List of human evolution fossils
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The following charts give a brief overview of several notable hominin fossil finds relating to human evolution beginning with the formation of the Hominini tribe in the late Miocene (roughly 6 million years ago).
As there are thousands of fossils, mostly fragmentary, often consisting of single bones or isolated teeth with complete skulls and skeletons rare,[1] this overview is not meant to be complete, but does show some of the most important finds. The fossils are arranged by approximate age as determined by radiometric dating and/or incremental dating and the species name represents current consensus - if there is no clear scientific consensus the other possible classifications are indicated. Deprecated classifications may be found on the fossil's page.
Most of the fossils shown are not considered direct ancestors to Homo sapiens but are closely related to direct ancestors and are therefore important to the study of the lineage.
Late Miocene
7 million - 5.3 million years old
Name | Age | Species | Year discovered |
Country | Discovered by | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TM 266 (Toumai) | 7 Ma[2] | Sahelanthropus tchadensis | 2001 | Chad | Alain Beauvilain, Fanone Gongdibe, Mahamat Adoum and Ahounta Djimdoumalbaye | |
BAR 1000'00 | 6 Ma[3] | Orrorin tugenensis | 2000 | Kenya | Martin Pickford, Kiptalam Cheboi, Dominique Gommery, Pierre Mein, Brigitte Senut, |
5.3 million - 2.58 million years old
Lower Paleolithic: 2.58 million - 300,000
Middle Paleolithic: 300,000 - 50,000 years old
Upper Paleolithic: 50,000 - 10,000 years old
Holocene
Mesolithic / Neolithic: 10,000 - 5000 years old
Name | Age | Species | Year discovered |
Country | Discovered by | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
La Brea Woman | approx 10k | Homo sapiens | 1914 | United States | ||
Combe Capelle | 9.6 k[33] | Homo sapiens | 1909 | France | O. Hauser | |
Cheddar Man | 9k | 1903 | UK | |||
Kow Swamp 1 | 9k - 13k | Homo sapiens | 1968 | Australia | A.G. Thorne | |
Afalou 13[citation needed] | 8k - 12k | Homo sapiens | 1920 | Algeria | C. Arambourg | |
Wadi Halfa 25[citation needed] | 8k - 12k | Homo sapiens | 1963 | Sudan | G. Armelagos, E. Ewing, D. Greene | |
Wadi Kubbaniya[citation needed] | 8k - 20k | Homo sapiens | 1982 | Egypt | Fred Wendorf | |
Minnesota Woman | 7.8 - 8k | Homo sapiens | 1931 | Minnesota, United States | Albert Jenks, via construction crew | |
Lo 4b[citation needed] | 6k - 9k | Homo sapiens | 1965 | H. Robbins B.M. Lynch | ||
Tepexpan man | 5k - 11k | Homo sapiens | 1947 | Mexico | H. de Terra | |
SDM 16704[citation needed] | 4.9k - 11.8 | Homo sapiens | 1929 | United States | M.J. Rogers |
Abbreviations used in fossil catalog name
- AL - Afar Locality, Ethiopia
- ARA-VP - Aramis Vertebrate Paleontology, Ethiopia
- BAR - (Lukeino, Tugen Hills) Baringo District, Kenya
- BOU-VP - Bouri Vertebrate Paleontology, Ethiopia
- D - Dmanisi, Georgia
- ER - East (Lake) Rudolf, Kenya
- KGA - Konso-Gardula, Ethiopia
- KNM - Kenya National Museum
- KP - Kanapoi, Kenya
- LB - Liang Bua, Indonesia
- LH - Laetoli Hominid, Tanzania
- NG - Ngandong, Indonesia
- OH - Olduvai Hominid, Tanzania
- SK - Swartkrans, South Africa
- Sts,Stw - Sterkfontein, South Africa
- TM - Transvaal Museum, South Africa
- TM - Toros-Menalla, Chad
- WT - West (Lake) Turkana, Kenya
See also
- Human evolution
- List of countries and islands by first human settlement
- List of fossil primates
- List of fossil sites
- List of notable fossils
- List of transitional fossils
- Most recent common ancestor
- Paleoanthropology
- Timeline of human evolution
Further reading
- Gibbons, Ann. The First Human: The Race to Discover our Earliest Ancestor. Anchor Books (2007). ISBN 978-1-4000-7696-3
- Hartwig, Walter, ed. (2002. Reprinted 2004). The Primate Fossil Record. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-08141-2Template:Inconsistent citations
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(help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) CS1 maint: year (link). - Johanson, Donald & Wong, Kate. Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. Three Rivers Press (2009). ISBN 978-0-307-39640-2
- Jones, Steve; Martin, Robert D.; Pilbeam, David R (Editors). (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human evolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46786-5Template:Inconsistent citations
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:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link) (Note: this book contains very useful, information dense chapters on primate evolution in general, and human evolution in particular, including fossil history). - Leakey, Richard & Lewin, Roger. Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes us Human. Little, Brown and Company (1992). ISBN 0-316-90298-5
- Lewin, Roger. Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins. Penguin Books (1987). ISBN 0-14-022638-9
- Morwood, Mike & van Oosterzee, Penny. A New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the 'Hobbits' of Flores, Indonesia. Smithsonian Books (2007). ISBN 978-0-06-089908-0
- Oppenheimer, Stephen. Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World. Constable (2003). ISBN 1-84119-697-5
- Roberts, Alice. The Incredible Human Journey: The Story of how we Colonised the Planet. Bloomsbury (2009). ISBN 978-0-7475-9839-8
- Shreeve, James. The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins. Viking (1996). ISBN 0-670-86638-5
- Stringer, Chris. The Origin of Our Species. Allen Lane (2011). ISBN 978-1-84614-140-9
- Stringer, Chris & Andrews, Peter. The Complete World of Human Evolution. Thames & Hudson (2005). ISBN 0-500-05132-1
- Stringer, Chris & McKie, Robin. African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity. Jonathan Cape (1996). ISBN 0-224-03771-4
- van Oosterzee, Penny. The Story of Peking Man. Allen & Unwin (1999). ISBN 1-86508-632-0
- Walker, Allan & Shipman, Pat. The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins. Weidenfeld and Nicholson (1996). ISBN 0-297-81670-5
- Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of our Ancestors. Penguin Press (2006). ISBN 978-0-7156-3658-9
- Weiss, M.L., & Mann, A.E. (1985). "'Human Biology and Behaviour: An anthropological perspective" (Document). Boston: Little BrownTemplate:Inconsistent citations
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References
- ^ "Prominent Hominid Fossils". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- ^ "Fossil Hominids: Toumai". Talkorigins.org. 2002-07-31. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
- ^ "Bar 10200'". Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ Amos, Jonathan (2009-10-01). "Fossil finds extend human story". BBC News.
- ^ I. A. N., McDougall; Craig, Feibel (1999). "Numerical age control for the Miocene-Pliocene succession at Lothagam, a hominoid-bearing sequence in the northern Kenya Rift". Journal of the Geological Society. 156: 731–745. doi:10.1144/gsjgs.156.4.0731.
- ^ a b c Andrew Hill & Steven Ward (1988). "Origin of the Hominidae: The Record of African Large Hominoid Evolution Between 14 My and 4 My". Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. 31 (59): 49–83. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330310505Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Bryan Patterson, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, & William D. Sill (6 June 1970). "Geology and Fauna of a New Pliocene Locality in North-western Kenya". Nature. 226 (5249): 918–921. doi:10.1038/226918a0. PMID 16057594Template:Inconsistent citations
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link) Key details from select sources - ^ Ward, Steven; Hill, Andrew. "Pliocene hominid partial mandible from Tabarin, Baringo, Kenya". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 72 (1): 21–37. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330720104.
- ^ "Sorry, We Can't Find That Page - Search MSU". Msu.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
- ^ "Oldupai". Ntz.info. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
- ^ KNM-WT 40000
- ^ Smithsonian
- ^ http://travelmag.co.uk/?p=1254
- ^ Jonathan, Amos (2011-09-08). "African fossils put new spin on human origins story". http://www.sciencemag.org/site/extra/sediba/index.xhtml. BBC News. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
{{cite news}}
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- ^ Mai, L.L., Owl, M.Y., & Kersting, M.P. (2005), p.286
- ^ a b c Meave G. Leakey, Fred Spoor, M. Christopher Dean, Craig S. Feibel, Susan C. Antón, Christopher Kiarie & Louise N. Leakey. 2012. New fossils from Koobi Fora in northern Kenya confirm taxonomic diversity in early Homo. Nature 488, 201–204 (9 August 2012) doi:10.1038/nature11322
- ^ Inverted strata
- ^ Donald C. Johanson, Blake Edgar (1996). From Lucy to Language. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. 158.
- ^ Michael Hopkin (March 26, 2008). "Fossil find is oldest European yet". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news.2008.691.
- ^ http://archive.archaeology.org/9809/newsbriefs/eritrea.html
- ^ By ʻAlī Jāvīd, "World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India, Volume 2", Page. 17
- ^ P. Brown Dali archaic Homo Sapiens University of New England, Australia
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Smith, T. M. (2010). "Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (49): 20923–20928. doi:10.1073/pnas.1010906107.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Qafzeh IX
- ^ Christopher J. Norton and David R. Braun. Asian paleanthropology: From Africa to China and beyond. New York, NY: Springer. p. 107. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9094-2. ISBN 978-9048190935.
- ^ "What does it mean to be human?". Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ "Human evolution: interpreting evidence". Museum of Science, Boston, US. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ Timeline at Bone & Stone
- ^ Robin McKie, science editor (2010-06-20). "Bones from a Cheddar Gorge cave show that cannibalism helped Britain's earliest settlers survive the ice age | Science | The Observer". Guardian. Retrieved 2012-10-15.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) - ^ "Mystery of a West African skull from 13,000 years ago". Natural History Museum, London, UK. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ "Travels and Archeology in South Chile". Cornell University, New York, U.S. Retrieved Auguest 21, 2013.
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(help) - ^ Storm, Paul; Nelson, Andrew (1992). "The many faces of Wadjak man". Archaeology Oceania. 27 (1): 37–46.
- ^ Seidler, Christoph (9 February 2011). "Forscher entzaubern Steinzeitmann". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- Tattersall, Ian, Schwartz, Jeffery (2000). Extinct Humans. Westview Press, Boulder CO. ISBN 978-0-8133-3482-0.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Larsen, Clark Spencer, Matter, Robert M, Gebo, Daniel L (1991). Human Origins: the fossil record. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL. ISBN 978-0-88133-575-0.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Smithsonian Human Origins Program". Retrieved 2006-08-29.
- "Prominent Hominid Fossils". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- Grine, F.E.; Jungers, W.L.; Schultz, J. (1996). "Phenetic Affinities Among Early Homo Crania from East and South Africa". Journal of Human Evolution. 30 (3): 189–225. doi:10.1006/jhev.1996.0019.