Names, They Are A-Changing

摘要

The fossil record of human ancestors is dense compared to the fossil record for many other branches on the tree of life. For example, though thousands of fossils from hominins (organisms that are more closely related to us than they to chimpanzees) have been discovered, we have only a handful from the chimp lineage (McBrearty and Jablonksi 2005). Despite this richness of fossil material, we regularly hear about scientific controversies regarding which species these ancient human forms represent and how they are related to one antoehr. For example, in this issue, Strait (2010) describes debates over whether several pre-australopith fossils reside on our branch of the tree of life, over the relationship between Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis, and over the relationship between Australopithecus garhi and our own genus, Homo. Additionally, the human lineage is not alone in its frequent name changes and shifting familial relationships. In this issue, McNulty (2010) describes similar debates over the naming of and relationships among extinct non-human apes represented in the dense Miocene fossil record.