Phylogenetic analysis of early hominids.

During the past few years, the proposal of a new species, A. afarensis that is more primitive than A. africanus in many respects has forced many researchers to reformulate their ideas on the subject of hominid evolution, and resulted in a multiplicity of hypotheses about evolutionary relationships within the Hominidae. Most of the current hypotheses agree that the course of evolution from the earliest species of the genus Homo, H. habilis, through H. erectus to H. sapiens was essentially linear. The major point of contention is which species was the last ancestor of H. habilis. Species that have recently been considered for this role include A. afarensis. A. africanus and various as yet undiscovered species of Australopithecus, Homo, or some other genus. We shall use phylogenetic analysis to develop a new perspective of this subject. -from Authors