Writer@Large

Gaahh! I've spent a half hour with Google, and it's begining to piss me off. I need certain information on early hominids, begining with Australopithecus afarensis and leading up to archaic modern man. I need info about how they lived. Specifically, I'm looking for three things.

1) What physical adaptations differentiate members of the "family tree"? That is, what did, say, Homo erectus have that Homo habilis didn't?

2) What tool developments or cultural developments (like hand axes, group hunting, etc.) did each type of Hominid have?

3) What, exactly was the environment of each of these pre-humans, that influenced the above?

But all I can seem to find online is a discussion of the bones, and how jawlines were different, and brain case size, and how they fall on the family tree. While little bits and pieces of the info I'm looking for are scattered throughout, I was hoping for something more centralized and in-depth about the way hominids lived. My own bookshelf isn't helping, either. I'm fairly certain that something like the upcoming Walking with Cavemen would be exactly what I need, but that's still a month or more in the future.

So ... any good links out there?

--W@L

RufusAtticus

You should PM ergaster if she doesn't see this thread.

Ergaster

I just got back from out-of-town, on some sad family biz, so if you are patient I might be able to put together a reading list over the next couple of days. I will note that these are good questions, and there are some answers available, but not defionitive ones because questions of past behaviour and paleoecology are not easily answered via the fossil record and functional and comparative anatomy.

I can start you out on a couple of things, but I don't know how much time or library access to professional journals you have. You won't find most of the stuff you want online.

An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Anatomy by Leslie Aiello and Christopher Dean (1990, Cambridge University Press) will certainly explain the morphological differences between the hominins, in excruciating detail. How's your anatomy?

For at least one hypothesis on the role of environment on hominin evolution (not exactly what you asked for, but it may provide a jumping-off point; besides, it's all I can think of off the top of my head that I know is on-line), try this paper by Rick Potts:

Complexity and Adaptibility in Human Evolution

Hope this helps for now. Feel free to ask anything you like.

Ergaster

[Just fixing a link --W@L]

Writer@Large

I am a board Administrator. I exude patience.

That's okay. This is for a project where pure scientific accuracy isn't neccessary--just enough to make me look smart. (Think fiction.)

It does. Thanks. I look forward to whatever else you can point me to.

--W@L

RBH

Um. That Potts link is dead, but try this one.

RBH

Writer@Large

Not dead; it just has a slash it doesn't need.

--W@L

Ergaster

Still working on it. I've been really busy! (That's my story and I'm sticking to it! )

Anyway, it occurred to me--have you tried From Lucy to Language by Don Johanson? That might actually contain a lot of what you're looking for.