African Biogeography, Climate Change, and Human Evolution [Hardcover]

This interdisciplinary book interprets early human evolution in the context of the local ecology and specific habitats. It assesses carefully the possible role of climate change in driving early human evolution. Bringing an ecological and biogeographic perspective to recent fossil finds, the book provides a new synthesis of ideas on hominid evolution. It will be a valuable resource for researchers in physical, biological, or paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology or biogeography.

List of Contributors
Searching for an Interdisciplinary Convergence in Paleoanthropology,Timothy G. Bromage and Friedemann Schrenk
Part I. Theory
1. Introduction,Yves Coppens
2. Habitat Theory in Relation to the Evolution in African Neogene Biota and Hominids,Elisabeth S. Vrba
3. Paleontology and Macroevolution: On the Theoretical Conflict between an Expanded Synthesis and Hierarchic Punctuationism,Frederick S. Szalay
4. The Autocatalytic Nature of Hominid Evolution in African Plio-Pleistocene Environments,Jeffrey K. McKee
5. In Search of Paleohominid Community Ecology,Michael L. Rosenzweig
6. Evolution in the African Plio-Pleistocene Mammalian Fauna: Correlation and Causation,Alan Turner
Part II. Geology, Ecology, and Biogeography
7. Introduction,Jonathan Kingdon
8. Cenozoic Climate Change,George H. Denton
9. Landforms, Climate, Ecogeographic Mosaics, and the Potential for Hominine Diversity in Pliocene Africa,Eileen M. O'Brien and Charles R. Peters
10. Ecological Links between African Savanna Environments, Climate Change, and Early Hominid Evolution,Norman Owen-Smith
11. Evolutionary Processes Implicit in Distribution Patterns of Modern African Mammals,Peter Grubb
Part III. Fossil Faunas
12. Introduction,F. Clark Howell
13. Biogeography, Dietary Specialization, and l“&