In the first topic room, entitled Scientific Underpinnings, you will meet biological anthropologists, learn how evolution serves as a backbone of their studies, and discover how these scientists go about the business of testing a hypothesis in the first place.
The other three topic rooms address specialized, but central, areas of study within the field. Paleontology and Primate Evolution explores the prehistory of our closest relatives - the primates - to discover ways in which they are similar to and different from us, and to locate the origin of human characteristics within the broader context of primate adaptations. Some articles highlight individual taxonomic groups, such as the earliest fossil apes or the enigmatic Plesiadapiformes, whereas others discuss evolutionary adaptations, changing primate habitats, or the methods used by paleontologists.
The Human Fossil Record room focuses on the paleoanthropological evidence for hominin evolution over the last 7 million years. Some articles describe how artifacts and ancient hominin remains are analyzed and how scientists infer biology and behavior from these remains. Others illustrate how scientists use geological context and associated animals and plants to help reconstruct the ancient environments where hominins lived and died. In this topic room you will also find articles on the ways ancient physical evidence is used to identify species and build the hominin family tree, allowing us to reconstruct our complex evolutionary history over deep time and vast geographic space.
The other topic room Living Primates explores the amazing diversity of prosimians, monkeys and apes - where they live and how they interact with other species. Here you will find articles on such topics as why primates live in social groups, how primates communicate, and why male primates sometimes commit infanticide. You can learn how primates can be used as living analogs to our distant past as well as what the future may hold for them.
