The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity
A Study of Cranial Variation

Investigates the two main theories of how and where humans evolved.

Marta Mirazón Lahr (Author)

9780521020312, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2005

436 pages, 55 b/w illus. 20 tables
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.8 cm, 0.68 kg

' … an important study … likely to remain an essential reference in the debate over recent human evolution for the foreseeable future.' Alan Bilsborough, Annals of Human Biology

Exactly how modern humans evolved is a subject of intense debate. This book deals with the evolution of modern humans from an archaic ancestor and the differentiation of modern populations from each other. The first section of the book investigates whether modern populations arose from regional archaic hominid groups that were already different from each other, and argues that in fact, most lines of evidence support a single, recent origin of modern humans in Africa. Dr Lahr then goes on to examine ways in which this diversification could have occurred, given what we know from fossils, archaeological remains and the relationships of existing populations today. This book will be a must for all those interested in human evolution.

1. Introduction
2. The modern human origins debate
Part I. Multiregional Evolution as the Source of Human Cranial Diversity: 3. The morphological basis of the multiregional model
4. The regional expression of the East Asian and Australian continuity traits
5. Temporal distribution of the 'Regional Continuity Traits' in late Pleistocene hominids
6. The independence of expression of the 'Regional Continuity Traits'
7. Multiregional evolution as the source of recent regional cranial diversity
a review
Part II. The Evolution of Modern Human Cranial Diversity from a Single Ancestral Source: 8. Cranial variation in Homo sapiens
9. Morphological differentiation from a single ancestral source
10. Geographical differentiation from a single ancestral source
11. The evolution of modern human cranial diversity
12. Final conclusions
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Early man [PSXE]