Reconstructing evolutionary process in hominin evolution

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Investigations into the evolution of our species is a frontier of ongoing and exciting research. Scientific projects in this field include the excavation of precious and important hominin fossil sites, understanding how our ancestors utilized and were influenced by their environment, and the relationships between different species. While, these interrelated research areas play a significant role in understanding human evolutionary history, there has been a lack of focus on the “how” and “why” of human morphology, specifically the evolutionary processes that have led to the biological state of our species. Although methodological advances in evolutionary biology and evidence from multiple organisms has suggested that not all morphological traits are adaptive, this more complex evolutionary scenario has yet to be fully acknowledged and applied in traditional palaeoanthropology. Under this theme, the Schroeder Palaeoanthropology Lab will carry out a broad research program to test the extent to which non-adaptive processes (gene flow and resulting hybridization, and random genetic drift) have contributed to our evolution. Merging more traditional approaches (linear measurements and multivariate statistics) with new innovative methods of studying hominin fossils (3D models and geometric morphometrics), in the context of living primates and other mammals, this program has the following objectives described under six larger themes: 1) PROCESS: Reconstructing the evolutionary processes that have shaped morphological divergence across the hominin lineage utilizing approaches from evolutionary quantitative genetics. 2) VARIATION: Quantifying the morphological variability across the skeleton in modern humans and other primates to investigate the evolution of patterns of diversity (morphological integration) more broadly. 3) HYBRIDIZATION: Determining the morphological effect of hybridization on the skeleton, using mammalian models, with the goal of identifying hybrids in the human fossil record in cases where genetic data is not available. 4) EVOLUTIONARY SIMULATION: Developing tools that combine geometric morphometric methods for statistical 3D shape comparison with the analytical approach of quantitative genetics utilized in evolutionary morphology. 5) FIELDWORK: Exploring and excavating hominin sites in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa. This theme recognises the value of the discovery of fossil hominins as the best way to test hypotheses about evolutionary process in human evolution. 6) EDUCATION: Placing the training of students at the centre of each theme described. The research activities proposed here will continue my long-term goal of bridging the gap between traditional palaeoanthropology and evolutionary biology by recognizing the blurred lines between hominin groups, embracing complexity of evolutionary processes, and focusing on the importance of diversity for understanding our collective human evolutionary history.