GLOSSARY
Aridification: Becoming increasingly arid or dry, as related to the climate or environment.
Aridity Hypothesis: The hypothesis that long-term aridification and expansion of savannah biomes were drivers in diversification in early hominin evolution
Assemblage: A collection demonstrating a pattern. Often pertaining to a site or region.
Breccia: Hard, calcareous sedimentary rock.
Cheek teeth: The hind dentition (molars and premolars).
Chronospecies: Species that are said to evolve into another species, in a linear fashion, over time.
Cladistics: The field of grouping organisms into those of shared ancestry.
Closed habitat: A phrase typically referring to a woodland, or tree-filled, environment.
Context: As pertaining to palaeoanthropology, this term refers to the place where an artifact or fossil is found.
Cores: The remains of a rock that has been flaked or knapped.
Early Stone Age (ESA): The earliest described archaeological period in which we start seeing stone tool technology.
East African Rift System (EARS): This term is often used to refer to the Rift Valley, expanding from Malawi to Ethiopia. This active geological structure is responsible for much of the visibility of the paleoanthropological record in East Africa.
Enamel: The highly mineralized outer layer of the tooth.
Encephalization: Expansion of the brain.
Fallback foods: Foods that may not be preferred by an animal (e.g., foods that are not nutritionally dense) but that are essential for survival in times of stress or scarcity.
Fauna: The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
Faunal assemblages: Collections of fossils of other animals found at a site.
Faunal turnover: The rate at which species go extinct and are replaced with new species.
Flake: The piece knocked off of a stone core during the manufacture of a tool, which may be used as a stone tool.
Flora: The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
Foramen magnum: The large hole (foramen) at the base of the cranium, through which the spinal cord enters the skull.
Generalist species: A species that can thrive in a wide variety of habitats and can have a varied diet.
Glacial: Colder, drier periods during an ice age when there is more ice trapped at the poles.
Gracile: Slender, less rugged, or pronounced features.
Hallux: The big toe.
Holotype: A single specimen from which a species or taxon is described or named.
Honing P3: The mandibular premolar alongside the canine (in primates, the P3), which is angled to give space for (and sharpen) the upper canines.
Hyper-robust: Even more robust than considered normal in the Paranthropus genus.
Hypodigm: A sample (here, fossil) from which researchers extrapolate features of a population.
Incisiform: An adjective referring to a canine that appears more incisor-like in morphology.
Interglacial: A period of milder climate in between two glacial periods.
Knapping: The fracturing of rocks for the manufacture of tools.
Large Cutting Tool (LCT): A tool that is shaped to have functional edges.
Last Common Ancestor (LCA): The hypothetical final ancestor (or ancestral population) of two or more taxa before their divergence.
Lithic: Relating to stone (here to stone tools).
Lumbar lordosis: The inward curving of the lower (lumbar) parts of the spine. The lower curve in the human S-shaped spine.
Lumpers: Researchers who prefer to lump variable specimens into a single species or taxon and who feel high levels of variation is biologically real.
Megadont: An organism with extremely large dentition compared with body size.
Monophyletic: A taxon or group of taxa descended from a common ancestor that is not shared with another taxon or group.
Morphology: The study of the form or size and shape of things; in this case, skeletal parts.
Mosaic evolution: The concept that different characteristics evolve at different rates and appear at different stages.
Obligate bipedalism: Where the primary form of locomotion for an organism is bipedal.
Occlude: When the teeth from the maxilla come into contact with the teeth in the mandible.
Oldowan: Lower Paleolithic, the earliest stone tool culture consisting of simple flakes and choppers.
Orthognathic: The face below the eyes is relatively flat and does not jut out anteriorly.
Paleoanthropologists: Researchers that study human evolution.
Paleoenvironment: An environment from a period in the Earth’s geological past.
Parabolic: Shaped like a parabola (V-shaped).
Phalanges: Long bones in the hand and fingers.
Phylogeny: The study of the evolutionary history of groups of organisms.
Phylogenetics: The study of relationships between organisms based on evolutionary similarities and differences.
Pliocene: A geological epoch between the Miocene and Pleistocene.
Polytypic: In reference to taxonomy, having two or more group variants.
Postcranium: The skeleton below the cranium (head).
Procumbent: In reference to incisors, tilting forward.
Prognathic: In reference to the face, the area below the eyes juts anteriorly.
Quaternary Ice Age: The most recent geological time period, which includes the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs and which is defined by the cyclicity of increasing and decreasing ice sheets at the poles.
Robust: Rugged or exaggerated features.
Site: A place in which evidence of past societies/species/activities may be observed through archaeological or paleontological practice.
Solar precessional cycles: cyclical changes in earth’s axis rotation that have global climatic effects.
Specialist species: A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet.
Splitters: Researchers who prefer to split a highly variable taxon into multiple groups or species.
Taxonomy: The science of grouping and classifying organisms.
Techno-complex: A term encompassing multiple assemblages that share similar traits in terms of artifact production and morphology.
Thermoregulation: Maintaining body temperature through physiologically cooling or warming the body.
Ungulates: Hoofed mammals—e.g., cows and kudu.
Valgus knee: The angle of the knee between the femur and tibia, which allows for weight distribution to be angled closer to the point above the center of gravity (i.e., between the feet) in bipeds.
Volcanic tufts: Rock made from ash from volcanic eruptions in the past.
