The Inevitably Incomplete Story of Human Evolution
By Bernard Anthony Wood, Alexis Uluutku
With an unknown amount of evidence yet to be found and possible bias in our interpretations, current accounts of human evolution can only be provisional.
This Article From Issue
March-April 2023
Volume 111, Number 2
Page 106
People often enjoy reading about where humans come from and how we developed into the unusual creatures we are today: upright-walking, omnivorous mammals who inhabit every continent (and who enjoy reading about our own evolution).
QUICK TAKE
- The evidence for human evolution—including fossils, artifacts, and ancient genetic material—constitutes a record that is compelling but incomplete.
- Paleoanthropologists cannot assume the current body of evidence represents the complete assemblage of ancestral human species or the full range of variation within each species.
- The scientific understanding of human origins must be open to continual change in order to take account of new evidence as it becomes available.
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