Hominids and ‘Humans’

Reconstructing life history of hominids and humans.

Aspects of life history, such as processes and timing of development, age at maturation, and life span are consistently associated with one another across the animal kingdom. Species that develop rapidly tend to mature and reproduce early, have many offspring, and exhibit shorter life spans (r-selection) than those that develop slowly, have extended periods of premature growth, mature later in ...

Miocene Hominids and the Origins of the African Apes and Humans

In the past 20 years, new discoveries of fossil apes from the Miocene have transformed our ideas about the timing, geography, and causes of the evolution of the African apes and humans. Darwin predicted that the common ancestor of African apes and humans would be found in Africa. Yet the majority of fossil great apes are from Europe and Asia. I briefly review the fossil record of great apes and...

Lice, Humans, and Microbes

Lice are small, wingless, minor ectoparasites of mammals and birds. More than 540  blood-sucking lice (Phthiraptera: Anoplura) have been described with each host having its own type of louse, suggesting the cospeciation of the lice species with their host. Among these, two lice species from two different genera infest humans: Pediculus humanus and Phthirus pubis (pubic “crab” l...

The visual strategy specific to humans among hominids: A study using the gap–overlap paradigm

Although an extensive body of literature exists on the cognitive underpinnings of gaze movements in macaques and humans, few studies have investigated this topic from a broader evolutionary perspective. This study used the gap-overlap paradigm to examine the timing of the gaze movements by four hominid species: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. The saccade latency involved in shift...

Hominids Lose Control