Physical anthropology: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Physical anthropology, sometimes called "biological anthropology," studies the mechanisms of biological evolution, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology, and the fossil record of human evolution. See also: Race.

Some of the early branches of physical anthropology, such as early anthropometry, are now rejected as pseudoscience. Metrics such as the cephalic index were used to derive behavioral characteristics.

Renowned paleoanthropologists

• Davidson Black (1884-1934)
• Robert Broom (1866-1951)
• Raymond Dart (1893-1988)
• Eugene Dubois (1858-1940)
• Donald C. Johanson (1943- )
• Louis Leakey (1903-1972)
• Mary Leakey (1913-1996)
• Richard Leakey (1944- )
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
• Milford H. Wolpoff (1942- )
• Carleton S. Coon (1904-1981)