Editing Paleontology (section)

===Paleoanthropology===
{{main|Paleoanthropology}}
[[File:Ghamari cave (2).jpg|thumb|left|Archaeological excavations in the [[Middle Paleolithic]] cave site of the Ghamari Cave in [[Zagros Mountains]]]]
Paleoanthropology is a field of study that focuses on the evolutions of humans. The field can trace its origins to the works of German naturalist [[Johann Blumenbach]] in the late 18th century and then the discovery of a neanderthal in the mid 19th century though it only took its modern form as the study of human evolution following [[World War II]] with the acceptance of evolutionary biology. Paleoanthropology utilizes information on humans drawn from both fossils and [[archaeology]] to interpret the rise and spread of humans. Beliefs were that only a single species of hominid was present at any one time, forming a natural progression to modern humans, considering the diverse groups of species proposed as [[synonyms]]. Discoveries showed that this belief was not correct, with human evolution displaying a complex and uncertain arrangement of individuals, populations, and species with the advent of phylogenetic analyses. ''Ardipithecus'' is one of the oldest known of the human branch of hominids, having lived 4.4 million years ago and only found in 1994. Species of the genus ''Australopithecus'' from across Africa have been named since the 1970s are slightly younger, but already show the bipedal stance of modern humans. From ''Australopithecus'' likely evolved both ''Homo'' and the more robust hominid ''[[Paranthropus]]'', which is unlike modern humans in build but lived alongside early humans for some time.<ref name="tattersall2000"/>

It is known that early humans were capable of making and using tools from the discoveries of fossils of ''[[Homo habilis]]'' in places where stone tools had previously been found. The earliest known stone tools are from around 3.3 million years ago, and while they are often associated with ''Homo'' it is also possible that the coexisting species ''[[Australopithecus garhi]]'' was a toolmaker. There is reluctance to believe that a australopith was capable of making and using tools, but the origins of ''Homo'' are unclear and there is little that can be used to distinguish tool-making from non-tool-making hominids when fossils and tools are not found together. The first humans to show a more slender modern bauplan are those of ''[[Homo ergaster]]'', which is sometimes considered part of African ''[[Homo erectus]]'', from around 1.6 million years ago. Once the modern body form evolved, humans spread far beyond Africa, spreading across [[Eurasia]] from which evolved ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' and ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]''. Though the diversity of neanderthals is uncertain, sites have been found that show they had a burial culture and a rich technological record. The similarities between ''Homo sapiens'' and these older or coexisting species makes it difficult to determine what made modern humans unique.<ref name="tattersall2000"/>