A Companion to Paleoanthropology presents a compendium of readings from leading scholars in the field that define our current knowledge of the major discoveries and developments in human origins and human evolution, tracing the fossil record from primate and hominid origins to the dispersal of modern humans across the globe. Represents an accessible state-of-the-art summary of the entire field of paleoanthropology, with an overview of hominid taxonomy. Features articles on the key discoveries in ape and human evolution, in cranial, postcranial and brain evolution, growth and development. Surveys the breadth of the paleontological record from primate origins to modern humans. Highlights the unique methods and techniques of paleoanthropology, including dating and ecological methods, and use of living primate date to reconstruct behavior in fossil apes and humans.

Table of Contents

• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Past, Present and Future of Paleoanthropology - David R. Begun
• 2 History - Matthew R. Goodrum
• Part I Background to Paleoanthropology
• Section 1 Method and Theory
• 3 Human Systematics - David S. Strait
• 4 Experimental Approaches to Musculoskeletal Function in Primates - Matthew J. Ravosa, Kimberly A. Congdon, and Rachel A. Menegaz
• 5 Multivariate Quantitative Methods in Paleoanthropology - Michael A. Schillaci and Philipp Gunz
• 6 Growth, Development, and Life History in Hominin Evolution - Jay Kelley and Debra Bolter
• Section 2 Anatomical Regions
• 7 Cranial Evolution in the Apes - Brian T. Shea
• 8 Hominid Brain Evolution - P. Thomas Schoenemann
• 9 Hominin Diets - Peter S. Ungar and Matt Sponheimer
• 10 Origin and Evolution of Human Postcranial Anatomy - Brian G. Richmond and Kevin G. Hatala
• Section 3 Environment and Behavior
• 11 Multiproxy Paleoecology: Reconstructing Evolutionary Context in Paleoanthropology - Kaye E. Reed
• 12 Reconstructing Social Behavior from Fossil Evidence - J. Michael Plavcan
• 13 Geochronology - Alan L. Deino
• 14 The Origins and Evolution of Technology - Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth
• Section 4 Genetics and Race
• 15 Genetic Perspectives on Ape and Human Evolution - Todd R. Disotell
• 16 The Genetics of Morphology - Richard J. Sherwood and Dana L. Duren
• 17 Paleoanthropology and Race - Milford H. Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari
• Part II The Fossil Record
• Section 5 Paleogene Primates
• 18 Primate Origins - Mary T. Silcox
• 19 Anthropoid Origins - K. Christopher Beard
• 20 Catarrhine Origins - Terry Harrison
• Section 6 Neogene/Quaternary Hominoids
• 21 The Miocene Hominoid Radiations - David R. Begun
• 22 Before Australopithecus: The Earliest Hominins - Scott W. Simpson
• 23 Australopithecus and Kenyanthropus - Ashley S. Hammond and Carol V. Ward
• 24 Paranthropus - Bernard Wood and Kes Schroer
• Section 7 The Age of Homo
• 25 Earliest Homo - Friedemann Schrenk
• 26 Homo erectus and Related Taxa - Susan C. Antón
• 27 The Middle Pleistocene Record: On the Ancestry of Neandertals, Modern Humans and Others … - Jean-Jacques Hublin
• 28 Neanderthals - Katerina Harvati-Papatheodorou
• 29 Modern Human Origins - Mark Collard and Mana Dembo
• 30 Homo floresiensis - William L. Jungers