9.10: End of Chapter Content

For Further Exploration

The Smithsonian Institution website hosts descriptions of fossil species, an interactive timeline, and much more.

The Maropeng Museum website hosts a wealth of information regarding South African Fossil Bearing sites in the Cradle of Humankind.

This quick comparison between Homo naledi and Australopithecus sediba from the Perot Museum.

This explanation of the braided stream by the Perot Museum.

A collation of 3-D files for visualizing (or even 3-D printing) for homes, schools, and universities.

PBS learning materials, including videos and diagrams of the Laetoli footprints, bipedalism, and fossils.

A wealth of information from the Australian Museum website, including species descriptions, family trees, and explanations of bipedalism and diet.

References

Alemseged, Zeresenay, Fred Spoor, William H. Kimbel, René Bobe, Denis Geraads, Denné Reed, and Jonathan G. Wynn. 2006. “A Juvenile Early Hominin Skeleton from Dikika, Ethiopia.” Nature 443 (7109): 296–301.

Asfaw, Berhane, Tim White, Owen Lovejoy, Bruce Latimer, Scott Simpson, and Gen Suwa. 1999. “Australopithecus garhi: A New Species of Early Hominid from Ethiopia.” Science 284 (5414): 629–635.

Behrensmeyer, Anna K., Nancy E. Todd, Richard Potts, and Geraldine E. McBrinn. 1997. “Late Pliocene Faunal Turnover in the Turkana Basin, Kenya, and Ethiopia.” Science 278 (5343): 637–640.

Berger, Lee R., Darryl J. De Ruiter, Steven E. Churchill, Peter Schmid, Kristian J. Carlson, Paul HGM Dirks, and Job M. Kibii. 2010. “Australopithecus sediba: A New Species of Homo-like Australopith from South Africa.” Science 328 (5975): 195–204.

Bobe, René, and Anna K. Behrensmeyer. 2004. “The Expansion of Grassland Ecosystems in Africa in Relation to Mammalian Evolution and the Origin of the Genus Homo.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207 (3–4): 399–420.

Brain, C. K. 1967. “The Transvaal Museum’s Fossil Project at Swartkrans.” South African Journal of Science 63 (9): 378–384.

Broom, R. 1938a. “More Discoveries of Australopithecus.” Nature 141 (1): 828–829.

Broom, R. 1938b. “The Pleistocene Anthropoid Apes of South Africa.” Nature 142 (3591): 377–379.

Broom, R. 1947. “Discovery of a New Skull of the South African Ape-Man, Plesianthropus.” Nature 159 (4046): 672.

Broom, R. 1950. “The Genera and Species of the South African Fossil Ape-Man.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 8 (1): 1–14.

Brunet, Michel, Alain Beauvilain, Yves Coppens, Emile Heintz, Aladji HE Moutaye, and David Pilbeam. 1995. “The First Australopithecine 2,500 Kilometers West of the Rift Valley (Chad).” Nature 378 (6554): 275–273.

Cerling, Thure E., Jonathan G. Wynn, Samuel A. Andanje, Michael I. Bird, David Kimutai Korir, Naomi E. Levin, William Mace, Anthony N. Macharia, Jay Quade, and Christopher H. Remien. 2011. “Woody Cover and Hominin Environments in the Past 6 Million Years.” Nature 476, no. 7358 (2011): 51-56..

Clarke, Ronald J. 1998. “First Ever Discovery of a Well-Preserved Skull and Associated Skeleton of Australopithecus.” South African Journal of Science 94 (10): 460–463.

Clarke, Ronald J. 2013. “Australopithecus from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa.” In The Paleobiology of Australopithecus, edited by K. E. Reed, J. G. Fleagle, and R. E. Leakey, 105–123. Netherlands: Springer.

Clarke, Ronald J., and Kathleen Kuman. 2019. “The Skull of StW 573, a 3.67 Ma Australopithecus Prometheus Skeleton from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa.” Journal of Human Evolution 134: 102634.

Clarke, R. J., and P. V. Tobias. 1995. “Sterkfontein Member 2 Foot Bones of the Oldest South African Hominid.” Science 269 (5223): 521–524.

Constantino, P. J., and B. A. Wood. 2004. “Paranthropus Paleobiology”. In Miscelanea en Homenae a Emiliano Aguirre, volumen III: Paleoantropologia, edited by E. G. Pérez and S. R. Jara, 136–151. Alcalá de Henares: Museo Arqueologico Regional.

Constantino, P. J., and B. A. Wood. 2007. “The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boisei.” Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 16 (2): 49–62.

Dart, Raymond A. 1925. “Australopithecus africanus, the Man-Ape of South Africa.” Nature 115: 195–199.

Darwin, Charles. 1871. The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex. London: J. Murray.

Daver, Guillaume, F. Guy, Hassane Taïsso Mackaye, Andossa Likius, J-R. Boisserie, Abderamane Moussa, Laurent Pallas, Patrick Vignaud, and Nékoulnang D. Clarisse. 2022. “Postcranial Evidence of Late Miocene Hominin Bipedalism in Chad.” Nature 609 (7925): 94–100.

Heinzelin, Jean de, J. Desmond Clark, Tim White, William Hart, Paul Renne, Giday WoldeGabriel, Yonas Beyene, and Elisabeth Vrba. 1999. “Environment and Behavior of 2.5-Million-Year-Old Bouri Hominids.” Science 284 (5414): 625–629.

DeMenocal, Peter B. D. 2004. “African Climate Change and Faunal Evolution during the Pliocene–Pleistocene.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 220 (1–2): 3–24.

DeMenocal, Peter B. D. and J. Bloemendal, J. 1995. “Plio-Pleistocene Climatic Variability in Subtropical Africa and the Paleoenvironment of Hominid Evolution: A Combined Data-Model Approach.” In Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins, edited by E. S. Vrba, G. H. Denton, T. C. Partridge, and L. H. Burckle, 262–288. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Dirks, Paul HGM, Job M. Kibii, Brian F. Kuhn, Christine Steininger, Steven E. Churchill, Jan D. Kramers, Robyn Pickering, Daniel L. Farber, Anne-Sophie Mériaux, Andy I. R. Herries, Geoffrey C. P. King, And Lee R. Berger. 2010. “Geological Setting and Age of Australopithecus sediba from Southern Africa.” Science 328 (5975): 205–208.

Faith, J. Tyler, and Anna K. Behrensmeyer. 2013. “Climate Change and Faunal Turnover: Testing the Mechanics of the Turnover-Pulse Hypothesis with South African Fossil Data.” Paleobiology 39 (4): 609–627.

Grine, Frederick E. 1988. “New Craniodental Fossils of Paranthropus from the Swartkrans Formation and Their Significance in ‘Robust’ Australopithecine Evolution.” In Evolutionary History of the “Robust” Australopithecines, edited by F. E. Grine, 223–243. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Grine, Frederick E., Carrie S. Mongle, John G. Fleagle, and Ashley S. Hammond. 2022. “The Taxonomic Attribution of African Hominin Postcrania from the Miocene through the Pleistocene: Associations and Assumptions.” Journal of Human Evolution 173: 103255.

Haile-Selassie, Yohannes, Luis Gibert, Stephanie M. Melillo, Timothy M. Ryan, Mulugeta Alene, Alan Deino, Naomi E. Levin, Gary Scott, and Beverly Z. Saylor. 2015. “New Species from Ethiopia Further Expands Middle Pliocene Hominin Diversity.” Nature 521 (7553): 432–433.

Haile-Selassie, Yohannes, Stephanie M. Melillo, Antonino Vazzana, Stefano Benazzi, and Timothy M. Ryan. 2019. “A 3.8-Million-Year-Old Hominin Cranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia.” Nature 573 (7773): 214-219.

Harmand, Sonia, Jason E. Lewis, Craig S. Feibel, Christopher J. Lepre, Sandrine Prat, Arnaud Lenoble, Xavier Boës et al. 2015. “3.3-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools from Lomekwi3, West Turkana, Kenya.” Nature 521 (7552): 310–316.

Hay, Richard L. 1990. “Olduvai Gorge: A Case History in the Interpretation of Hominid Paleoenvironments.” In East Africa: Establishment of a Geologic Framework for Paleoanthropology, edited by L. Laporte, 23–37. Boulder: Geological Society of America.

Hay, Richard L., and Mary D. Leakey. 1982. “The Fossil Footprints of Laetoli.” Scientific American 246 (2): 50–57.

Hlazo, Nomawethu. 2015. “Paranthropus: Variation in Cranial Morphology.” Honours thesis, Archaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.

Hlazo, Nomawethu. 2018. “Variation and the Evolutionary Drivers of Diversity in the Genus Paranthropus.” Master’s thesis, Archaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.

Johanson, D. C., T. D. White, and Y. Coppens. 1978. “A New Species of the Genus Australopithecus (Primates: Hominidae) from the Pliocene of East Africa.” Kirtlandia 28: 1–14.

Kimbel, William H. 2015. “The Species and Diversity of Australopiths.” In Handbook of Paleoanthropology, 2nd ed., edited by T. Hardt, 2071–2105. Berlin: Springer.

Kimbel, William H., and Lucas K. Delezene. 2009. “‘Lucy’ Redux: A Review of Research on Australopithecus afarensis.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140 (S49): 2–48.

Kingston, John D. 2007. “Shifting Adaptive Landscapes: Progress and Challenges in Reconstructing Early Hominid Environments.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 134 (S45): 20–58.

Kingston, John D., and Terry Harrison. 2007. “Isotopic Dietary Reconstructions of Pliocene Herbivores at Laetoli: Implications for Early Hominin Paleoecology.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 243 (3–4): 272–306.

Leakey, Louis S. B. 1959. “A New Fossil Skull from Olduvai.” Nature 184 (4685): 491–493.

Leakey, Mary 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leakey, Mary D., and Richard L. Hay. 1979. “Pliocene Footprints in the Laetoli Beds at Laetoli, Northern Tanzania.” Nature 278 (5702): 317–323.

Leakey, Meave G., Craig S. Feibel, Ian McDougall, and Alan Walker. 1995. “New Four–Million-Year-Old Hominid Species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya.” Nature 376 (6541): 565–571.

Meave G., Fred Spoor, Frank H. Brown, Patrick N. Gathogo, Christopher Kiarie, Louise N. Leakey, and Ian McDougall. 2001. “New Hominin Genus from Eastern Africa Shows Diverse Middle Pliocene Lineages.” Nature 410 (6827): 433–440.

Lebatard, Anne-Elisabeth, Didier L. Bourlès, Philippe Duringer, Marc Jolivet, Régis Braucher, Julien Carcaillet, Mathieu Schuster et al. 2008. “Cosmogenic Nuclide Dating of Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Australopithecus bahrelghazali: Mio-Pliocene Hominids from Chad.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (9): 3226–3231.

Lee-Thorp, Julia. 2011. “The Demise of ‘Nutcracker Man.’” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (23): 9319–9320.

Lombard, Marlize, L. Y. N. Wadley, Janette Deacon, Sarah Wurz, Isabelle Parsons, Moleboheng Mohapi, Joane Swart, and Peter Mitchell. 2012. “South African and Lesotho Stone Age Sequence Updated.” The South African Archaeological Bulletin 67 (195): 123–144.

Maslin, Mark A., Chris M. Brierley, Alice M. Milner, Susanne Shultz, Martin H. Trauth, and Katy E. Wilson. 2014. “East African Climate Pulses and Early Human Evolution.” Quaternary Science Reviews 101: 1–17.

McHenry, Henry M. 2009. “Human Evolution.” In Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, edited by M. Ruse and J. Travis, 256–280. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press..

Patterson, Bryan, and William W. Howells. 1967. “Hominid Humeral Fragment from Early Pleistocene of Northwestern Kenya.” Science 156 (3771): 64–66.

Pickering, Robyn, and Jan D. Kramers. 2010. “Re-appraisal of the Stratigraphy and Determination of New U-Pb Dates for the Sterkfontein Hominin Site.” Journal of Human Evolution 59 (1): 70–86.

Potts, Richard. 1998. “Environmental Hypotheses of Hominin Evolution.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 107 (S27): 93–136.

Potts, Richard. 2013. “Hominin Evolution in Settings of Strong Environmental Variability.” Quaternary Science Reviews 73: 1–13.

Rak, Yoel. 1983. The Australopithecine Face. New York: Academic Press.

Rak, Yoel. 1988. “On Variation in the Masticatory System of Australopithecus boisei.” In Evolutionary History of the “Robust” Australopithecines, edited by M. Ruse and J. Travis, 193–198. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Semaw, Sileshi. 2000. “The World’s Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution between 2.6 Million Years Ago and 1.5 Million Years Ago.” Journal of Archaeological Science 27(12): 1197–1214.

Shipman, Pat. 2002. The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and his Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Spoor, Fred. 2015. “Palaeoanthropology: The Middle Pliocene Gets Crowded.” Nature 521 (7553): 432–433.

Strait, David S., Frederick E. Grine, and Marc A. Moniz. 1997. A Reappraisal of Early Hominid Phylogeny.” Journal of Human Evolution 32 (1): 17–82.

Thackeray, J. Francis. 2000. “‘Mrs. Ples’ from Sterkfontein: Small Male or Large Female?” The South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 155–158.

Thackeray, J. Francis, José Braga, Jacques Treil, N. Niksch, and J. H. Labuschagne. 2002. “‘Mrs. Ples’ (Sts 5) from Sterkfontein: An Adolescent Male?” South African Journal of Science 98 (1–2): 21–22.

Toth, Nicholas. 1985. “The Oldowan Reassessed.” Journal of Archaeological Science 12 (2): 101–120.

Vrba, E. S. 1988. “Late Pliocene Climatic Events and Hominid Evolution.” In The Evolutionary History of the Robust Australopithecines, edited by F. E. Grine, 405–426. New York: Aldine.

Vrba, Elisabeth S. 1998. “Multiphasic Growth Models and the Evolution of Prolonged Growth Exemplified by Human Brain Evolution.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 190 (3): 227–239.

Vrba, Elisabeth S. 2000. “Major Features of Neogene Mammalian Evolution in Africa.” In Cenozoic Geology of Southern Africa, edited by T. C. Partridge and R. Maud, 277–304. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Walker, Alan C., and Richard E. Leakey. 1988. “The Evolution of Australopithecus boisei.” In Evolutionary History of the “Robust” Australopithecines, edited by F. E. Grine, 247–258. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Walker, Alan, Richard E. Leakey, John M. Harris, and Francis H. Brown. 1986. “2.5-my Australopithecus boisei from West of Lake Turkana, Kenya.” Nature 322 (6079): 517–522.

Ward, Carol, Meave Leakey, and Alan Walker. 1999. “The New Hominid Species Australopithecus anamensis.” Evolutionary Anthropology 7 (6): 197–205.

White, Tim D. 1988. “The Comparative Biology of ‘Robust’ Australopithecus: Clues from Content.” In Evolutionary History of the “Robust” Australopithecines, edited by F. E. Grine, 449–483. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

White, Tim D., Gen Suwa, and Berhane Asfaw. 1994. “Australopithecus ramidus, a New Species of Early Hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia.” Nature 371 (6495): 306–312.

Wood, Bernard. 2010. “Reconstructing Human Evolution: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 10 (2): 8902–8909.

Wood, Bernard, and Eve K. Boyle. 2016. “Hominin Taxic Diversity: Fact or Fantasy?” Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 159 (S61): 37–78.

Wood, Bernard, and Kes Schroer. 2017. “Paranthropus: Where Do Things Stand?” In Human Paleontology and Prehistory, edited by A. Marom and E. Hovers, 95–107. New York: Springer, Cham.

Acknowledgements

All of the authors in this section are students and early career researchers in paleoanthropology and related fields in South Africa (or at least have worked in South Africa). We wish to thank everyone who supports young and diverse talent in this field and would love to further acknowledge Black, African, and female academics who have helped pave the way for us.