The pyrophilic primate hypothesis
@article{Parker2016ThePP, title={The pyrophilic primate hypothesis}, author={Christopher H. Parker and Earl R Keefe and Nicole M. Herzog and James F. O'connell and Kristen Hawkes}, journal={Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues}, year={2016}, volume={25} }
Members of genus Homo are the only animals known to create and control fire. The adaptive significance of this unique behavior is broadly recognized, but the steps by which our ancestors evolved pyrotechnic abilities remain unknown. Many hypotheses attempting to answer this question attribute hominin fire to serendipitous, even accidental, discovery. Using recent paleoenvironmental reconstructions, we present an alternative scenario in which, 2 to 3 million years ago in tropical Africa, human…
45 Citations
Fire and the Genus Homo
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The current state of knowledge of the chronology of hominin dispersal into temperate latitudes, from the earliest occupants to the authors' own species, and the archeological evidence for fire use is outlined.
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- Environmental ScienceCurrent Anthropology
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) Except when accessing global markets of domesticated food species, Homo sapiens is biologically committed to a cooked diet. Since cooked diets have large physiological and behavioral consequences a…
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