Human Paleobiology [Paperback]

This book explores adaptability and variation in past and present human populations.Human Paleobiology explores the adaptability and variation in past and present human populations under a range of changing environmental conditions. Using a historical approach emphasizing phenotypic features instead of complex taxonomy, it will be a stimulating and challenging read for all those interested in human paleobiology, evolutionary biology and anthropology.Human Paleobiology explores the adaptability and variation in past and present human populations under a range of changing environmental conditions. Using a historical approach emphasizing phenotypic features instead of complex taxonomy, it will be a stimulating and challenging read for all those interested in human paleobiology, evolutionary biology and anthropology.Human Paleobiology provides a unifying framework for the study of past and present human populations to a range of changing environments. It integrates evidence from studies of human adaptability, comparative primatology, and molecular genetics to document consistent measures of genetic distance among subspecies, species, and other taxonomic groupings. These findings support the interpretation of human biology in terms of fewer number of populations characterized by higher levels of genetic continuity than previously hypothesized. Using this as a basis, Robert Eckhardt goes on to analyze problems in human paleobiology including phenotypic differentiation, patterns of species range expansion, and phyletic succession in terms of the patterns and processes still observable in extant populations. This book will be a challenging and stimulating read for students and researchers interested in human paleobiology or evolutionary anthropology.Preface; 1. Palaeobiology: present perspectives on the past; 2. Constancy and change: taxonomic uncertainty in a probabilistic world; 3. A century of fossils; 4. About a century of theory; 5. Human adaptability present and past;lC1