Click here to download

Progress in human systematics. A review
Journal Title: PARADIGMI 
Author/s: Colin Groves 
Year:  2017 Issue: 2 Language: English 
Pages:  16 Pg. 59-74 FullText PDF:  198 KB
DOI:  10.3280/PARA2017-002005
(DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation:  clicca qui   and here 


In this paper I briefly discuss what "species" are, and how they might be recognised in the fossil record, and support a time-dependent view of higher categories (genus, family). The genus Homo, according to the time-dependent model, contains Australopithecus and Paranthropus, and perhaps Kenyanthropus, as synonyms. I suggest 19 "definite species" in the genus Homo, with several other "potential species" and "possible species".
Keywords: Family, Genus, Homo, Potential species, Species, Time-dependent model.

  1. Antón S.C. (2003). Natural History of Homo erectus. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 46, 126-170.
  2. Antón S.C., Potts R. and Aiello L.C. (2014). Evolution of Early Homo: An Integrated Biological Perspective. Science, 345, 1236828: 1-13,
  3. Antón S.C. et al. (2007). Defining Homo erectus: Size Considered. In: Henke W. and Tattersall I., eds., Handbook of Paleoanthropology, III: Phylogeny of Hominids. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer: 1655-1693,, 10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_54DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_54
  4. Argue D. (2016). Variation in the Early Pleistocene: the Phylogenetic Relationships of Ceprano, Bodo, Daka, Kabwe and Buia. In: Behie A.M. and ‎Oxenham M.F., eds., Taxonomic Tapestries: the Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research. Canberra: ANU Press: 215-243.
  5. Argue D. et al. (2017). The Affinities of Homo floresiensis Based on Phylogenetic Analyses of Cranial, Dental, and Postcranial Characters. Journal of Human Evolution, 103: 107-133,
  6. Arnold M.L. (2009). Reticulate Evolution and Humans. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  7. Arnold M.L. (2016). Divergence with Genetic Exchange. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  8. Berger L.R. et al. (48). (2015). Homo naledi: a New Species of the Genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. ELife 2015, 4: e0956,
  9. Clarke R.J. (2008). Latest Information on Sterkfontein’s Australopithecus Skeleton and a New Look at Australopithecus. South African Journal of Science, 104: 443-449,
  10. De Queiroz K. (2007). Species Concepts and Species Delimitation. Systematic Biology, 56: 879-886,, 10.1080/10635150701701083DOI: 10.1080/10635150701701083
  11. Emonet E.-G. et al. (2014). Subocclusal Dental Morphology of Sahelanthropus tchadensis and the Evolution of Teeth in Hominins. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 153: 116-123,
  12. Ferguson W.W. (1995). A New Species of the Genus Homo (Primates: Hominidae) from the Plio/Pleistocene of Koobi Fora, in Kenya. Primates, 36: 69-89,
  13. Goodman M. et al. (1998). Toward a Phylogenetic Classification of Primates Based on DNA Evidence Complemented by Fossil Evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 9: 585-598,
  14. Groves C.P. (1989). A Theory of Human and Primate Evolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  15. Groves C.P. (1999). Nomenclature of African Plio-Pleistocene Hominins. Journal of Human Evolution, 37: 869-872,
  16. Groves C.P. (2001). Primate Taxonomy. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
  17. Groves C.P. (2012). Speciation in Hominin Evolution. In: Reynolds S.C. and Gallagher A., eds., African Genesis: Perspectives on Hominin Evolution: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 45-62,
  18. Groves C.P. (2017). The Evolution of Javan Homo erectus. In: Bellwood P., ed., First Islanders: Prehistory and Human Migration in Island Southeast Asia, Hoboken and Oxford: Wiley Blackwell: 46-53.
  19. Groves C.P. and Grubb P. (2011). Ungulate Taxonomy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.
  20. Haile Selassie Y., Melillo S.M. and Su D.F. (2016). The Pliocene Hominin Diversity Conundrum: Do More Fossils Mean Less Clarity? PNAS, 113, no. 23. 1521266113,
  21. Harley E.H. et al. (2016). Comparison of Whole Mitochondrial Genome Sequences of Northern and Southern White Rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum): the Conservation Consequences of Species Definition. Conservation Genetics, 17: 1285-1291,
  22. Hennig W. (1966). Phylogenetic Systematics. Urbana-Chicago-London: University of Illinois Press.
  23. ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) (1999). International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 4th edition. London: British Museum (Natural History) Trustees,
  24. Kimbel W.H. and Delezene L.K. (2009). “Lucy” Redux: a Review of Research on Australopithecus afarensis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 140, 49: 2-48,
  25. Kimbel W.H. and Rak Y. (1993). The Importance of Species in Paleoanthropology and an Argument for the Phylogenetic Concept of the Species Category. In: Kimbel W.H. and Martin L.B., eds., Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution. New York: Plenum: 461-484,, 10.1007/978-1-4899-3745-2_18DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4899-3745-2_18
  26. Kimbel W.H. et al. (2006). Was Australopithecus anamensis Ancestral to A.afarensis? A Case of Anagenesis in the Hominin Fossil Record. Journal of Human Evolution, 51: 134-152,
  27. Masao F.T. et al. (2016). New Footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) Provide Evidence for Marked Body Size Variation in Early Hominins. eLife, 5: e 19568,
  28. May R.M. (1990). Taxonomy as Destiny. Nature, 347: 129-130,
  29. Mayden R.L. (1997). A Hierarchy of Species Concepts: the Denouement in the Saga of the Species Problem. In: Claridge M.F., Dawah H.A. and Wilson M.R., eds., Species: The Units of Biodiversity. London: Chapman and Hall: 381-424.
  30. Mayr E. (1963). Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  31. Moggi-Cecchi J., Grine F.E. and Tobias P.V. (2006). Early Hominid Dental Remains from Members 4 and 5 of the Sterkfontein Formation (1966-1996 Excavations): Catalogue, Individual Associations, Morphological Descriptions and Initial Metrical Analysis. Journal of Human Evolution, 50: 239-328,
  32. Plavcan J.M. and Cope D.A. (2001). Metric Variation and Species Recognition in the Fossil Record. Evolutionary Anthropology, 10: 204-222,
  33. Rak Y. and Been E. (2016). What Do We Really Know about the Origin of Hu-mans? Abstract for a Podium Presentation to the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution. Madrid.
  34. Simpson G.G., Roe A. and Lewontin R.C. (1960). Quantitative Zoology. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
  35. Spoor F. et al. (2015). Reconstructed Homo habilis Type OH 7 Suggests Deep-rooted Species Diversity in Early Homo. Nature, 519: 83-86,
  36. Tattersall I. (2007). Homo ergaster and Its Contemporaries. In: Henke W. and Tattersall I., eds., Handbook of Paleoanthropology, III, Phylogeny of Hominids. Berli-Heidelberg-New York: Springer: 1633-1653,, 10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_53DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_53
  37. Wood B.A. (1985). Early Homo in Kenya, and its Systematic Relationships. In: Delson E., ed., Ancestors: the Hard Evidence. New York: Alan R. Liss: 206-214.
  38. Woodley M.A. (2010). Is Homo sapiens Polytypic? Humantaxonomic Diversity and Its Implications. Med. Hypotheses, 74: 195-220,
  39. Zachos F.E. et al. (2013). Species Inflation and Taxonomic Artefacts: A Critical Comment on Recent Trends in Mammalian Classification. Mamm. Biol., 78: 1-6,

Colin Groves, in "PARADIGMI" 2/2017, pp. 59-74, DOI:10.3280/PARA2017-002005

   

FrancoAngeli is a member of Publishers International Linking Association a not for profit orgasnization wich runs the CrossRef service, enabing links to and from online scholarly content