Human Origins—Explorations and Discussions in Anthropology, Biology, Archaeology, and Geology discussion

This is the folder topic for discussions and postings of journal articles and news related to species of Australopithecus and Paranthropus.

Re: Australopithecus afarensis

There is an interesting hypothesis associated with adaptation and hominin evolution being related to the variability of paleoclimate transitions. This hypothesis has been referred to as the "Variability Selection Hypothesis" (Potts, 1998), and later by Maslin, et al. (2009), as the "Pulsed Climate Variabilty Hypothesis".

In essence, what these models are getting at is the following--

The Variability Selection hypothesis proposes an increasing instability of environmental conditions as a driver for the simultaneous emergence of species; and

The Pulsed Climate Variability Hypothesis promotes spikes of more variable climate conditions unrelated to high latitude glacial cycles as a key driver of evolutionary selection.

Here's an interesting article by Potts, et al., (2004) entitled, "High-resolution vegetation and climate change associated with Pliocene Australopithecus afarensis". http://www.pnas.org/content/101/33/12...

Fascinating and thought-provoking stuff! More on these model in the near future. I have some papers to read and ponder. I'll post a folder topic specifically related to these models and attach the papers. Cheers!

If you live in the southern California region, I recommend that you take the time to visit the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California. The Bowers has an exhibition that is running from mid-February 2013 through April 28, 2013, with the famous 3.2 million year old Australopithecus afarensis fossil, "Lucy", discovered by Don Johanson and his team in Ethiopia's Awash Valley in 1974. From my perspective this is kind of like the 'Holy Grail' in the anthropological world. I can't wait to go and see her!