Improved Clinch

Are Humans the Weirdoes?

Evolutionary theory is still evolving. There is still much which is not understood, or, is possibly misunderstood, about human evolution. I mention this because I just completed reading an interview with Erik Trinkaus, published in Archaeology, titled Bending the Branches, wherein the lead in to the interview begins thusly.

Most people think of humans as the top, the apex of the family tree. But new research suggests this quintessentially human infatuation with ourselves may have impaired our judgment. Erik Trinkaus, a paleontologist and Neandertal expert at Washington University in St. Louis, believes that modern human features are unusual enough, compared with ancestral members of the genus Homo, to make us a side branch of the family tree. Neanderthals have generally been seen as evolutionary outcasts, but through comparisons and analyses of unique and shared traits, published in the August issue of Current Anthropology, Trinkaus concludes that modern humans are morphologically more divergent from ancestral humans than Neanderthals. This leads to the question, then: Why are modern humans so different? ARCHAEOLOGY spoke with Trinkaus about his research and its implications concerning the ongoing story of human evolution.

The interview, unfortunately, does not provide us with much of the substantive evidence for Trinkaus’ postulation, though Current Anthropology does, if you subscribe. I do not subscribe to the publication, so I cannot provide a link to a more robust review of Trinkaus’ work.

None-the-less, the interview is interesting.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by on 11/06 at 03:31 PM