between around 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago. There is data showing that Paranthropus aethiopicus/boisei existed in Ethiopia's Omo region during the same approximate time period. These relate to new evidence from Gona in Ethiopia, which reveals that the onset of tool manufacture dates back to 2.5 million years ago and a recent report that stone tools were discovered in 'close association' with a jawbone from an early example of the Homo species at a nearby 2.3 million-year-old site in Hadar.

Excavations of the hominid remains in China reveal that the lineage moved to Asia from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. At Longgupo cave in China, dating experiments indicate that the fossils are a species similar to Homo (H.) ergaster, found only in Africa. The evidence supports the fact that hominids moved to China in the Pliocene era. The hominid lineage is considered to originate in Africa but there is no strong evidence of when the movement out of the country took place.

Phillip Vallentine Tobias, known to his friends and colleagues as PVT, was the doyen of the palaeoanthropological community. His descriptions of the early hominin fossils found at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, [...]

Tim White and his colleagues have discovered a fossil of a child's jaw from Aramis, Ethiopia, that is one of the earliest hominids dated to 4.4 million years ago. The fossil forms a part of other hominids called Australopithecus ramidus, dated to the same period. These fossils are older than the Australopithecus afarensis, which were considered to be the oldest, by about a million years. The Australopithecus ramidus will provide information on the link between the African ape lineage and modern humans, which is essential for palaeoanthropological research.

Hominid Corridor Research Project members surveyed regions between east and South Africa to discover fossils which indicate mammalian response to climactic variations and species interchanges in the two regions. Earlier available fossils from eastern African Rift Valley and southern Africa are 3, 000 kilometers away from each other. Similarities between the fossils suggested that they must have had faunal exchanges.

Two new studies in bipedalism are a step forward in our understanding of its evolution and uses. P.E. Wheeler's physiological model shows that bipedalism would reduce heat stress and water use in a 35-kg hominid, and that a naked verses haired skin is superior for cooling only when radiant heat is reduced. K.D. Hunt's behavioral study of chimpanzees shows that most of their bipedal activity is postural, not locomotive, and occurs in or near trees, not the savannah.

Author(s): Bernard Wood [1] Human Evolution Through Developmental Change by Nancy Minugh-Purvis & Kenneth J. McNamara Johns Hopkins University Press: 2002. 536 pp. $59.95, £40 'Are humans really our closest [...]

A general problem in biology is how to incorporate information about evolutionary history and adaptation into taxonomy. The problem is exemplified in attempts to define our own genus, Homo. Here conventional criteria for allocating fossil species to Homo are reviewed and are found to be either inappropriate or inoperable. We present a revised definition, based on verifiable criteria, for Homo and conclude that two species, Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis, do not belong in the genus. The earliest taxon to satisfy the criteria is Homo ergaster, or early African Homo erectus, which currently appears in the fossil record at about 1.9 million years ago., For more than a century, the fossil record for human evolution was interpreted as a ladderlike series of time-successive species, with an apelike ancestor at the base and modern humans [...]

Mary Leakey was an archeologist who combined a flair for fieldwork with a legendary capacity for hard work and a formidable talent for analysis. Her career in prehistory began in the 1930s. Her practical skills and excavation techniques were honed during her excavations with her husband, Louis Leakey. Her discoveries included a trail of hominid footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania and the recordings of East African cave paintings. Her team also discovered remains of Australopithecus afarensis. Her research at Olduvai Gorge stands out in terms of the results and archeological methods pioneered there.