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Evolution

Human evolution

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Biological and Physical Anthropology

Evolution Of Endurance Running Genes Across Primates, Natalia T. Grube Apr 2019

Evolution Of Endurance Running Genes Across Primates, Natalia T. Grube

Theses and Dissertations

The endurance running hypothesis has emerged as a key idea to explain several unique anatomical, physiological, and genetic features of modern humans—among these features is the evolution of ACTN3 (Bramble & Lieberman 2004, Nature), a gene linked to human athletic performance. An additional gene linked to human endurance performance is ACE. Because endurance running is a uniquely human trait, I predicted that ACE and ACTN3 genes would be evolving adaptively in the human lineage when examined in a wider primatological framework. To test this I compiled ACE and ACTN3 genes from 14 primate species and phylogenetically tested if these genes …

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Evolution Of The Human Diet: What We Can Learn From Hunters And Gatherers, Kara Osborne, Alyssa Crittenden Jan 2013

Evolution Of The Human Diet: What We Can Learn From Hunters And Gatherers, Kara Osborne, Alyssa Crittenden

McNair Poster Presentations

The study of hunter-gatherer populations around the world can greatly inform our understanding of the evolution of the human diet. Ethnographic research of modern hunter-gatherers has been used to infer the possible food consump­tion and acquisition patterns of our ancestors. Hunter-gatherers provide the in­formation necessary for the understanding of the past human diet, due to these populations living similar lifestyles in similar environments, therefore procuring similar foods.

The Hadza, a group of nomadic hunters and gatherers living in Tanzania, East Africa, are one of the primary populations that nutritional anthropologists study to infer what possible foods our ancestors acquired and …

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How Culture Makes Us Human: Primate Social Evolution And The Formation Of Human Societies, Dwight W. Read Dec 2011

How Culture Makes Us Human: Primate Social Evolution And The Formation Of Human Societies, Dwight W. Read

Dwight W Read

Probably one of the most interesting—and challenging—stories in
the evolution of our species is the transition from our shared
ancestry with other primates to human societies as we know them
today. What makes us like other primates and what makes us different?
These are the evolutionary themes worked out during this crucial
transition. These themes help define what distinguishes our species
from other primate species. The odyssey from the Old World monkeys to the great apes and
then to the development of our unique forms of social organization is,
then, the overall theme of this book. The odyssey begins, as …

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A Multivariate Test Of Evolutionary Stasis In Homo Sapiens, Jon Geoffrey Kleckner Jan 1989

A Multivariate Test Of Evolutionary Stasis In Homo Sapiens, Jon Geoffrey Kleckner

Dissertations and Theses

In the past, efforts to prove or disprove stasis in hominids have relied upon univariate tests such as Students's t-test. Severe methodological and interpretive problems arise from the misapplication of univariate statistics to questions concerning variation in shape through time. These are questions best addressed using the multivariate approach of morphometrics. Eighteen cranial dimensions drawn from 33 mid and late Pleistocene Homo sapiens were examined using principal component analysis (PCA). PCA divided the sample into two distinct morphologies. Archaic Homo sapiens of the mid Pleistocene clustered with Wurm I neanderthals and apart from post Gottweig early anatomically modern Homo sapiens. …

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