Ardipithecus ramidus and the Paleobiology of Early Hominids

摘要

Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley were forced to ponder human origins and evolution without a relevant fossil record. With only a few Neanderthal fossils available to supplement their limited knowledge of living apes, they speculated about how quintessentially human features such as upright walking, small canines, dexterous hands, and our special intelligence had evolved through natural selection to provide us with our complex way of life.