Evolution of the ‘Homo’ genus: New mysteries and perspectives

Authors

  • Jordí Agustí ICREA - Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona (Spain).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.8.9308

Keywords:

palaeogenomics, Homo genus, hominins, variability, Dmanisi

Abstract

This work reviews the main questions surrounding the evolution of the genus Homo, such as its origin, the problem of variability in Homo erectus and the impact of palaeogenomics. A consensus has not yet been reached regarding which Australopithecus candidate gave rise to the first representatives assignable to Homo and this discussion even affects the recognition of the H. habilis and H. rudolfensis species. Regarding the variability of the first palaeodemes assigned to Homo, the discovery of the Dmanisi site in Georgia called into question some of the criteria used until now to distinguish between species like H. erectus or H. ergaster. Finally, the emergence of palaeogenomics has provided evidence that the flow of genetic material between old hominin populations was wider than expected.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Jordí Agustí, ICREA - Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona (Spain).

ICREA Research Professor at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, Spain). As a palaeontologist, his research activity focusses on the evolution of fossil mammal communities over the last ten million years and he has published more than two hundred papers within this specialisation, most of them in international scientific journals. He has directed several European research projects, as well as palaeontological campaigns in Libya and Georgia. In the latter, he is part of the international team at the Dmanisi site. Some of his most noteworthy works are La evolución y sus metáforas (Tusquets, 1994), Mammoths, sabertooths, and hominids (Columbia University Press, 2002), Fósiles, genes y teorías (Tusquets, 2003), La gran migración (Crítica, 2011), Los primeros pobladores de Europa (RBA, 2012), Alicia en el país de la evolución (Crítica, 2013), and La sonrisa de Leonardo (RBA, 2015).

References

Agustí, J., & Lordkipanidze, D. (2005). Los primeros pobladores de Europa. Barcelona: RBA.

Green, R. E., Krause, J., Briggs, A. W., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., ... Pääbo, S. (2010). A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science, 328, 710–722. doi: 10.1126/science.-1188021 

Krause, J., Fu, Q., Good, J. F., Viola, B., Shunkov, M. V., Derevianko, A. P., & Pääbo, S. (2010). The complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia. Nature, 464, 894–897. doi: 10.1038/nature08976 

Krings, M., Stone, A., Schmitz, R. W., Krainitzki, H., Stoneking, & Pääbo, S. (1997). Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans. Cell, 90, 19–30. doi: 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80310-4

Lordkipanidze, D., Jashashvili, T., Vekua, A., Ponce de León, M., Zollikofer, C., Rightmire, … Nioradze, M. (2007). Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Nature, 449, 305–310. doi: 10.1038/nature06134

Lordkipanidze, D., Ponce de León, M., Margvelashvili, A., Rak, Y., Rightmire, G. P., & Zollikofer, C. (2013). A complete skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science, 342, 326–331. doi: 10.1126/science.1238484 

Lordkipanidze, D., Vekua, A., Ferring, R., Rightmire, G. P., Agustí, J., Kiladze, G., … Zollikofer, C. (2005). The earliest toothless hominin skull. Nature, 434, 717–718. doi: 10.1038/434717b

Vekua, A., Lordkipanidze, D., Rightmire, G. P., Agustí, J., Ferring, R., Maisuradze, G., … Zollikofer, C. (2002). A new skull of early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Science, 297, 85–89. doi: 10.1126/science.1072953

Villmoare, B., Kimbel, W. H., Seyoum, C., Campisano, C. J., DiMaggio, E., Rowan, J., … Reed, K. E. 2015. Early Homo at 2.8 Ma from Ledi Geraru, Afar, Ethiopia. Science, 347, 1352–1355. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa1343

Downloads

Published

2018-06-05

How to Cite

Agustí, J. (2018). Evolution of the ‘Homo’ genus: New mysteries and perspectives. Metode Science Studies Journal, (8), 71–77. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.8.9308
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Abstract
    3092
  • PDF
    1331

Issue

Making science: A multitude of perspectives (2018)

Section

Sapiens. In the path of the human being

License

All the documents in the OJS platform are open access and property of their respective authors.

Authors publishing in the journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors keep the rights and guarantee Metode Science Studies Journal the right to be the first publication of the document, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of authorship and publication in the journal.
  2. Authors are allowed and encouraged to spread their work through electronic means using personal or institutional websites (institutional open archives, personal websites or professional and academic networks profiles) once the text has been published.

Metrics