Search results for "Australopithecus"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Kritische Bemerkungen zur Entwicklung des Sapienstypus
1953
The earliest hominid predecessors as yet known, the Australopithecines, show that the branch leading to man was separated from the group of the anthropoids as early as the Tertiary. The Australopithecines as a group show great variability. The group contains in its genetic make-up all the characteristics of the representatives of the later stages. The presence of the primitive forms of many human characteristics has led us to include in the human line of evolution only those types which have remained primitively human (Australopithecus, Steinheim, Swanscombe, Fontechevade, Piltdown).Pithecanthropus and Neanderthals are not to be considered as stages of a higher evolution but as sidebranches…
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…
Enamel Prism Patterns of European Hominoids — and Their Phylogenetical Aspects
1981
Everybody concerned with questions of taxonomy and phylogeny knows that a large part of information used to classify fossil vertebrates is derived from teeth. This comes from the reasoning that teeth are the best mineralized portions of the skeleton and thus usually also the best preserved remains. The best preserved portion of teeth is again the most highly mineralized — the enamel. That the enamel shows a so-called prism pattern, which differs markedly within mammals and also within the primates, is well known since Carter (1922) and Regan (1930) published articles concerning the variability of enamel prism patterns. These were for the first time described by Tomes in 1848. An intensive i…
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…
Do Australopithecus aos ciborgues. Estamos diante do fim da evolução humana?.
2020
Abstract Social implementation of post-humanism could affect the biological evolution of living beings and especially that of humans. This paper addresses the issue from the biological and anthropological-philosophical perspectives. From the biological perspective, reference is made first to the evolution of hominids until the emergence of Homo sapiens, and secondly, to the theories of evolution with special reference to their scientific foundation and the theory of extended heredity. In the anthropological-philosophical part, the paradigm is presented according to which human consciousness, in its emancipatory zeal against biological nature, must “appropriate” the roots of its physis to tr…
Vers une approche globale de l'évolution des Hominidés
1998
Abstract Two models of diversification of the common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and men can be proposed on the basis of the distribution of chromosomal rearrangements in extant species and reconsideration of the role played by climate. The small genetic divergence between chimpanzees and humans is greatly amplified at the morphological level, thus constituting the ‘human paradox’. This paradox is resolved by the economical and flexible evolutionary mechanism of mutations in regulator genes and the heterochronies they control, which are the true internal clocks of evolution. Changes in cranial morphology are quantified and used to analyse and explain the steps in the transition from g…