The rise and fall of hominid genera

Erin Wayman, blogging for the Smithsonian at Hominid Hunting, has had a series on species of Homo you have probably never heard of. That post got me thinking about the rise and fall in commonly accepted taxa, particularly at the Genus level. Google’s Ngram viewer is a nice tool for visualizing some of the less frequently used generic designations that were formerly more popular. Behold:

About Adam Van Arsdale

I am biological anthropologist with a specialization in paleoanthropology. My research focuses on the pattern of evolutionary change in humans over the past two million years, with an emphasis on the early evolution and dispersal of our genus, Homo. My work spans a number of areas including comparative anatomy, genetics and demography.
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