Original scientific paper
Barking up the Wrong Ape – Australopiths and the Quest for Chimpanzee Characters in Hominid Fossils
Jeffrey H. Schwartz
Abstract
With the shift during the 1980s from a human-great ape ultimately to an orangutan-(
gorilla-(human-chimp)) theory of relatedness, the search for chimpanzee-like features
in early hominids intensified. Reconstructions of early hominids became caricatures
of chimpanzees, not only in soft tissue features (e.g. the nasal region), but in supposed
bony structures (e.g. an anteriorly and especially superiorly protruding a supraorbital
torus with a distinct posttoral sulcus behind). In spite of rampant »Panophilia,«
actual morphologies of the majority of early hominid specimens are those cited as uniting
an orangutan clade. Those specimens that are »chimpanzee-like« are probably not
cladistically hominid.
Keywords
Pongo; australopith; Miocene hominoids; African apes
Hrčak ID:
28047
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2004.
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