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The bunch of ancestors

Yves COPPENS

en Comptes Rendus Palevol 5 (1-2) - Pages 85-88

Published on 28 February 2006

This article is a part of the thematic issue Climates - Culture - Society in prehistoric times. From the appearance of hominids to the Neolithic.

Some 15 pre-humans, all African and tropical, are presently well known as well as some species of the genus Homo descending at least from one among the preceding ones. These two groups are distributed all along the last 10 Myr. It is now easier to point out the evolutive tendencies of the inflorescences of this brunch, and particularly the Homo's ancestral ones, that is, development of encephalon, decrease (or not) of face, decrease (or not) of the jugal teeth, increase (or not) of the thickness of banded dental enamel, decrease (more or less rapid) of the various modes of locomotion at the benefit of the only bipedalism, etc., all of the tendencies of the human filiations testifying to an evident opening of the landscape.


Keywords:

Prehumans, bipedalism, Africa, tropical environment

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