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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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UNDERSTANDING CLIMATE’S INFLUENCE ON HUMAN EVOLUTION

Committee on the Earth System Context for Hominin Evolution

Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

Division on Earth and Life Studies

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. government. Supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. EAR-0625247.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-14838-2 (Book)

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-14838-3 (Book)

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-14839-9 (PDF)

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-14839-1 (PDF)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010921862

Additional copies of this report are available from the

National Academies Press,

500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet http://www.nap.edu

Cover: Cover design by Francesca Moghari. Front Cover: Five fossil human skulls show how the shape of the face and braincase of early humans changed over the past 2.5 million years (from left to right: Australopithecus africanus, 2.5 million years old; Homo rudolfensis, 1.9 million years old; Homo erectus, ~1 million years old; Homo heidelbergensis, ~350,000 years old; Homo sapiens, ~4,800 years old). The images are courtesy of the Human Origins Program of the Smithsonian Institution and photo credits include Chip Clark, Jim DiLoreto, and Don Hurlbert, all of the Smithsonian Institution. The bottom image is a composite image with an oxygen isotope record from and courtesy of James Zachos. The cracked mud image is courtesy of Free Nature Pictures. The woodland image is courtesy of Kaye Reed, National Science Foundation. Back Cover: The drill rig is courtesy of Jason Agnich, University of Minnesota-Duluth. The wetland, savannah, and ground examination images are also courtesy of Kaye Reed.

Copyright 2010 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine


The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.


The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.


The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.


The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.


www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
×

COMMITTEE ON THE EARTH SYSTEM CONTEXT FOR HOMININ EVOLUTION

ROBERT M. HAMILTON (Chair) Independent Consultant,

Zelienople, Pennsylvania

BERHANE ASFAW,

Rift Valley Research Service, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

GAIL M. ASHLEY,

Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey

THURE E. CERLING,

University of Utah, Salt Lake City

ANDREW S. COHEN,

University of Arizona, Tucson

PETER B. DEMENOCAL,

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York

ANDREW P. HILL,

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

THOMAS C. JOHNSON,

University of Minnesota, Duluth

JOHN E. KUTZBACH,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

RICHARD POTTS,

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

KAYE E. REED,

Arizona State University, Tempe (resigned May 2009)

ALAN R. ROGERS,

University of Utah, Salt Lake City

ALAN C. WALKER,

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

National Research Council Staff

DAVID A. FEARY, Study Director

NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Research Associate

JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Financial and Administrative Associate

TONYA E. FONG YEE, Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
×

BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES

CORALE L. BRIERLEY (Chair),

Brierley Consultancy, LLC, Highlands Ranch, Colorado

KEITH C. CLARKE,

University of California, Santa Barbara

DAVID J. COWEN,

University of South Carolina, Columbia

WILLIAM E. DIETRICH,

University of California, Berkeley

ROGER M. DOWNS,

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

JEFF DOZIER,

University of California, Santa Barbara

KATHERINE H. FREEMAN,

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

WILLIAM L. GRAF,

University of South Carolina, Columbia

RUSSELL J. HEMLEY,

Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.

MURRAY W. HITZMAN,

Colorado School of Mines, Golden

EDWARD KAVAZANJIAN, JR.,

Arizona State University, Tempe

LOUISE H. KELLOGG,

University of California, Davis

ROBERT B. MCMASTER,

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

CLAUDIA INÉS MORA,

Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

BRIJ M. MOUDGIL,

University of Florida, Gainesville

CLAYTON R. NICHOLS,

Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office (Retired), Ocean Park, Washington

JOAQUIN RUIZ,

University of Arizona, Tucson

PETER M. SHEARER,

University of California, San Diego

REGINAL SPILLER,

Allied Energy, Houston, Texas

RUSSELL E. STANDS-OVER-BULL,

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Denver, Colorado

TERRY C. WALLACE, JR.,

Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

HERMAN B. ZIMMERMAN,

National Science Foundation (Retired), Portland, Oregon

National Research Council Staff

ANTHONY R. DE SOUZA, Director

ELIZABETH A. EIDE, Senior Program Officer

DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer

ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer

SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Program Officer

MARK D. LANGE, Associate Program Officer

LEA A. SHANLEY, Postdoctoral Fellow

JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Financial and Administrative Associate

NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate

COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Program Associate

JASON R. ORTEGO, Research Associate

ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant

TONYA E. FONG YEE, Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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Preface

Understanding the origins of humanity has long been one of our foremost intellectual pursuits, and one that greatly interests the general public as evidenced by museum attendance and by numerous media productions and general interest publications. Progress toward an improved understanding of our heritage is a continuing challenge for the scientific community, requiring advances in a range of disciplines that include archaeology, anthropology, geology, biology, oceanography, and genetics, and particularly research advances in areas where two or more of these fields intersect. One of the key questions in this interdisciplinary quest is how the environment, and specifically climate, shaped the evolution of our species and that of our close relatives.

Some of the most critical world issues today also bear on human evolution, in the sense that how we got here is relevant to where we are going as a species. For example, global warming, population growth with its attendant demands on limited resources, pandemic threats of virulent diseases, and availability of weapons that can cause massive damage and render parts of the globe uninhabitable, all demand more rational policy decisions that take into account the long evolutionary process that brought humanity to world dominance. Perhaps a greater appreciation of what the people of the world have in common, rather than their differences, might encourage more cooperation.

Although recent advances in knowledge of human evolution have been substantial, they really have only laid the groundwork for future achievements. New methodologies for establishing the ages of specimens and analyzing them with sophisticated instrumentation, and for acquiring information about past environments through drilling on land and in lakes and the ocean, set the stage for further discoveries. Accelerated research not only offers potential for highly significant

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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advances, there is also an urgency in moving ahead due not only to the global and regional threats mentioned above, but also to the loss of potential specimen sites as a result of development and even vandalism.

Although research activity at the intersection of different scientific disciplines is inherently difficult, such research carries with it great potential for advances that can transform understanding. Although the usual issues of differing perspectives and different jargon were encountered during this study, the challenges of providing recommendations for new approaches that would guide research activity over the next decade or more provided the incentive to bridge the divisions. Our deliberations were particularly helped by the open community workshop hosted by the committee, with its focus on receiving a broad range of input from many experts whose disciplinary fields impinged upon the broad scope of the committee’s charge. This input, and the presentations by other experts at committee meetings, provided a solid base for informing the committee’s deliberations and recommendations.


Robert M. Hamilton


Chair

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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Acknowledgments

This report was greatly enhanced by those who made presentations to the committee at the public committee meetings and by the participants at the open workshop sponsored by the committee to gain community input—Leslie Aiello, Ray Bernor, René Bobe, Erik Brown, Frank Brown, Tony de Souza, Larry Edwards, Sarah Feakins, Mikael Fortelius, Don Grayson, Tim Herbert, Tim Jull, Rich Kay, Dennis Kent, Chris Kuzawa, Rich Lane, Peter Molnar, Curtis Marean, Kathleen Nicoll, Dolores Piperno, Todd Preuss, Christina Ravelo, Bill Ruddiman, Jim Russell, Jeff Schuffert, Eugenie Scott, Steven Stanley, Peter Ungar, Xiaoming Wang, Ken Weiss, Mark Weiss, Tim White, and John Yellen. The presentations and discussions at these meetings provided invaluable input and context for the committee’s deliberations.

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:

René Bobe, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens

John G. Fleagle, Department of Anatomical Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Terry Harrison, Department of Anthropology, New York University

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2010. Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12825.
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Jeffrey T. Kiehl, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

Richard G. Klein, Department of Anthropology and Department of Biology, Stanford University, California

Mark A. Maslin, Department of Geography, University College London, United Kingdom

David Pilbeam, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Anne C. Stone, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe

Bernard A. Wood, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by P. Geoffrey Feiss, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, appointed by the Divison on Earth and Life Studies, who was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

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The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The Earth's geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins evolved. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution explores the opportunities of using scientific research to improve our understanding of how climate may have helped shape our species.

Improved climate records for specific regions will be required before it is possible to evaluate how critical resources for hominins, especially water and vegetation, would have been distributed on the landscape during key intervals of hominin history. Existing records contain substantial temporal gaps. The book's initiatives are presented in two major research themes: first, determining the impacts of climate change and climate variability on human evolution and dispersal; and second, integrating climate modeling, environmental records, and biotic responses.

Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution suggests a new scientific program for international climate and human evolution studies that involve an exploration initiative to locate new fossil sites and to broaden the geographic and temporal sampling of the fossil and archeological record; a comprehensive and integrative scientific drilling program in lakes, lake bed outcrops, and ocean basins surrounding the regions where hominins evolved and a major investment in climate modeling experiments for key time intervals and regions that are critical to understanding human evolution.

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