Milford H. Wolpoff

Tooth Wear and Culture: A Survey of Tooth Functions Among Some Prehistoric Populations [and Comments and Reply]

Studies of hominid fossils have frequently reported that one of their outstanding characteristics is their heavily worn teeth. Many skeletal remains of modern man also show this condition of dental attrition, which is probably related to certain cultural activities. The varieties of foods consumed by primitive man and the specialized tool functions of the teeth have left significant marks in the form of worn occlusal surfaces over the dental arches. This paper discusses some of the functions of the teeth indicated by these marks and suggests that tooth wear should be studied carefully in order to gain significant information about the activities of past populations.

Upper Pleistocene Hominid Evolution in South-Central Europe: A Review of the Evidence and Analysis of Trends [and Comments and Reply]

South-Central Europe has yielded rather large and significant samples of archaic and early modern Homo sapiens dated to the Upper Pleistocene. These hominid samples have received proportionately little detailed consideration in discussions of the nature of the relationship between archaic and modern Homo sapiens in Europe. The First purpose of this paper is to review this material. The second purpose of this paper is to review this material. The second purpose is to investigate the trends in Upper Pleistocene hominid evolution in South-Central Europe and to relate them to the pattern of contemporary hominid evolution in adjacent regions. It is concluded that a distinct morphological continuum exists between Neandertals and early modern hominids in South-Central Europe and that this continuum is most likely the reflection of an indigenous transition from Neandertals to eraly modern Homo sapiens. Aspects of such a transition are visible in the sparse fossil record of North-Central Erope as well. The pattern in Western Europe and its relationship to South-Central Europe are less clear.

The pattern of evolution in Pleistocene human brain size

Abstract With a sample of 94 Pleistocene cranial capacities between the time period of 1.8 Ma and 50 Ka now known, we consider the evolution of cranial capacity in Homo, with the null hypothesis that the changes over time are a result of one process. We employ a new method that uses a resampling approach to address the limitations imposed on the methods of previous studies. To test the null hypothesis, we examine the distribution of changes in adjacent temporal samples and ask whether there are differences between earlier and later samples. Our analyses do not reject the hypothesis of a single process of brain size change, but they are incompatible with an interpretation of punctuated equilibrium during this period. The results of this paper are difficult to reconcile with the case for cladogenesis in the Homo lineage during the Pleistocene.

Multiregional Evolution: A World-Wide Source for Modern Human Populations

One of the great advances of twentieth-century biology has been the demonstration that all living people are extremely closely related (Lewontin 1984). Genetic research has provided what for some is the surprising result that our DNA similarities are far greater than the much more disparate anatomical variations of humanity might suggest. These variations, the object of systematic studies for over 150 years, involve both the visible external features of our bodies seen across the world, and their underlying skeletal structures. The detailing of this variation across the world, and for skeletal features over time as well, created a broad spectrum of theories about the human races — their relationships to each other and their origin. These genetic advances have rendered virtually all of them obsolete.

Bonobos: Generalized Hominid Prototypes or Specialized Insular Dwarfs? [and Comments and Replies]

Neontological, biochemical, and paleontological data indicate that the bonobo, Pan paniscus, is a specialized form that possesses relatively small teeth, is quadrupedally adapted, and is only minimally sexually dimorphic. The various specializations of bonobos could be adaptations to ecological restrictions encountered in the terrestrial island of tropical forest that comprises their home range. Bonobos possess specializations quite different from those present in either Miocene apes or the earliest known hominids and should not be considered as suitable living models of the primitive hominoid or hominid condition.

Cranial remains of Middle Pleistocene European hominids

Abstract Cranial remains of the Middle Pleistocene European hominids are reviewed in a historical context. Swanscombe and Steinheim, the earliest specimens to be discovered, are compared with each other. Following this, the more recently discovered specimens from Vertesszollos, Petralona and Bilzingsleben are compared. Finally, Riss remains from La Chaise, Biache and Arago are discussed in the context provided by the above specimens. It is suggested that while phyletic evolution may play a role in the observed differences, a marked degree of sexual dimorphism contributes to the variation expressed by these specimens.

THE ACCRETION MODEL OF NEANDERTAL EVOLUTION

Abstract.— The Accretion model of Neandertal evolution specifies that this group of Late Pleistocene hominids evolved in partial or complete genetic isolation from the rest of humanity through the gradual accumulation of distinctive morphological traits in European populations. As they became more common, these traits also became less variable, according to those workers who developed the model. Its supporters propose that genetic drift caused this evolution, resulting from an initial small European population size and either complete isolation or drastic reduction in gene flow between this deme and contemporary human populations elsewhere. Here, we test an evolutionary model of gene flow between regions against fossil data from the European population of the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The results of the analysis clearly show that the European population was not significantly divergent from its contemporaries, even in a subset of traits chosen to show the maximum differences between Europeans and other populations. The pattern of changes, over time within Europe of the traits in this subset, does not support the Accretion model, either because the characters did not change in the manner specified by the model or because the characters did not change at all. From these data, we can conclude that special phenomena such as near‐complete isolation of the European population during the Pleistocene are not required to explain the pattern of evolution in this region.

Out of Africa and into the Levant: replacement or admixture in Western Asia?

Abstract Late Pleistocene Israel is the region in which issues of population mixture or competition at the time of the emergence of modern humans are most likely to be solved. For those who believe that modern humans first arose in Africa and subsequently spread throughout the world replacing archaic populations, the Levant would be the first region where such archaic populations were encountered. For those who regard the Levantine Neandertal populations as late emigres from a glaciated and inhospitable Europe, the Levant is the place where it is most likely that Neandertals encountered other human populations. If ever there was a time and place where we can examine the question of whether European and African populations exchanged ideas and mates, or competed with each other without genetic exchanges, this is it! In this paper we test the null hypothesis of a single human species occupying the Levant at the onset of the Late Pleistocene. An inability to delineate two distinct groups among the Levantine hominids would support the null hypothesis, while a demonstration of the presence of two morphs would lead to its refutation. We use non-metric traits to examine the eight most complete adult Levantine human crania to try to refute the contention first proposed by McCown and Keith (1939. The Stone Age of Mount Carmel: the Fossil Human Remains from the Levalloiso-Mousterian, Vol. II. Clarendon Press, Oxford), that the Levant “Neandertals” (Amud, Tabun) were the same species as the “early modern humans” (Qafzeh III, VI, IX; Skhul IV, V, IX). To test this hypothesis we use individual specimens as “operational taxonomic units”, and assess it using phylogenetic analysis as a heuristic clustering procedure. While our analyses produce many different trees, none of the most parsimonious ones reveal a separate Neandertal clade. Furthermore, we conducted a pairwise difference analysis of these data, which also failed to reveal a unique relationship between the Neandertal crania that would be expected if these hominids were a different species from that represented by Qafzeh and Skhul. We acknowledge that the bases for refutation are necessary but not indispensably sufficient conditions, and yet nevertheless, our findings fail to refute the null hypothesis. Instead our results suggest that the traditional “Neandertal” versus “modern human” groupings in the Levant may not be as distinct as often thought. This would imply that as populations left Africa, they interbred with the Late Pleistocene inhabitants of the Levant, and suggest that as different populations moved or expanded their range, subsequent human evolution be viewed as a consequence of the continued mixing of ideas and genes.

Lucy's little legs

Just when it seemed as though a human pattern of bipedal locomotion was firmly established and generally accepted for the Pliocene australopithecines, the interpretation of a substantially different and energetically inefficient gait pattern for these early hominids has appeared again. This recent claim involves the contention that the femur of the Hadar australopithecine female Lucy was too short to allow functional equivalence and kinematic equality with living humans. In this paper it is argued that the data do not support this interpretation of Lucys relative femur length. Her legs are shown to be about the length one would expect in a modern human of her diminutive weight, and within the human range relative to a measure of the length of her trunk (as is also the femur of the Sterkfontein australopithecine female, STS 14). That the femora of these australopithecines also happen to be the length of a chimpanzees with similar body weight is irrelevant with regard to their locomotion. Based on the implications of Lucys small size and relative limb proportions, a model of hominoid divergences and subsequent evolutionary patterns is suggested that accounts for the parallelisms created by the claim that the orangutan was the first of the hominoids to diverge.

Some Aspects of the Evolution of Early Hominid Sexual Dimorphism [and Comments and Reply]

This paper reviews the patterns of sexual dimorphism in the living higher primates and suggests criteria for sex determination in the australopithecines. Using the bimodal distribution for australopithecine canine breadths, sex determination for individual specimens is attempted. The pattern of sexual dimorphism in the australopithecines differs from that in other higher primates: posterior-tooth dimorphism, mandibular-corpus dimorphism, and probably, therefore, body-size dimorphism are at the extreme of the higher-primate range, while canine dimorphism is considerably less than in most living primates, although greater than in living humans. It is suggested that the primary cause of the difference between hominid and pongid trends in the evolution of sexual dimorphism is the increasing importance of tools as a supplement and replacement for the canines in hominid evolution.