Conservation biology and conservation paleobiology meet the Anthropocene together: history matters by Sally E. Walker

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Ledi-Geraru strikes again: Morphological affinities of the LD 350-1 mandible with early Homo by WALTER NEVES, MARIA H. SENGER, GABRIEL ROCHA, LINCOLN SUESDEK, MARK HUBBE

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Evolutionary Insight into the Association between New Jersey Polyomavirus and Humans by Aref-Abdolllah Aghebatrafat, Chris Lauber, Kevin Merkel, Barbara Fruth, Kevin Langergraber, Martha M. Robbins, Roman M. Wittig, Fabian H. Leendertz, Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer

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The geneticist parts of a little finger... Denisovans, DNA and science in the making by Christensen Carsten Sander

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Perikymata number and spacing on early modern human teeth: evidence from Qafzeh cave, Israel by Janet M. Monge, Anne-Marie Tillier, Alan Mann

“…The microscopic anatomy of dental enamel has been employed in numerous studies of fossil hominin teeth. This research has focused on the use of microstructure, primarily perikymata and, when available, their internal manifestations, in the construction of phylogenetic relationships as well as in the reconstruction of hominin patterns of growth and development. …”
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The Middle Palaeolithic of the Nejd, Saudi Arabia by Groucutt, H, Breeze, P, Drake, N, Jennings, R, Parton, A, White, T, Shipton, C, Clark-Balzan, L, Al-Omari, A, Cuthbertson, P, Wedage, O, Bernal, M, Alsharekh, A, Petraglia, M

“…The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as being of great importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. …”

Evidence of diverse animal exploitation during the Middle Paleolithic at Ghar-e Boof (southern Zagros) by Mario Mata-González, Britt M. Starkovich, Mohsen Zeidi, Nicholas J. Conard

“…Abstract Although Middle Paleolithic (MP) hominin diets consisted mainly of ungulates, increasing evidence demonstrates that hominins at least occasionally consumed tortoises, birds, leporids, fish, and carnivores. …”
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Why only humans have language by Dunbar, R

“…It then considers what this has to tell us about why only the hominin lineage evolved the capacity for language. …”

Long-term behavioral adaptation of Oldowan toolmakers to resource-constrained environments at 2.3 Ma in the Lower Omo Valley (Ethiopia) by Anne Delagnes, Aline Galland, Brad Gravina, Pascal Bertran, Marion Corbé, Michel Brenet, Haregwin Belete Hailu, Fikeru Mekonenn Sissay, Bisrat Gebreegziabher Araya, Misganaw Gebremichael Woldetsadik, Jean-Renaud Boisserie

“…Abstract The long stratigraphic sequence of the Shungura Formation in the Lower Omo Valley documents 3 million years (Ma) of hominin evolution, which, when combined with detailed paleo-depositional environmental data, opens new perspectives for understanding the complex interactions between hominin landscape use and the development of stone tool-mediated activities. …”
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The Palaeolithic occupation of the Thar Desert by Blinkhorn, J, James Blinkhorn

“…As a result, the Thar Desert can be identified as a pivotal location for investigating major changes in Upper Pleistocene hominin demography between Africa and across southern Asia.…”

Human Genetic Research in Wallacea and Sahul: Recent Findings and Future Prospects by Leonard Taufik, João C. Teixeira, Bastien Llamas, Herawati Sudoyo, Raymond Tobler, Gludhug A. Purnomo

“…In this review, we collate and discuss key findings from the past decade of population genetic and phylogeographic literature focussed on the hominin history in Wallacea and Sahul. Specifically, we examine the evidence for the timing and direction of the ancient AMH migratory movements and subsequent hominin mixing events, emphasising several novel but consistent results that have important implications for addressing these questions. …”
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Middle Pleistocene vertebrate fossils from the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia: Implications for biogeography and palaeoecology by Stimpson, C, Lister, A, Parton, A, Clark-Balzan, L, Breeze, P, Drake, N, Groucutt, H, Jennings, R, Scerri, E, White, T, Zahir, M, Duval, M, Grün, R, Al-Omari, A, Al Murayyi, K, Zalmout, I, Mufarreh, Y, Memesh, A, Petraglia, M

“…Such data are critical lines of contextual evidence for considering animal and hominin dispersals between Africa and Eurasia generally, and hominin palaeoecology in the Pleistocene landscapes of the Arabian interior specifically. …”

Ticks, Hair Loss, and Non-Clinging Babies: A Novel Tick-Based Hypothesis for the Evolutionary Divergence of Humans and Chimpanzees by Jeffrey G. Brown

“…The aim of this review is to propose and evaluate a novel tick-based evolutionary hypothesis wherein forest fragmentation in hominin paleoenvironments created conditions that were favourable for tick proliferation, selecting for hair loss in hominins and grooming behaviour in chimpanzees as divergent anti-tick strategies. …”
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A pulse of mid-Pleistocene rift volcanism in Ethiopia at the dawn of modern humans by Hutchison, W, Fusillo, R, Pyle, D, Mather, T, Blundy, J, Biggs, J, Yirgu, G, Cohen, B, Brooker, R, Barfod, D, Calvert, A

“…We propose that such pulses of episodic silicic volcanism would have drastically remodeled landscapes and ecosystems occupied by early hominin populations. …”

Chimpanzee carrying behaviour and the origins of human bipedality by Carvalho, S, Biro, D, Cunha, E, Hockings, K, McGrew, W, Richmond, B, Matsuzawa, T

“… <p style="text-align:justify;">Why did our earliest hominin ancestors begin to walk bipedally as their main form of terrestrial travel? …”

The Evolution of Language in Three Stages by Michael Corballis

“…Syntactic language is a uniquely human accomplishment, and must therefore have evolved since the split of the hominins from the other great apes some six million years ago. …”
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Digitized Fossil Brains: Neocorticalization by Harry J. Jerison

“…Neocortex is greater in absolute area in living humans because the total size of the hominin brain is so much larger than in other primates.…”
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‘We hunt to share’: social dynamics and very large mammal butchery during the Oldowan–Acheulean transition by Matás, GJL, Yravedra, J

“…The Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 Ma) was a period of major evolutionary changes in the hominin lineage. The progressive consolidation of bipedal locomotion, alongside increases in cranial capacity and behavioural flexibility, allowed early Homo to exploit an increasing diversity of resources and environmental settings within the changing landscapes of East Africa and beyond. …”

The diet of open-habitat chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Issa valley, western Tanzania. by Piel, AK, Strampelli, P, Greathead, E, Hernandez-Aguilar, RA, Moore, J, Stewart, FA

“…Comparative data on the diets of extant primates inform hypotheses about hominin resource use. Historically, data describing chimpanzee diets stem primarily from forest-dwelling communities, and we lack comparative data from chimpanzees that live in mosaic habitats that more closely resemble those reconstructed for Plio-Pleistocene hominins. …”

Schizophrenia as variation in the sapiens-specific epigenetic instruction to the embryo. by Crow, T

“…A duplication from Xq21.3 to Yp11.2 that occurred 6 million years ago is proposed as critical to hominin evolution. Within this block of homology the Protocadherin11XY gene pair is expressed as a cell surface adhesion factor in both X and Y forms; it has undergone a series of coding changes (16 in the Y sequence and 5 in the X including two to cysteines) in the hominin lineage. …”