Frederick E. GrineFred Grine is Professor of Anthropology and of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. He has published over 100 articles in scientific journals dealing with the subject of human evolution, and his work on the Late Pleistocene human fossil from Hofmeyr, South Africa, was named by Time Magazine as one of the top ten science stories of 2007. He edited Evolutionary History of the `Robust¿ Australopithecines (1988, Aldine de Gruyter), and is author of Regional Human Anatomy: a Laboratory Workbook (2002, 2005, 2007, [...] G. FleagleJohn Fleagle is Distinguished Professor of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. He has conducted paleontological field work in many parts of the world, including Argentina, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia and India. He is the author of the textbook Primate Adaptation and Evolution (1988, 1999, Elsevier), co-editor of the Human Evolution Sourcebook (1993, 2006, Prentice Hall), and editor of the journal Evolutionary Anthropology.Richard E. LeakeyRichard Leakey is Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University and former Director of the Kenya National Museums and the Kenya Wildlife Service. His field work around Lake Turkana, Kenya, has yielded a treasure trove of hominin fossils that has provided much of the paleontological record on which our understanding of human evolution is based. He has authored a number of books, including Origins, and most recently, The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and The Future of Humankind. He is Chairman of the Board of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook University.

Addresses the origin and early evolution of the human genus Homo

New techniques and interpretations have opened up other avenues of enquiry and have led to new questions

Is an effort to update, address and synthesize our current understanding of this significant development in human evolution

Includes supplementary material: [...]

Part I. Retrospectives and Theoretical Perspectives
1. Early humans: of whom do we speak?
Richard E. Leakey
2. Homo habilis - a premature discovery: remembered by one of its founding fathers, 42 years later
Phillip V. Tobia
3. Where does the genus Homo begin, and how would we know?
Bernard Wood
Part II. Craniodental Perspectives on Taxonomy and Systematics
4. The origin of Homo
William H. Kimbel
5. Comparisons of Early Pleistocene skulls from East Africa and the Georgian Caucasus: evidence bearing on the origin and systematics of genus Homo
G. Philip Rightmire and David Lordkipanidze
6. Phenetic affinities of Plio-Pleistocene Homo fossils from South Africa: molar cusp proportions
Frederick E. Grine, Heather F. Smith, Christopher P. Heesy and Emma J. Smith
Part III. Postcranial Perspectives on Locomotion and Adaptation
7. Evolution of the hominin shoulder: early Homo
Susan G. Larson
8. Brains, brawn, and the evolution of human endurance running capabilities
Daniel E. Lieberman, Dennis M. Bramble, David A. Raichlen and John J. Shea
9. Interlimb proportions in humans and fossil hominins: variability and scaling
William L. Jungers
Part IV. Perspectives on Development, Diet and Behavior
10. Growth and development of the Nariokotome youth, KNM-WT 15000
M. Christopher Dean and B. Holly Smith
11. Dental evidence for diets of early Homo
Peter S. Ungar and Robert S. Scott
12. Origins and adaptations of early Homo: what archaeology tells us
Hélène Roche, Robert J. Blumenschine and John J. Shea
Part V. Environmental and Ecological Perspectives
13. Plio-Pleistocene EastAfrican pulsed climate variability and its influence on early human evolution.
Mark A. Maslin and Martin H. Trauth
14. Tracking ecological change in relation to the emergence of Homo near the Plio-Pleistocene boundary.
Kaye E. Reed and Samantha M. Russak
15. Ecology of Plio-Pleistocene mammals in the Omo-Turkana Basin and the emergence of Homo.
René Bobe and Meave G. Leakey
16. Biogeochemical evidence for the environments of early Homo in South Africa
Matt Sponheimer and Julia Lee-Thorp
Part VI. Summary Perspective on the Workshop
17. The first humans: a summary perspective on the origin and early evolution of the genus Homo.
Frederick E. Grine and John G. Fleagle