Convergent Evolution In Stone Tool Technology

Author : Michael J. O'Brien
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262552086
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Convergent Evolution in Stone-Tool Technology written by Michael J. O'Brien and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars from a variety of disciplines consider cases of convergence in lithic technology, when functional or developmental constraints result in similar forms in independent lineages. Hominins began using stone tools at least 2.6 million years ago, perhaps even 3.4 million years ago. Given the nearly ubiquitous use of stone tools by humans and their ancestors, the study of lithic technology offers an important line of inquiry into questions of evolution and behavior. This book examines convergence in stone tool-making, cases in which functional or developmental constraints result in similar forms in independent lineages. Identifying examples of convergence, and distinguishing convergence from divergence, refutes hypotheses that suggest physical or cultural connection between far-flung prehistoric toolmakers. Employing phylogenetic analysis and stone-tool replication, the contributors show that similarity of tools can be caused by such common constraints as the fracture properties of stone or adaptive challenges rather than such unlikely phenomena as migration of toolmakers over an Arctic ice shelf. Contributors R. Alexander Bentley, Briggs Buchanan, Marcelo Cardillo, Mathieu Charbonneau, Judith Charlin, Chris Clarkson, Loren G. Davis, Metin I. Eren, Peter Hiscock, Thomas A. Jennings, Steven L. Kuhn, Daniel E. Lieberman, George R. McGhee, Alex Mackay, Michael J. O'Brien, Charlotte D. Pevny, Ceri Shipton, Ashley M. Smallwood, Heather Smith, Jayne Wilkins, Samuel C. Willis, Nicolas Zayns

Author : Huw S. Groucutt
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030461262
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Culture History and Convergent Evolution written by Huw S. Groucutt and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together diverse contributions from leading archaeologists and paleoanthropologists, covering various spatial and temporal periods to distinguish convergent evolution from cultural transmission in order to see if we can discover ancient human populations. With a focus on lithic technology, the book analyzes ancient materials and cultures to systematically explore the theoretical and physical aspects of culture, convergence, and populations in human evolution and prehistory. The book will be of interest to academics, students and researchers in archaeology, paleoanthropology, genetics, and paleontology. The book begins by addressing early prehistory, discussing the convergent evolution of behaviors and the diverse ecological conditions driving the success of different evolutionary paths. Chapters discuss these topics and technology in the context of the Lower Paleolithic/Earlier Stone age and Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age. The book then moves towards a focus on the prehistory of our species over the last 40,000 years. Topics covered include the human evolutionary and dispersal consequences of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Eurasia. Readers will also learn about the cultural convergences, and divergences, that occurred during the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene, such as the budding of human societies in the Americas. The book concludes by integrating these various perspectives and theories, and explores different methods of analysis to link technological developments and cultural convergence.

Author : Ted R Schultz
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262367564
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects written by Ted R Schultz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors explore common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture resulting from convergent evolution. During the past 12,000 years, agriculture originated in humans as many as twenty-three times, and during the past 65 million years, agriculture also originated in nonhuman animals at least twenty times and in insects at least fifteen times. It is much more likely that these independent origins represent similar solutions to the challenge of growing food than that they are due purely to chance. This volume seeks to identify common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture that are the results of convergent evolution. The goal is to create a new, synthetic field that characterizes, quantifies, and empirically documents the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that drive both human and nonhuman agriculture. The contributors report on the results of quantitative analyses comparing human and nonhuman agriculture; discuss evolutionary conflicts of interest between and among farmers and cultivars and how they interfere with efficiencies of agricultural symbiosis; describe in detail agriculture in termites, ambrosia beetles, and ants; and consider patterns of evolutionary convergence in different aspects of agriculture, comparing fungal parasites of ant agriculture with fungal parasites of human agriculture, analyzing the effects of agriculture on human anatomy, and tracing the similarities and differences between the evolution of agriculture in humans and in a single, relatively well-studied insect group, fungus-farming ants.

Author : Vincent L. Bels
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031114418
Total Pages : 594 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Convergent Evolution written by Vincent L. Bels and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-01 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a series of case studies, at different levels of inclusivity, of how organisms exhibit functional convergence as a key evolutionary mechanism resulting in responses to similar environmental constraints in mechanically similar ways. The contributors to this volume have selected and documented cases of convergent evolution of form and function that are perceived to be driven by environmental abiotic and/or biotic challenges that fall within their areas of expertise. Collectively these chapters explore this phenomenon across a broad phylogenetic spectrum. The sequence of chapters follows the organizational principle of increasing phylogenetic inclusivity, rather than the clustering of chapters by perceived similarity of the phenotypic features or biomechanical challenges being considered. This is done to maintain focus on the evolutionary phenomenon that is the primary subject matter of the book, thereby providing a basis for discussion among the readership about what is necessary and sufficient to justify the recognition of functional convergence. All chapters stress the need for integrative approaches for the elucidation of both pattern and process as they relate to convergence at various taxonomic levels.

Author : Pierre Pontarotti
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030572463
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Evolutionary Biology—A Transdisciplinary Approach written by Pierre Pontarotti and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book includes 16 selected contributions presented at the 23rd Evolutionary Biology Meeting, which took place in Marseille in September 2019. The annual Evolutionary Biology Meetings in Marseille serve to gather leading evolutionary biologists and other scientists using evolutionary biology concepts, e.g. for medical research. The aim of these meetings is to promote the exchange of ideas to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations. Offering an up-to-date overview of recent findings in the field of evolutionary biology, this book is an invaluable source of information for scientists, teachers and advanced students.

Author : Earl Herbert Swanson
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3111390373
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lithic technology written by Earl Herbert Swanson and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-06-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : John J. Shea
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107006988
Total Pages : 427 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East written by John J. Shea and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys the archaeological record for stone tools from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago in the Near East.

Author : George H. Odell
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1489901736
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Stone Tools written by George H. Odell and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lithic analysts have been criticized for being atheoretical in their approach, or at least for not contributing to building archaeological theory. This volume redresses that balance. In Stone Tools, renowned lithic analysts employ explicitly theoretical constructs to explore the archaeological record and use the lithic database to establish its points. Chapters discuss curation, design theory, replacement of stone with metal, piece refitting, and projectile point style.

Author : April Nowell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition written by April Nowell and published by . This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stone tools are the most durable and common type of archaeological remain and one of the most important sources of information about behaviors of early hominins. Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition develops methods for examining questions of cognition, demonstrating the progression of mental capabilities from early hominins to modern humans through the archaeological record. Dating as far back as 2.5-2.7 million years ago, stone tools were used in cutting up animals, woodworking, and preparing vegetable matter. Today, lithic remains give archaeologists insight into the forethought, planning, and enhanced working memory of our early ancestors. Contributors focus on multiple ways in which archaeologists can investigate the relationship between tools and the evolving human mind-including joint attention, pattern recognition, memory usage, and the emergence of language. Offering a wide range of approaches and diversity of place and time, the chapters address issues such as skill, social learning, technique, language, and cognition based on lithic technology. Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition will be of interest to Paleolithic archaeologists and paleoanthropologists interested in stone tool technology and cognitive evolution.

Author : William Andrefsky, Jr
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521888271
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lithic Technology written by William Andrefsky, Jr and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life history of stone tools is intimately liked to tool production, use, and maintenance. These are important processes in the organization of lithic technology or the manner in which lithic technology is embedded within human organizational strategies of land use and subsistence practices. This volume brings together essays that measure the life history of stone tools relative to retouch values, raw material constraints, and evolutionary processes. Collectively, they explore the association of technological organization with facets of tool form such as reduction sequences, tool production effort, artifact curation processes, and retouch measurement. Data sets cover a broad geographic and temporal span, including examples from France during the Paleolithic, the Near East during the Neolithic, and other regions such as Mongolia, Australia, and Italy. North American examples are derived from Paleoindian times to historic period aboriginal populations throughout the United States and Canada.