Especially in replacing typological notions of species, populational concepts have had a salutary influence on interpretations of the human fossil record. In this context it is important to remember that all good ideas are potentially subject to caricature, and it is critical to keep the notion of population thinking in perspective. This significant concept should not be used as a device to deny the existence of taxic diversity in the human fossil record, as has on occasion been done. Yes, species are variable, and always have been; but they are not infinitely variable; and not all morphological variations among individual fossils can be ascribed to mere interindividual variety. A significant portion of the substantial variation we see among the fossils that document the past of our family carries the signal of taxic diversity; and we need to make every effort to recognize this signal for what it is, rather than to brush it under the rug of intraspecific variation in the name of population thinking.
