Barking up the wrong ape--australopiths and the quest for chimpanzee characters in hominid fossils.
With the shift during the 1980s from a human-great ape ultimately to an orangutan-(gorilla-(human-chimp)) theory of relatedness, the search for chimpanzee-like features in early hominids intensified. Reconstructions of early hominids became caricatures of chimpanzees, not only in soft tissue features (e.g. the nasal region), but in supposed bony structures (e.g. an anteriorly and especially superiorly protruding a supraorbital torus with a distinct posttoral sulcus behind). In spite of rampant >>Panophilia,<< actual morphologies of the majority of early hominid specimens are those cited as uniting an orangutan clade. Those specimens that are >>chimpanzee-like<< are probably not cladistically hominid.
Schwartz
Jeffrey H
JH
Departments of Anthropology and History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. jhs@pitt.edu
D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology