Life Sciences Commons^™

'Eve' In Africa: Human Evolution Meets Molecular Biology, Robert D. Seager

Faculty Publications

Recent advances in the study of human origins have increased our understanding of our ancestors. There have been new, major fossil finds. WT 17000, a 2.5 million-year-old robust Australopithecus found in Kenya (Walker et al. 1986), led to a revision of early hominid phylogeny (Delson 1986; 1987). Existing fossil materials have been reassessed. For example, Tattersall (1986) maintains that at least two unrecog­- nized hominid species (Homo neanderthalensis, H. hei­ delbergensis and possibly H. steinheimensis ) existed be­ tween the times of H . erectus and fully modern H . sapiens.