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p. 585. Early hominins: possible and probablelocked

  • Bernard Wood

Abstract

‘Early hominins: possible and probable’ considers the ‘candidate’ taxa that have been suggested to be at the very base of the hominin clade. Hominin evolution in Africa began at a time of climate change 5–8 million years ago. The common ancestor of chimps and humans is more likely to resemble a living chimp than a modern human. Smaller canines, lighter skulls and other adaptations to bipedal walking are probably the mark of the first hominins. Lack of a fossil record for chimps makes it especially hard to sort early hominins from non-hominins with reliability. Each of the four contenders for the earliest hominin has very little evidence.

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