0000000000296966
AUTHOR
A. Dambricourt Malassé
showing 3 related works from this author
A solution to the human paradox: fundamental ontogenies and heterochronies
1999
Solving the human paradox means explaining how a genetic difference of a mere 1% can be consistent with 5 million years of anatomical transformation from great apes to present-dayHomo sapiens. The solution proposed here is that of the internal history of ontogenetic change. A concept of “fundamental ontogeny” is developed and deduced from comparison between living and fossil primates. The fossil human lineage can be summarized into five fundamental ontogenies corresponding to successive skull plans (bauplans) resulting from five major phases of craniofacial contraction: prosimians (adapiforms), monkey apes (propliopithecidae), great apes (dryopithecidae), australopithecines andHomo. The mor…
Chromosomes and the origins of apes and australopithecins
1996
Comparison of molecular data suggests that the higher apes (Gorilla, Pan) and humankind (Homo) are closely related and that they diverged from the common ancestor through two speciation events situated very closely together in time. Examination of the chromosomal formulas of the living species reveals a paradox in the distribution of mutated chromosomes which can only be resolved by a model of trichotomic diversification. This new model of divergence from the common ancestor is characterized by the transition from (1) a monotypic phase to (2) a polytypic phase of three sub-species — pre-gorilla, pre-chimpanzee and preaustralopithecine. The quadruped ancestors ofAustralopithecus appear to ha…
Were climatic changes a driving force in hominid evolution?
2000
International audience; A comparison of externalist and internalist approaches in hominid evolution shows that the externalist approach, with its claim that climate was responsible for the appearance of bipedalism and hominization, now seems to be ruled out by the biological, palaeogeographical, palaeontological and palaeoclimatic data on which it was based. Biological data support the embryonic origin of cranio-facial contraction, which determined the increase in cranial capacity and the shift in the position of the foramen magnum implying bipedalism. In the internalist approach, developmental biology appears as the driving force of hominid evolution, although climate exerts a significant …