ABSTRACT
The shifting hypotheses have been about hominid origins and not about Ramapithecus at all, because by and large the importance of Ramapithecus has historically been in the claim that it represents the earliest hominid. The initial interpretation of Ramapithecus as a hominid ancestor was completely within this Darwinian framework, just as were the initial interpretations of Australopithecus africanus and Gigantopithecus blacki. In sum, Ramapithecus was considered a hominid because the known remains fit the applicable aspects of Darwin's model. The focus shifted from the front to the back of the jaw, and Ramapithecus remained a hominid. Jolly's hypotheses has always been weak in its explanation of how other basal hominid features might have followed from small-object feeding. The acceptance of the notion of a ramapithecine adaptive radiation provides the third basis for questioning the seed-eaters model as a hypothesis about hominid origins.
