Handbook of Paleoanthropology (3-Volume Set)

About this book

This fully updated and revised 3rd edition of the Handbook of Paleoanthropology provides a truly comprehensive overview of the field. Often cited as the most multidisciplinary of all sciences, palaeoanthropology incorporates a wide range of techniques such as geology, evolutionary biology (change to anthropology) and archaeology. The book presents the full range of current knowledge (add methods and techniques used in the field) and also looks to future developments in this fascinating discipline. It is an excellent resource for students, researchers and practitioners of palaeoanthropology. Guided by a world-class editorial team, the entries reflect the best of contemporary science, also including newer topics such as palaeoproteomics, palaeogenetics and ancient DNA. Each of the three volumes covers the core components of the field:

- Volume I, Principles, Methods, and Approaches; incorporates the enormous advances that have been made in areas such as phylogenetic analysis, palaeoecology, and evolutionary theory and philosophy
- Volume II, Primate Evolution and Human Origins; integrates primate fossil data with the vast amount that is now known about the behaviour and ecology of living primates in natural environments
- Volume III, Phylogeny of Hominins; deals with the fossil and molecular evidence for the evolution of Homo sapiens and its fossil relatives.

The editors have ensured that the entries uphold a key principle of palaeoanthropology, namely that historical assessments must be updated with evolving knowledge of the living world. Palaeoanthropology is characterised by many lively and unresolved scientific debates, which are reflected in the heterogeneity of intellectual viewpoints in this handbook. This deliberate diversity ensures that this book is a multifaceted, comprehensive companion of inestimable value to students, academics and professionals alike.

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Biography

Charles M. Musiba is a Professor of Biological Anthropology at Duke University in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology. He is also a research professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Charles Musiba is a Montgomery and Carnegie African Diaspora fellow with a research focus on human origins in eastern Africa.

His work covers the following areas: taphonomy and palaeoecology of Laetoli, evolution of upright posture and bipedalism, hominin behaviour ecology at Olduvai Gorge, conservation of hominin footprints and animal trackways at Laetoli, and the evolution of the genus Homo in Eastern and Southern Africa (Laetoli, Isimila and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, and the Rising Star Cave in South Africa). Charles Musiba is interested in reconstructing past environments (4 million years ago to 250,000 years ago) using multiple proxy data, and he is actively involved in conservation efforts and sustainable use of palaeoanthropological resources in Tanzania through education and cultural exchange programs. Charles Musiba has extensively worked on the evolution of upright posture and bipedal gait in humans with emphasis on the interpretation of the 3.6 million-year-old fossil hominin footprints from Laetoli in northern Tanzania.

Andrew S. Deane is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA. He holds an M.A. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Toronto, Canada, and a PhD in palaeoanthropology, also from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on questions of ape and human evolution. In particular, he is interested in the functional relationships between the mechanical stresses associated with dietary and locomotor adaptations and hard and soft tissue anatomy, and what these relationships might reveal about the palaeoecology and evolution of fossil apes and early humans.