Human Canopy Evolution

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Human canopy evolution is a powerful new synthesis of data from the fields of paleontology, paleoanthropology, paleoecology, evolutionary biology, early infant behavior, morphology, canopy biology and human evolutionary theory. The consensus view that human behavior and morphology are the result of extensive evolution at the ground, over a period of at least the last two million years, is based upon the assumption that early humans spent little time in trees. This assumption, however, is not supported by the paleontological evidence. Extensive analysis establishes that early humans spent significant time living in tree tops to escape a spectrum of archaic terrestrial predators. This leads to a vastly different understanding of human nature, brain evolution, and hair loss, as well as providing for robust explanations of the design and distribution of hand axes, manu-ports, and cobbles in the fossil record.

Perry, D. 2006. Human canopy evolution. In: Birx, H.J. (editor), Encyclopedia of Evolution. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, pp. 1210-1216. [1]