John Hawks
Biographic Data
| ID | 73012 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Hawks |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Hawks |
| SIGNATURE | HAWKS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3187-3755 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 59 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 350 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 59 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes
Palaeoanthropology and the study of pre-adult fossil remains
The workshop advanced efforts to understand human evolution, particularly the selective pressures shaping patterns of growth and maturity across a broad range of hominin species
A reanalysis of the Taung endocranial surface: Comparison with large samples of living hominids
An examination of Homo naledi early juveniles recovered from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa
Our results show that the teeth are remarkably consistent across the localities in their metric and non-metric traits, and our analyses refine previous estimations on dental eruptions with the first permanent molar erupting first in the sequence among permanent teeth
Sex-biased sampling may influence Homo naledi tooth size variation
Moving away from 'the Muddle in the Middle' toward solving the Chibanian puzzle
Descriptive catalog of Homo naledi dental remains from the 2013 to 2015 excavations of the Dinaledi Chamber, site U.W. 101, within the Rising Star cave system, South Africa
Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: Contexts and evolutionary implications
Data from recent explorations in the Dinaledi subsystem illustrates one of the earliest examples of a mortuary practice in hominins and offers the earliest evidence of multiple interments and funerary actions, as well as evidence of the early creation of meaning making by a hominin. The hominin undertaking these behaviors was the small-brained Homo naledi. These data call into question several key assumptions about behavioral and cognitive evolut…
Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi
Recent excavations in the Rising Star Cave System of South Africa have revealed burials of the extinct hominin species Homo naledi. A combination of geological and anatomical evidence shows that hominins dug holes that disrupted the subsurface stratigraphy and interred the remains of H. naledi individuals, resulting in at least two discrete features within the Dinaledi Chamber and the Hill Antechamber. These are the most ancient interments yet re…
Revisiting the age of the Florisbad hominin material
In 1996, Grün and coworkers provided an ESR age determination for a hominin molar from Florisbad, South Africa, at 259 ± 35 ka. The most anatomically informative hominin specimen from Florisbad is a fragmentary craniofacial specimen, attributed by many to early Homo sapiens , which has been assumed to derive from the same individual as this tooth. Since 1996, evidence about the evolutionary context for the later Middle Pleistocene and its associa…
Les sinus frontaux au cours de l'évolution humaine
Les sinus frontaux sont des cavités qui se situent à l’intérieur de l’os frontal, à la jonction entre le visage et la voûte crânienne, et à proximité du cerveau. Nous proposons l’étude la plus complète jamais réalisée de ces sinus, grâce à une méthodologie facile à mettre en œuvre et reproductible. La taille des sinus frontaux est corrélée à la taille du crâne, et en lien avec celle des reliefs osseux situés au-dessus des orbites, chez les chimpa…
Addressing the growing fossil record of subadult hominins by reaching across disciplines
The field of paleoanthropology lacks a coherent methodology to study ontogeny in extinct hominins. During the past two decades in this field, several factors have served as an impetus to better define this subfield of study within human evolution. First is the increased recovery of immature hominin remains that span multiple genera-Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo
Strategizing public‐facing work within an academic career
BACKGROUND: Most anthropological researchers will engage with the public at some stage of their career. Some develop strong skills in public-facing work, building bridges between local and global communities and the scientific enterprise. Anthropology and archaeology are unsustainable without such community support. Yet engagement work often goes unrecognized and unrewarded within academic institutions. AIMS: We focus on ways to translate the val…
The relative limb size of Homo naledi
Taking Human Origins Research Into the Next Decade
Accurate depiction of uncertainty in ancient DNA research: The case of Neandertal ancestry in Africa
All approaches to understanding the past must work with limited data. Like many other kinds of evidence of past peoples, the relation between ancient DNA and past events is intermediated by complex models that bear many assumptions, some untested or untestable. Statements about the past from this evidence are thus accompanied by uncertainty, some quantified and some unquantifiable. Accurate communication of this uncertainty is essential to effect…
On Homo naledi and its significance in evolutionary anthropology
For the past few years our team has been engaged with the discovery and analysis of an exceptional sample of fossil human relatives from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa. These fossils represent the newly discovered species Homo naledi. The fossils have a combination of humanlike traits in the hands, teeth, legs, and feet, but other features that resemble some of the earliest known human relatives, including a brain only a third the size…
Revisiting the age of the Florisbad hominin material
In 1996, Grün and coworkers provided an ESR age determination for a hominin molar from Florisbad, South Africa, at 259 ± 35 ka. The most anatomically informative hominin specimen from Florisbad is a fragmentary craniofacial specimen, attributed by many to early Homo sapiens, which has been assumed to derive from the same individual as this tooth. Since 1996, evidence about the evolutionary context for the later Middle Pleistocene and its associat…
Sexual dimorphism of the relationship between the gut and pelvis in humans
OBJECTIVES: Obstetric demands have long been considered in the evolution of the pelvis, yet consideration of the interaction of pregnancy, the pelvis, and the gastrointestinal tract (gut) is lacking. Here, we explore sex differences in the relationship of gut volume with body size and pelvic dimensions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Computed tomography (CT) scans of living adult Homo sapiens (46 females and 42 males) were obtained to measure in vivo gut…
Australopithecus prometheus is a nomen nudum
Morphology of the Homo naledi femora from Lesedi
The Lesedi femora increase the range of variation of femoral morphology in H. naledi. Newly described features of the diaphysis and distal femur are either taxonomically uninformative or Homo-like. Overall, these three new femora are consistent with previous functional interpretations of the H. naledi lower limb as belonging to a species adapted for long distance walking and, possibly, running
Reply to Clarke, “Australopithecus prometheus was validly named on MLD 1”
Femoral neck and shaft structure in Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber (Rising Star System, South Africa)
Homo naledi cranial remains from the Lesedi chamber of the rising star cave system, South Africa
Description and analysis of three Homo naledi incudes from the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star cave (South Africa)
The upper limb of Homo naledi
Body size, brain size, and sexual dimorphism in Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber
The skull of Homo naledi
Whynotthe Neandertals
Some workers have suggested that a hypothetical genetic mutation in an African population less than 100,000 years ago led to a cascade of neurological changes in the human brain that culminated in the appearance of modern language. Language then triggered the socioeconomic and cognitive changes we associate with behavioral modernity and Africans, armed with behavioral modernity, then spread out from that continent, out-competing, displacing, exti…
The vertebrae and ribs of Homo naledi
Homo naledi pelvic remains from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa
An Australasian test of the recent African origin theory using the WLH-50 calvarium
The late Neandertal supraorbital fossils from Vindija Cave, Croatia: A Biased Sample
Significance of Neandertal and Denisovan Genomes in Human Evolution
DNA evidence is changing the field of paleoanthropology. Genomes have been recovered from Neandertals and from a previously unknown archaic human population represented at Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains. Both populations contributed to the ancestry of living human populations; Neandertals account for between 1% and 4% of the ancestry of people outside sub-Saharan Africa, and Denisovans contribute from 1% to 6% of the ancestry of people in i…
Identifying artificially deformed crania
In this paper we report on a new discriminant function for the identification of artificially deformed crania. Development of the function, based on a sample of deformed and undeformed crania from the Philippines, required visual classification of the sample into deformed and undeformed groups. Working from the observation that deformed crania display flattened frontal and occipital regions, the sample was seriated based on degree of flattening; …
Australopithecus prometheus is a nomen nudum
Sixty Years of Modern Human Origins in the American Anthropological Association
We present a review of the history of scientific inquiry into modern human origins, focusing on the role of the American Anthropologist. We begin during the mid-20th century, at the time when the problem of modern human origins was first presented in the American Anthropologist and could first be distinguished from more general questions about human and hominid origins. Next, we discuss the effects of the modern evolutionary synthesis on biologic…
Femoral neck and shaft structure in Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber (Rising Star System, South Africa)
Late Australopiths and the Emergence of Homo
New fossil discoveries and new analyses increasingly blur the lines between Australopithecus and Homo, changing scientific ideas about the transition between the two genera. The concept of the genus itself remains an unsettled issue, though recent fossil discoveries and theoretical advances, alongside developments in phylogenetic reconstruction and hypothesis testing, are helping us approach a resolution. A review of the latest discoveries and re…
How much can cladistics tell us about early hominid relationships
Although cladistic analysis has been used to compare hypotheses of relationships among early hominids, the outcomes of different studies have depended entirely on the assumptions made by different investigators. Problems include the close genetic relationship of early hominid taxa, small fossil sample sizes, possible correlations among characters, and a lack of understanding about the evolutionary factors affecting characters. This study investig…
Addressing the growing fossil record of subadult hominins by reaching across disciplines
The field of paleoanthropology lacks a coherent methodology to study ontogeny in extinct hominins. During the past two decades in this field, several factors have served as an impetus to better define this subfield of study within human evolution. First is the increased recovery of immature hominin remains that span multiple genera-Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo
Moving away from 'the Muddle in the Middle' toward solving the Chibanian puzzle
Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi
Recent excavations in the Rising Star Cave System of South Africa have revealed burials of the extinct hominin species Homo naledi. A combination of geological and anatomical evidence shows that hominins dug holes that disrupted the subsurface stratigraphy and interred the remains of H. naledi individuals, resulting in at least two discrete features within the Dinaledi Chamber and the Hill Antechamber. These are the most ancient interments yet re…
Sexual dimorphism of the relationship between the gut and pelvis in humans
OBJECTIVES: Obstetric demands have long been considered in the evolution of the pelvis, yet consideration of the interaction of pregnancy, the pelvis, and the gastrointestinal tract (gut) is lacking. Here, we explore sex differences in the relationship of gut volume with body size and pelvic dimensions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Computed tomography (CT) scans of living adult Homo sapiens (46 females and 42 males) were obtained to measure in vivo gut…
Morphology of the Homo naledi femora from Lesedi
The Lesedi femora increase the range of variation of femoral morphology in H. naledi. Newly described features of the diaphysis and distal femur are either taxonomically uninformative or Homo-like. Overall, these three new femora are consistent with previous functional interpretations of the H. naledi lower limb as belonging to a species adapted for long distance walking and, possibly, running
Reply to Clarke, “Australopithecus prometheus was validly named on MLD 1”
Homo naledi cranial remains from the Lesedi chamber of the rising star cave system, South Africa
Assessing eye orbits as predictors of N eandertal group size
OBJECTIVES: The objective is to investigate the hypothesis that Neandertal eye orbits can predict group size and social cognition as presented by Pearce et al. (Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 280 (2013) 20130168). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a linear regression of known orbital aperture diameter (OAD), neocortex ratio, and group size among 18 extant diurnal primate species. Our data were derived from Kirk (J Hum Evol 51 (2006) 159-170) and Dunbar …
The utility of ancient human DNA for improving allele age estimates, with implications for demographic models and tests of natural selection
No brain expansion in Australopithecus boisei
The endocranial volumes of robust australopithecine fossils appear to have increased in size over time. Most evidence with temporal resolution is concentrated in East African Australopithecus boisei . Including the KNM‐WT 17000 cranium, this sample comprises 11 endocranial volume estimates ranging in date from 2.5 million to 1.4 million years ago. But the sample presents several difficulties to a test of trend, including substantial estimation er…
An Australasian test of the recent African origin theory using the WLH-50 calvarium
Multiregional, not multiple origins
Multiregional evolution is a model to account for the pattern of human evolution in the Pleistocene. The underlying hypothesis is that a worldwide network of genic exchanges, between evolving human populations that continually divide and reticulate, provides a frame of population interconnections that allows both species-wide evolutionary change and local distinctions and differentiation. "Multiregional" does not mean independent multiple origins…
Modern Human Ancestry at the Peripheries: A Test of the Replacement Theory
The replacement theory of modern human origins stipulates that populations outside of Africa were replaced by a new African species of modern humans. Here we test the replacement theory in two peripheral areas far from Africa by examining the ancestry of early modern Australians and Central Europeans. Analysis of pairwise differences was used to determine if dual ancestry in local archaic populations and earlier modern populations from the Levant…
Brief communication: Paleoanthropology and the population genetics of ancient genes
The Mezmaiskaya cave mtDNA is similar in many ways to the Feldhofer cave Neandertal sequence and the more recently obtained Vindija cave sequence. If we accept the contention that the Mezmaiskaya cave specimen is a Neandertal infant, its mtDNA provides no new information about the fate of the European Neandertals. However, there is reason to believe that the Mezmaiskaya cave infant is not a Neandertal, and this places its importance in another li…
Brief communication: Paleoanthropology and the population genetics of ancient genes
The Mezmaiskaya cave mtDNA is similar in many ways to the Feldhofer cave Neandertal sequence and the more recently obtained Vindija cave sequence. If we accept the contention that the Mezmaiskaya cave specimen is a Neandertal infant, its mtDNA provides no new information about the fate of the European Neandertals. However, there is reason to believe that the Mezmaiskaya cave infant is not a Neandertal, and this places its importance in another li…
The late Neandertal supraorbital fossils from Vindija Cave, Croatia: A Biased Sample
Sixty Years of Modern Human Origins in the American Anthropological Association
We present a review of the history of scientific inquiry into modern human origins, focusing on the role of the American Anthropologist. We begin during the mid-20th century, at the time when the problem of modern human origins was first presented in the American Anthropologist and could first be distinguished from more general questions about human and hominid origins. Next, we discuss the effects of the modern evolutionary synthesis on biologic…
How much can cladistics tell us about early hominid relationships
Although cladistic analysis has been used to compare hypotheses of relationships among early hominids, the outcomes of different studies have depended entirely on the assumptions made by different investigators. Problems include the close genetic relationship of early hominid taxa, small fossil sample sizes, possible correlations among characters, and a lack of understanding about the evolutionary factors affecting characters. This study investig…
Whynotthe Neandertals
Some workers have suggested that a hypothetical genetic mutation in an African population less than 100,000 years ago led to a cascade of neurological changes in the human brain that culminated in the appearance of modern language. Language then triggered the socioeconomic and cognitive changes we associate with behavioral modernity and Africans, armed with behavioral modernity, then spread out from that continent, out-competing, displacing, exti…
Neandertal taxonomy reconsidered…again: A response to Harvati et al. (2004)
Selection Selection on mitochondrial DNA and the Neanderthal problem
Recent acceleration of human adaptive evolution
Genomic surveys in humans identify a large amount of recent positive selection. Using the 3.9-million HapMap SNP dataset, we found that selection has accelerated greatly during the last 40,000 years. We tested the null hypothesis that the observed age distribution of recent positively selected linkage blocks is consistent with a constant rate of adaptive substitution during human evolution. We show that a constant rate high enough to explain the …
Identifying artificially deformed crania
In this paper we report on a new discriminant function for the identification of artificially deformed crania. Development of the function, based on a sample of deformed and undeformed crania from the Philippines, required visual classification of the sample into deformed and undeformed groups. Working from the observation that deformed crania display flattened frontal and occipital regions, the sample was seriated based on degree of flattening; …
Update to Eller et al.'s “Local Extinction and Recolonization, Species Effective Population Size, and Modem Human Origins” (2004)
Humans have about the level of genetic diversity that you would expect from a Wright-Fisher population model with 10,000 individuals. That sentence opens a labyrinth of interpretation. Why do we have the genetic variation that we do? Is 10,000 the number of our ancestors, or are we inbred for other reasons? Haigh and Maynard Smith, writing in 1972 about /?-globin polymorphism, first proposed a population bottleneck. At the time, few human biologi…
Local Extinction and Recolonization, Species Effective Population Size, and Modern Human Origins
A primary objection from a population genetics perspective to a multiregional model of modern human origins is that the model posits a large census size, whereas genetic data suggest a small effective population size. The relationship between census size and effective size is complex, but arguments based on an island model of migration show that if the effective population size reflects the number of breeding individuals and the effects of popula…
Centre and edge: A Foundational Concept in Human Population Dynamics
From the initial Pleistocene, human populations have occupied parts of three continents extending across more than 30 million km2 of geographic area. Some of this area was very similar in resource availability and ecology to the African habitats where hominins had originated. Other parts of the range were more difficult for Pleistocene humans to invade and sustain large populations. This basic fact has shaped many hypotheses of human dispersal an…
No brain expansion in Australopithecus boisei
The endocranial volumes of robust australopithecine fossils appear to have increased in size over time. Most evidence with temporal resolution is concentrated in East African Australopithecus boisei . Including the KNM‐WT 17000 cranium, this sample comprises 11 endocranial volume estimates ranging in date from 2.5 million to 1.4 million years ago. But the sample presents several difficulties to a test of trend, including substantial estimation er…
Significance of Neandertal and Denisovan Genomes in Human Evolution
DNA evidence is changing the field of paleoanthropology. Genomes have been recovered from Neandertals and from a previously unknown archaic human population represented at Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains. Both populations contributed to the ancestry of living human populations; Neandertals account for between 1% and 4% of the ancestry of people outside sub-Saharan Africa, and Denisovans contribute from 1% to 6% of the ancestry of people in i…
Celiac Disease as a Model for the Evolution of Multifactorial Disease in Humans
Celiac disease (CD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory condition that results in injury of the mucosal lining of the small intestine upon ingestion of wheat gluten and related proteins from barley and rye. Although the exact mechanisms leading to CD are not fully understood, the genetic basis of CD has been relatively well characterized. In this review we briefly review the history of discovery, clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and c…
Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa
We describe the physical context of the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave, South Africa, which contains the fossils of Homo naledi. Approximately 1550 specimens of hominin remains have been recovered from at least 15 individuals, representing a small portion of the total fossil content. Macro-vertebrate fossils are exclusively H. naledi, and occur within clay-rich sediments derived from in situ weathering, and exogenous clay and silt, …
The hand of Homo naledi
A nearly complete right hand of an adult hominin was recovered from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa. Based on associated hominin material, the bones of this hand are attributed to Homo naledi . This hand reveals a long, robust thumb and derived wrist morphology that is shared with Neandertals and modern humans, and considered adaptive for intensified manual manipulation. However, the finger bones are longer and more curved than in most …
Assessing eye orbits as predictors of N eandertal group size
OBJECTIVES: The objective is to investigate the hypothesis that Neandertal eye orbits can predict group size and social cognition as presented by Pearce et al. (Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 280 (2013) 20130168). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a linear regression of known orbital aperture diameter (OAD), neocortex ratio, and group size among 18 extant diurnal primate species. Our data were derived from Kirk (J Hum Evol 51 (2006) 159-170) and Dunbar …
The utility of ancient human DNA for improving allele age estimates, with implications for demographic models and tests of natural selection
Biological Anthropology in 2014: Beyond the Traditional
Here I review some of the newsworthy developments in biological anthropology for the year 2014. This review essay focuses broadly upon three areas: (1) the illumination of sexual harassment and assault issues in fieldwork settings by Clancy and colleagues (2014), (2) the abandonment of traditional concept of race in favor of a more sophisticated geographic and genetic view of ancestry in human populations, and (3) the increasing importance of usi…
Chapter 3. Human Evolution
Biology (47 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (41 works) · Evolutionary biology (35 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (30 works) · Paleontology (30 works) · Paleontology (29 works) · Geography (28 works) · Archaeology (23 works) · Evolution and Paleontology Studies (20 works) · Hominidae (17 works)