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81-463: The field draws from and combines primatology , paleontology , biological anthropology , and cultural anthropology . As technologies and methods advance, genetics plays an ever-increasing role, in particular to examine and compare DNA structure as a vital tool of research of the evolutionary kinship lines of related species and genera. The term paleoanthropology derives from Greek palaiós (παλαιός) "old, ancient", ánthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος) "man, human" and

162-464: A group is a uniquely Japanese trait of primate research. Each member of the primate community has a part to play, and the Japanese researchers are interested in this complex interaction. For Japanese researchers in primatology, the findings of the team are emphasised over the individual. The study of primates is a group effort, and the group will get the credit for it. A team of researchers may observe

243-412: A group of primates for several years in order to gather very detailed demographic and social histories. Where sociobiology attempts to understand the actions of all animal species within the context of advantageous and disadvantageous behaviors, primatology takes an exclusive look at the order Primates, which includes Homo sapiens . The interface between primatology and sociobiology examines in detail

324-594: A little more than two years, in the winter of 1929, Pei Wenzhong , then the field director at Zhoukoudian, unearthed the first complete calvaria of Peking Man . Twenty-seven years after Schlosser’s initial description, the antiquity of early humans in East Asia was no longer a speculation, but a reality. Excavations continued at the site and remained fruitful until the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. The decade-long research yielded

405-647: A new species, Ardipithecus ramidus , based on fossils from Ethiopia. In 1999, two new species were announced. Berhane Asfaw and Tim D. White named Australopithecus garhi based on specimens discovered in Ethiopia's Awash valley . Meave Leakey announced a new species, Kenyanthropus platyops , based on the cranium KNM-WT 40000 from Lake Turkana. In the 21st century, numerous fossils have been found that add to current knowledge of existing species. For example, in 2001, Zeresenay Alemseged discovered an Australopithecus afarensis child fossil, called Selam , from

486-640: A new species, Australopithecus sediba , based on fossils they had discovered in Malapa cave in South Africa. In 2015, a team also led by Lee Berger announced another species, Homo naledi , based on fossils representing 15 individuals from the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa. New species have also been found in eastern Africa. In 2000, Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford described

567-438: A possible fragility of theory of mind in primates occurs when a baboon gets lost. Under such circumstances, the lost baboon generally makes "call barks" to announce that it is lost. Previous to the 1990s it was thought that these call barks would then be returned by the other baboons, similar to the case is in vervet monkeys . However, when researchers studied this formally in the past few years they found something surprising: Only

648-692: A proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation seeking financial support for systematic excavation at Zhoukoudian and the establishment of an institute for the study of human biology in China. The Zhoukoudian Project came into existence in the spring of 1927, and two years later, the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China was formally established. Being the first institution of its kind,

729-496: A science, primatology has many different sub-disciplines which vary in terms of theoretical and methodological approaches to the subject used in researching extant primates and their extinct ancestors. There are two main centers of primatology, Western primatology and Japanese primatology . These two divergent disciplines stem from the unique cultural backgrounds and philosophies that went into their founding. Although, fundamentally, both Western and Japanese primatology share many of

810-479: A self-identified feminist, was among the first to apply what became known as sociobiological theory to primates. In her studies, she focuses on the need for females to win from males parental care for their offspring. Linda Fedigan views herself as a reporter or translator, working at the intersection between gender studies of science and the mainstream study of primatology. While some influential women challenged fundamental paradigms, Schiebinger suggests that science

891-432: A sociopolitical agenda. In particular, the use of primatological studies to assert gender roles, and to both promote and subvert feminism has been a point of contention. Several research papers on primate cognition were retracted in 2010. Their lead author, primatologist Marc Hauser, was dismissed from Harvard University after an internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct in his laboratory. Data supporting

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972-660: A thing of the past" (1977: 139). The first paleoanthropological find made in Africa was the 1921 discovery of the Kabwe 1 skull at Kabwe (Broken Hill) , Zambia. Initially, this specimen was named Homo rhodesiensis ; however, today it is considered part of the species Homo heidelbergensis . In 1924 in a limestone quarry at Taung , Professor Raymond Dart discovered a remarkably well-preserved juvenile specimen (face and brain endocast), which he named Australopithecus africanus ( Australopithecus meaning "Southern Ape"). Although

1053-547: A troop of chimps or a tribe of humans. This number is referred to as the monkeysphere . If a population exceeds the size outlined by its cognitive limitations, the group undergoes a schism. Set into an evolutionary context, the Dunbar number shows a drive for the development of a method of bonding that is less labor-intensive than grooming: language. As the monkeysphere grows, the amount of time that would need to be spent grooming troopmates soon becomes unmanageable. Furthermore, it

1134-417: A unique species. Although most hominin fossils from Africa have been found in eastern and southern Africa, there are a few exceptions. One is Sahelanthropus tchadensis , discovered in the central African country of Chad in 2002. This find is important because it widens the assumed geographic range of early hominins. Primatology Primatology is the scientific study of non-human primates . It

1215-521: A wealth of faunal and lithic materials, as well as hominin fossils. These included 5 more complete calvaria, 9 large cranial fragments, 6 facial fragments, 14 partial mandibles, 147 isolated teeth, and 11 postcranial elements—estimated to represent as least 40 individuals. Evidence of fire, marked by ash lenses and burned bones and stones, were apparently also present, although recent studies have challenged this view. Franz Weidenreich came to Beijing soon after Black’s untimely death in 1934, and took charge of

1296-540: Is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology , and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy , anthropology , biology , medicine , psychology , veterinary sciences and zoology , as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos. Primatologists study both living and extinct primates in their natural habitats and in laboratories by conducting field studies and experiments in order to understand aspects of their evolution and behavior. As

1377-410: Is a social activity that strengthens relationships. The amount of grooming taking place between members of a troop is a strong indicator of alliance formation or troop solidarity. Robin Dunbar suggests a link between primate grooming and the development of human language. The size of the neocortex in a primate's brain correlates directly to the number of individuals it can keep track of socially, be it

1458-723: Is a strategy that is incompatible with observational field studies, and weakens them in the eyes of hard science . As mentioned above, the Western school of primatology tries to minimize subjectivity, while the Japanese school of primatology tends to embrace the closeness inherent in studying nature. Social critics of science, some operating from within the field, are critical of primatology and sociobiology. Claims are made that researchers bring pre-existing opinions on issues concerning human sociality to their studies, and then seek evidence that agrees with their worldview or otherwise furthers

1539-478: Is believed that the best data comes through identification with your subject. Neutrality is eschewed in favour of a more casual atmosphere, where researcher and subject can mingle more freely. Domestication of nature is not only desirable, but necessary for study. Japanese primatologists are renowned for their ability to recognise animals by sight, and indeed most primates in a research group are usually named and numbered. Comprehensive data on every single subject in

1620-401: Is constituted by numerous factors, varying from gender roles and domestic issues that surround race and class to economic relations between researchers from developed world countries and the developing world countries in which most nonhuman primates reside. Darwin noted that sexual selection acts differently on females and males. Early research emphasized male-male competition for females. It

1701-414: Is currently in flux. The term "hominin" refers to any genus in the human tribe (Hominini), of which Homo sapiens (modern humans) is the only living specimen. In 1758 Carl Linnaeus introduced the name Homo sapiens as a species name in the 10th edition of his work Systema Naturae although without a scientific description of the species-specific characteristics. Since the great apes were considered

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1782-436: Is done in natural environments, in which scientific observers watch primates in their natural habitat. Laboratory study is done in controlled lab settings. In lab settings, scientists are able to perform controlled experimentation on the learning capabilities and behavioral patterns of the animals. In semi-free ranging studies, scientists are able to watch how primates might act in the wild but have easier access to them, and

1863-401: Is especially pronounced when the content is about reward and payment. This test strongly suggests that human logic is based on a module originally developed in a social environment to root out cheaters, and that either the module is at a huge disadvantage where abstract thinking is involved, or that other less effective modules are used when faced with abstract logic. Further evidence supporting

1944-564: Is on the objective. Early field primatology tended to focus on individual researchers. Researchers such as Jane Goodall , Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas are examples of this. In 1960, Jane Goodall traveled to the forest at Gombe Stream in Tanzania where her determination and skill allowed for her to observe behaviors of the chimpanzees that no researcher had seen prior. Chimpanzees used tools made from twigs to extract termites from their nests. Additionally, Dian Fossey's work conducted at

2025-464: Is only possible to bond with one troopmate at a time while grooming. The evolution of vocal communication solves both the time constraint and the one-on-one problem, but at a price. Language allows for bonding with multiple people at the same time at a distance, but the bonding produced by language is less intense. This view of language evolution covers the general biological trends needed for language development, but it takes another hypothesis to uncover

2106-429: Is the observation that chimps will only act if the object is dropped in an accidental-looking manner: if the researcher drops the object in a way that appears intentional, the chimp will ignore the object. In a related experiment, groups of chimps were given rope-pulling problems they could not solve individually. Warneken's subjects rapidly figured out which individual in the group was the best rope puller and assigned it

2187-471: The Centre for African Area Studies . The Japanese discipline of primatology tends to be more interested in the social aspects of primates. Social evolution and anthropology are of primary interest to them. The Japanese theory believes that studying primates will give us insight into the duality of human nature: individual self vs. social self. One particular Japanese primatologist, Kawai Masao , introduced

2268-715: The Karisoke Research station in Rwanda proved the possibility of habituation among the mountain gorillas. Fossey learned that female gorillas are often transferred between groups and gorillas eat their own dung to recycle nutrients. The third "trimate", Birute Galdikas , spent over 12 years becoming habituated to the orangutans in Borneo , Indonesia. Galdikas utilized statistics and modern data collection to conclude her 1978 doctoral thesis regarding orangutan behavior and interactions. The discipline of Japanese primatology

2349-488: The apes , into the realm of observing the people studying the apes. Before Darwin and molecular biology , the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus , organized natural objects into kinds, that we now know reflect their evolutionary relatedness. He sorted these kinds by morphology , the shape of the object. Animals such as gorillas , chimpanzees and orangutans resemble humans closely, so Linnaeus placed Homo sapiens together with other similar-looking organisms into

2430-519: The "corporate primate", described as "female baboons with briefcases, strategically competitive and aggressive". This contrasts with the notion that only men are competitive and aggressive. Observations have repeatedly demonstrated that female apes and monkeys also form stable dominance hierarchies and alliances with their male counterparts. Females display aggression, exercise sexual choice, and compete for resources, mates and territory, like their male counterparts. Schiebinger suggests that only two out of

2511-409: The 1930s, paleontologist Robert Broom discovered and described a new species at Kromdraai , South Africa. Although similar in some ways to Dart's Australopithecus africanus , Broom's specimen had much larger cheek teeth. Because of this difference, Broom named his specimen Paranthropus robustus , using a new genus name. In doing so, he established the practice of grouping gracile australopiths in

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2592-607: The Cenozoic Laboratory opened up new avenues for the study of paleogeology and paleontology in China. The Laboratory was the precursor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Science, which took its modern form after 1949. The first of the major project finds are attributed to the young Swedish paleontologist, Anders Birger Bohlin , then serving as

2673-535: The Taung child was a bipedal human ancestor, a transitional form between ape and human. However, Dart's conclusions were largely ignored for decades, as the prevailing view of the time was that a large brain evolved before bipedality. It took the discovery of additional australopith fossils in Africa that resembled his specimen, and the rejection of the Piltdown Man hoax , for Dart's claims to be taken seriously. In

2754-807: The ability to control their environments. Such facilities include the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Georgia, US and the Elgin Center at Lion Country Safari in Florida, US. All types of primate study in the Western methodology are meant to be neutral. Although there are certain Western primatologists who do more subjective research, the emphasis in this discipline

2835-535: The answer to be 35 grey squares. As more evidence of basic cognitive modules are uncovered, they will undoubtedly form a more solid foundation upon which the more complex behaviors can be understood. In contradiction to this, neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp has argued that the mind is not a computer nor is it massively modular. He states that no evidence of massive modularity or the brain as a digital computer has been gained through actual neuroscience, as opposed to psychological studies. He criticises psychologists who use

2916-410: The authors' conclusion that cottontop tamarin monkeys displayed pattern-learning behavior similar to human infants reportedly could not be located after a three-year investigation. Women receive the majority of PhDs in primatology. Londa Schiebinger , writing in 2001, estimated that women made up 80 percent of graduate students pursuing PhDs in primatology, up from 50 percent in the 1970s. Because of

2997-414: The baboons who were lost would ever give call barks. Even if an infant was wailing in agony just a few hundred meters away, its mother who would clearly recognise its voice and would be frantic about his safety (or alternatively run towards her infant depending on her own perceived safety), would often simply stare in his direction visibly agitated. If the anguishing baboon mother made any type of call at all,

3078-437: The biological and psychological aspects of non-human primates. The focus is on studying the common links between humans and primates. Practitioners believe that by understanding our closest animal relatives, we might better understand the nature shared with our ancestors. Primatology is a science. The general belief is that the scientific observation of nature must be either extremely limited, or completely controlled. Either way,

3159-554: The brain is just a big computer that runs one program, the mind. If the mind is a general computer, for instance, the ability to use reasoning should be identical regardless of the context. This is not what is observed. When faced with abstract numbers and letters with no "real world" significance, respondents of the Wason card test generally do very poorly. However, when exposed to a test with an identical rule set but socially relevant content, respondents score markedly higher. The difference

3240-454: The brain was small (410 cm), its shape was rounded, unlike the brain shape of chimpanzees and gorillas, and more like the shape seen in modern humans. In addition, the specimen exhibited short canine teeth , and the anterior placement of the foramen magnum was more like the placement seen in modern humans than the placement seen in chimpanzees and gorillas, suggesting that this species was bipedal . All of these traits convinced Dart that

3321-525: The bulk of the task. This research is highly indicative of the ability of chimps to detect the folk psychological state of "desire", as well as the ability to recognize that other individuals are better at certain tasks than they are. However primates do not always fare so well in situations requiring theory of mind. In one experiment pairs of chimpanzees who had been close grooming partners were offered two levers. Pressing one lever would bring them food and another would bring their grooming partner food. Pressing

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3402-457: The closest relatives of human beings, based on morphological similarity, in the 19th century, it was speculated that the closest living relatives to humans were chimpanzees (genus Pan ) and gorilla (genus Gorilla ), and based on the natural range of these creatures, it was surmised that humans shared a common ancestor with African apes and that fossils of these ancestors would ultimately be found in Africa. The science arguably began in

3483-446: The concept of kyokan . This was the theory that the only way to attain reliable scientific knowledge was to attain a mutual relation, personal attachment and shared life with the animal subjects. Though Kawai is the only Japanese primatologist associated with the use of this term, the underlying principle is part of the foundation of Japanese primate research. Japanese primatology is a carefully disciplined subjective science. It

3564-478: The evolution of primate behavioral processes, and what studying our closest living primate relatives can tell about our own minds. As the American anthropologist Earnest Albert Hooton used to say, " Primas sum: primatum nil a me alienum puto ." ("I am a primate; nothing about primates is outside of my bailiwick".) The meeting point of these two disciplines has become a nexus of discussion on key issues concerning

3645-435: The evolution of sociality, the development and purpose of language and deceit, and the development and propagation of culture. Additionally, this interface is of particular interest to the science watchers in science and technology studies, who examine the social conditions which incite, mould, and eventually react to scientific discoveries and knowledge. The STS approach to primatology and sociobiology stretches beyond studying

3726-524: The evolution of the cognitive processes necessary for language. Noam Chomsky 's concept of innate language addresses the existence of universal grammar , which suggests a special kind of "device" all humans are born with whose sole purpose is language. Fodor 's modular mind hypothesis expands on this concept, suggesting the existence of preprogrammed modules for dealing with many, or all aspects of cognition. Although these modules do not need to be physically distinct, they must be functionally distinct. There

3807-595: The famous Laetoli footprints in Tanzania, which demonstrated the antiquity of bipedality in the human lineage. In 1985, Richard Leakey and Alan Walker discovered a specimen they called the Black Skull , found near Lake Turkana. This specimen was assigned to another species, Paranthropus aethiopicus . In 1994, a team led by Meave Leakey announced a new species, Australopithecus anamensis , based on specimens found near Lake Turkana. Numerous other researchers have made important discoveries in eastern Africa. Possibly

3888-414: The field advisor at Zhoukoudian . He recovered a left lower molar that Black (1927) identified as unmistakably human (it compared favorably to the previous find made by Zdansky), and subsequently coined it Sinanthropus pekinensis . The news was at first met with skepticism, and many scholars had reservations that a single tooth was sufficient to justify the naming of a new type of early hominin. Yet within

3969-575: The fossil KNM-ER 1470 near Lake Turkana in Kenya. KNM-ER 1470 has been interpreted as either a distinct species, Homo rudolfensis , or alternatively as evidence of sexual dimorphism in Homo habilis . In 1967, Richard Leakey reported the earliest definitive examples of anatomically modern Homo sapiens from the site of Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, known as the Omo remains . In the late 1970s, Mary Leakey excavated

4050-489: The fossil hominin teeth delighted the scientific community in Beijing, and plans for developing a larger, more systematic project at Zhoukoudian were soon formulated. At the epicenter of excitement was Davidson Black , a Canadian-born anatomist working at Peking Union Medical College . Black shared Andersson’s interest, as well as his view that central Asia was a promising home for early humankind. In late 1926, Black submitted

4131-466: The general acceptance of Africa as the root of genus Homo , 19th-century naturalists sought the origin of humans in Asia. So-called "dragon bones" (fossil bones and teeth) from Chinese apothecary shops were known, but it was not until the early 20th century that German paleontologist, Max Schlosser , first described a single human tooth from Beijing . Although Schlosser (1903) was very cautious, identifying

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4212-449: The genus Australopithecus and robust australopiths in the genus Paranthropus . During the 1960s, the robust variety was commonly moved into Australopithecus . A more recent consensus has been to return to the original classification of Paranthropus as a separate genus. The second half of the twentieth century saw a significant increase in the number of paleoanthropological finds made in Africa. Many of these finds were associated with

4293-539: The group, and whether or not they can attribute folk psychological states to their peers. If some primates can tell what others know and want and act accordingly, they can gain advantage and status. Recently, chimpanzee theory of mind has been advanced by Felix Warneken of the Max Planck Institute . His studies have shown that chimpanzees can recognize whether a researcher desires a dropped object, and act accordingly by picking it up. Even more compelling

4374-425: The high number of women, Schiebinger has even asserted that "Primatology is widely celebrated as a feminist science". In 1970 Jeanne Altmann drew attention to representative sampling methods in which all individuals, not just the dominant and the powerful, were observed for equal periods of time. Prior to 1970, primatologists used "opportunistic sampling", which only recorded what caught their attention. Sarah Hrdy,

4455-522: The infant would instantly recognise her and run to her position. This type of logic appears to be lost on the baboon, suggesting a serious gap in theory of mind of this otherwise seemingly very intelligent primate species. However, it is also possible that baboons do not return call barks for ecological reasons, for example because returning the call bark might call attention to the lost baboon, putting it at greater risk from predators. Scientific studies concerning primate and human behavior have been subject to

4536-613: The late 19th century when important discoveries occurred that led to the study of human evolution . The discovery of the Neanderthal in Germany, Thomas Huxley 's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature , and Charles Darwin 's The Descent of Man were both important to early paleoanthropological research. The modern field of paleoanthropology began in the 19th century with the discovery of " Neanderthal man" (the eponymous skeleton

4617-501: The lever to clearly give their grooming partner much-wanted food would not take away from how much food they themselves got. For some reason, the chimps were unwilling to depress the lever that would give their long-time chums food. It is plausible but unlikely that the chimps figured there was finite food and it would eventually decrease their own food reward. The experiments are open to such interpretations making it hard to establish anything for certain. One phenomenon which would indicate

4698-476: The massive modularity thesis for not integrating neuroscience into their understanding. Primate behavior, like human behavior, is highly social and ripe with the intrigue of kingmaking , powerplays, deception, cuckoldry, and apology. In order to understand the staggeringly complex nature of primate interactions, we look to theory of mind . Theory of mind asks whether or not an individual recognizes and can keep track of information asymmetry amongst individuals in

4779-412: The modular mind has steadily emerged with some startling revelations concerning primates. A very recent study indicated that human babies and grown monkeys approach and process numbers in a similar fashion, suggesting an evolved set of DA for mathematics (Jordan). The conceptualization of both human infants and primate adults is cross-sensory, meaning that they can add 15 red dots to 20 beeps and approximate

4860-624: The most famous is the Lucy skeleton , discovered in 1973 by Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb in Ethiopia's Afar Triangle at the site of Hadar . On the basis of this skeleton and subsequent discoveries, the researchers came up with a new species, Australopithecus afarensis . In 1975, Colin Groves and Vratislav Mazák announced a new species of human they called Homo ergaster . Homo ergaster specimens have been found at numerous sites in eastern and southern Africa. In 1994, Tim D. White announced

4941-420: The observers must be neutral to their subjects. This allows for data to be unbiased and for the subjects to be uninfluenced by human interference. There are three methodological approaches in primatology: field study, the more realistic approach; laboratory study, the more controlled approach; and semi-free ranging, where primate habitat and wild social structure is replicated in a captive setting. Field study

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5022-491: The paleoanthropological spotlight shifted westward to East Africa. Although China re-opened its doors to the West in the late 1970s, national policy calling for self-reliance, coupled with a widened language barrier, thwarted all the possibilities of renewed scientific relationships. Indeed, Harvard anthropologist K. C. Chang noted, "international collaboration (in developing nations very often a disguise for Western domination) became

5103-410: The route for daily foraging. Similarly, Shirley Strum found that male investment in special relationships with females had greater productive payoff in comparison to a male's rank in a dominance hierarchy. This emerging "female point of view" resulted in a reanalysis of how aggression, reproductive access, and dominance affect primate societies. Schiebinger has also accused sociobiologists of producing

5184-464: The same principles, the areas of their focus in primate research and their methods of obtaining data differ widely. Western primatology stems primarily from research by North American and European scientists. Early primate study focused primarily on medical research, but some scientists also conducted "civilizing" experiments on chimpanzees in order to gauge both primate intelligence and the limits of their brainpower. The study of primatology looks at

5265-444: The same set of political and social complications, or biases, as every other scientific discipline. The borderline and multidisciplinary nature of primatology and sociobiology make them ripe fields of study because they are amalgams of objective and subjective sciences. Current scientific practice, especially in the hard sciences, requires a total dissociation of personal experience from the finished scientific product (Bauchspies 8). This

5346-457: The site of Dikika in the Afar region of Ethiopia. This find is particularly important because the fossil included a preserved hyoid bone , something rarely found in other paleoanthropological fossils but important for understanding the evolution of speech capacities. Two new species from southern Africa have been discovered and described in recent years. In 2008, a team led by Lee Berger announced

5427-606: The six features are characteristic of feminism. One of them is the discussion of the politics of participation and the attention placed on females as subjects of research. Max Schlosser (zoologist) [REDACTED] Some of this article's listed sources may not be reliable . Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed. ( October 2011 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Max Schlosser (5 February 1854 – 7 October 1932)

5508-594: The sparse nature of the initial finds, the site was abandoned. Work did not resume until 1921, when the Austrian paleontologist, Otto Zdansky , fresh with his doctoral degree from Vienna, came to Beijing to work for Andersson. Zdansky conducted short-term excavations at Locality 1 in 1921 and 1923, and recovered only two teeth of significance (one premolar and one molar) that he subsequently described, cautiously, as "? Homo sp. " (Zdansky, 1927). With that done, Zdansky returned to Austria and suspended all fieldwork. News of

5589-405: The species Orrorin tugenensis , based on fossils they found in Kenya. In 2004, Yohannes Haile-Selassie announced that some specimens previously labeled as Ardipithecus ramidus made up a different species, Ardipithecus kadabba . In 2015, Haile-Selassie announced another new species, Australopithecus deyiremeda , though some scholars are skeptical that the associated fossils truly represent

5670-465: The specific question of human evolution—"light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history," was all Darwin wrote on the subject—the implications of evolutionary theory were clear to contemporary readers. Debates between Thomas Huxley and Richard Owen focused on the idea of human evolution. Huxley convincingly illustrated many of the similarities and differences between humans and apes in his 1863 book Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature . By

5751-649: The study of the hominin specimens. Following the loss of the Peking Man materials in late 1941, scientific endeavors at Zhoukoudian slowed, primarily because of lack of funding. Frantic search for the missing fossils took place, and continued well into the 1950s. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, excavations resumed at Zhoukoudian. But with political instability and social unrest brewing in China, beginning in 1966, and major discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and East Turkana ( Koobi Fora ),

5832-474: The suffix -logía (-λογία) "study of". Hominoids are a primate superfamily, the hominid family is currently considered to comprise both the great ape lineages and human lineages within the hominoid superfamily. The " Homininae " comprise both the human lineages and the African ape lineages. The term "African apes" refers only to chimpanzees and gorillas . The terminology of the immediate biological family

5913-480: The taxonomic order Primates . Modern molecular biology reinforced humanity's place within the Primate order. Humans and simians share the vast majority of their DNA , with chimpanzees sharing between 97-99% genetic identity with humans. Although social grooming is observed in many animal species, the grooming activities undertaken by primates are not strictly for the elimination of parasites. In primates, grooming

5994-459: The time Darwin published his own book on the subject, Descent of Man , it was already a well-known interpretation of his theory—and the interpretation which made the theory highly controversial. Even many of Darwin's original supporters (such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Lyell ) balked at the idea that human beings could have evolved their apparently boundless mental capacities and moral sensibilities through natural selection . Prior to

6075-477: The tooth only as "? Anthropoide g. et sp. indet ?," he was hopeful that future work would discover a new anthropoid in China. Eleven years later, the Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson was sent to China as a mining advisor and soon developed an interest in "dragon bones". It was he who, in 1918, discovered the sites around Zhoukoudian , a village about 50 kilometers southwest of Beijing. However, because of

6156-576: The work of the Leakey family in eastern Africa. In 1959, Mary Leakey 's discovery of the Zinj fossin ( OH 5 ) at Olduvai Gorge , Tanzania, led to the identification of a new species, Paranthropus boisei . In 1960, the Leakeys discovered the fossil OH 7 , also at Olduvai Gorge, and assigned it to a new species, Homo habilis . In 1972, Bernard Ngeneo, a fieldworker working for Richard Leakey , discovered

6237-567: Was an experiment to teach language to orangutans at the Smithsonian National Zoo using a computer system developed by primatologist Francine Neago in conjunction with IBM . The massive modularity theory thesis posits that there is a huge number of tremendously interlinked but specialized modules running programs called Darwinian algorithms , or DA. DA can be selected for just as a gene can, eventually improving cognition. The contrary theory, of generalist mind, suggests that

6318-554: Was developed out of animal ecology . It is mainly credited to Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani . Imanishi was an animal ecologist who began studying wild horses before focusing more on primate ecology. He helped found the Primate Research Group in 1950. Junichiro was a renowned anthropologist and a professor at Kyoto University . He is a co-founder of the Primate Research Institute and

6399-480: Was found in 1856, but there had been finds elsewhere since 1830), and with evidence of so-called cave men . The idea that humans are similar to certain great apes had been obvious to people for some time, but the idea of the biological evolution of species in general was not legitimized until after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Though Darwin's first book on evolution did not address

6480-524: Was ignored. Schiebinger proposed that the failure to acknowledge female-female competitions could "skew notions of sexual selection" to "ignore interactions between males and females that go beyond the strict interpretation of sex as for reproduction only". In the 1960s primatologists started looking at what females did, slowly changing the stereotype of the passive female. We now know that females are active participants, and even leaders, within their groups. For instance, Rowell found that female baboons determine

6561-428: Was widely believed that males tend to woo females, and that females are passive. For years this was the dominant interpretation, emphasizing competition among dominant males who control territorial boundaries and maintain order among lesser males. Females, on the other hand, were described as "dedicated mothers to small infants and sexually available to males in order of the males' dominance rank". Female-female competition

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