Fossil Hominid Skulls
In this post, I will share with you two things. The first is what I consider a rather comprehensive series of skulls showing human evolution with a chimpanzee skull on the left end, and a modern human skull on the right. The intervening skulls belong to various fossil hominids, all arrayed in chronological order:
This image should be showing you how human evolution played out on the form of the primate skull. We retained forward facing eyes. The most glaring change I note is that from an ancestral ape you can see how our brains have been getting bigger and bigger and our teeth smaller and smaller.
I have some slight problems with this image, though. The biggest problem, and a common misconception I see in regards to understanding human evolution, is the whole we descended from chimpanzees train of thought. This image compounds it. The lineage of primates that have become the chimpanzees have been evolving independently of the human lineage. And because the non-human primate fossil record is rather spotty — it is hard to see these types of trends and transitions that we see in the above image happen along in chimpanzees.
Working on that note, this composition implies that our ancestral form was a chimp and once the chimp and human lines diverged then humans went through many natural selection events while chimps just remained stagnant as chimps. That’s wrong. Chimps and humans share a common ape ancestor.
Aside from using this image to clarify trends and misunderstandings in human evolution, the second thing I wanted to do with this post was warm you up to some good news in regards to my involvement on a physical anthropology project. That’s all I can say for now. I’ll be trickling posts like these to wet your appetite.
My appetite is wet!
afarensis
June 12, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Where are the jaws?
Bit
September 5, 2007 at 2:02 pm
@Bit: Most time you don’t have any jaws found with the skulls.
Mark77
November 14, 2007 at 4:18 pm
[...] leuk iets bewegends te maken met menselijke schedels, van oud naar modern. De schedels komen van anthropology.net. Nu is de menselijke evolutie nogal veranderlijk. Door het onvolledige fossielenbestand worden er [...]
Drasties - Nou breekt me de klomp.
March 30, 2008 at 2:18 am
Couple of things: first, let’s hope the appetites are whetted; just getting them damp is probably not what we want.
Second, while the ‘common ancestor’ argument is certainly correct, it also appears to be the case that modern chimps/bonobos are the most generalized of all the apes and probably the least changed from whatever the common ancestor was. So IF WE MAKE THAT POINT CLEARLY, and that it is usually generalized rather than specialized forms that give rise to new lineages, then the chimp can be useful for comparisons. But the caveats are important; we do not wish to imply that humans are derived chimps!
Duane Jeffery
April 17, 2008 at 11:59 am
Is there a review paper, photo atlas, etc. like the composite illustration above, that shows a comprehensive sample of skulls, along with their respective dates and locations? Is there one for all primates, all hominids, sloely human etc.?
B. ALEX
June 10, 2008 at 10:54 am
there is something remotely like that on wikipedia. i think it is called ‘list of hominid fossils’ it’s expanding (slowly) and contains images, finding places and date estimates. with many links, so be it somewhat limited it’s still nice.
onyx
November 9, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Funny that you ask, Alex because in about two weeks I’ll be releasing a comprehensive database of human evolution fossils, with dates, locations, and literature information. Keep visiting Anthropology.net for the announcement.
Kambiz
Kambiz
June 10, 2008 at 11:11 am
Do you have a list of the different species/subspecies for the skullcompilation?
Mattias Westermark
March 10, 2009 at 3:58 am
[...] Anthropology.net. Vídeo: Thoughtsfortheopenminded (vía [...]
Lento gradualismo craneal « Guía Mundial de Países
March 14, 2009 at 12:15 am
Crappy job reconstructing the nose on thee”L” Skull.
Dan Choitis
September 28, 2009 at 11:24 pm
[...] evidence from a peer-review journal of paleontology? The original skull image came from here Fossil Hominid Skulls Anthropology.net here are some quotes regarding the placement of the chimpanzee skull at the beginning: "I have [...]
New Piece of the puzzle of human evolution revealed - Page 13 - Christian Forums
October 8, 2009 at 9:29 pm
[...] Hominid skull fossils. The fossil evidence showing evolutionary advances is present as opposed to the chemical evolution in the creation of proteins. (There’s no controversy surrounding human evolution, right?) (Image source) [...]
Where on earth did proteins come from | ScienceGeist
November 12, 2010 at 1:38 pm
[...] bewegends te maken met menselijke schedels, van oud naar modern. Al snel vond ik een plaatje op anthropology.net waar ik de schedels uit kon [...]
Schedels van mensachtigen « Ramirezi
March 13, 2011 at 11:46 am