ABSTRACT
Behavioral ecology has developed in the context of microevolution. Its focus is the pattern of variation within and between living populations. The chapter attempts to link the long-term patterns seen in the hominid fossil record to the principles of behavioral and evolutionary ecology, and therefore to explain why hominid evolution took the course it did. Paleobiological evidence may be used to test whether those conditions occurred at particular points in the past, corresponding to the evolution of these features among hominids. Brain enlargement has been explained by both ecological and social factors. Specific models for ranging and foraging behavior and social and life history strategies among early hominids in isolation can be linked together. Continuing environmental change as well as hominid expansion into more variable and drier habitats would have enhanced this situation, leading to considerable adaptive and evolutionary diversity.
