Exam 3 Study Guide

What is the Upper Paleolithic, and what happens to symbolic thought during this period?

- the period of AMH occupation in Europe and Eurasia between 45-12 kya. The Upper Paleolithic marks what we call a "Golden Age" or cultural revolution. During this period, we start to see more complex or specialized tool kits, including microliths (small, finely-made stone or bone tools) and spears. As far as symbolism goes, we really see a boom in symbolic thinking in the Upper Paleolithic. Cave art during the Upper Paleolithic is increasingly complex, as are the portable sculptures made by AMH. -Prior to the upper paleolithic, there may be evidence of sculptures done by neanderthals and it is useful to use that in comparison to show how symbolic thought has changed, imagination seemed to be used more so to be able to draw something that is not in front of yoy. the lascaux cave for example, shows the depth of thought that these humans were capable of .

When do we first see evidence of the controlled use of fire in the hominin fossil record? Which species was probably the first to make and control fire?

-1.5 MYA Koobi Fora.Homo Erectus

What are the three models for the origins of Anatomically Modern Humans? Which model is the most likely explanation, and why?

-Out of africa hypothesis -Multiregional continuity hypothesis -assimilation model The assimilation model is the most likely explanation because it accounts for the gene flow between neanderthanls and homo sapiens. And it is correct that H. sapiens come from Africa

Which two features are characteristic of the genus Homo?

-large brains -tool use

What are the morphological features of pre-Australopithecines? Which species (plural) does this category include?

-small brain -short -curved foot phalanges -likely bipedal PRE-AUSTRALOPITHECINES -Sahelanthropus tchadensis -Orrorin tugenensis -Ardipithecus kadabba -Ardipithecus ramidus

How do we identify bipedalism in the fossil record?

1) Position of the foramen magnum- In humans, the foramen magnum is on the bottom of the skull, closer to the teeth. In apes, the foramen magnum is in a posterior position. This difference reflects the fact that the human head sits on top of the body trunk, whereas the ape head sits on the front of the trunk. 2) Shape of the spine- The distinctive S-shape in humans is created by the concave curvature of the thoracic vertebrae, in front, and the concave curvature of the lumbar vertebrae, in the back. This arrangement, especially of the lumbar vertebrae, serves to position the body trunk's center of gravity above the pelvis, providing more stability during walking and running. 3) Shape of the pelvis- The human pelvis has a very different shape from the ape pelvis. Especially distinctive is the short ilium in the bipedal human. This morphology is an essential element of the stability of the pelvis during standing, walking, and running. 4) Length of the leg- The relatively long leg of the bipedal human provides increased efficiency during stride. In hominins, the leg is generally longer relative to the arm than it is in apes. The long arm of the ape reflects its suspensory use in trees. 5) Valgus knee- The knees in the biped angle inward to give it a knock-kneed appearance. The angle formed by the long axis of the femur shaft and the horizontal at the knee—called the bicondylar angle—provides an angle greater than 90 degrees. This angle is significantly greater in humans than in most apes. The valgus knees place the feet together and beneath the center of gravity. By doing so, they provide stability in walking and running, especially when only one foot is on the ground during locomotion. 6) Longitudinal foot arch- The biped has a distinctive arch that runs from the front to the back of the bottom surface of the foot. This form gives increased leverage as the body pushes forward and serves as a shock absorber when the feet make contact with the ground during walking and running. Apes have flat feet, which reflect the adaptation of their feet for grasping. 7) Opposable big toe- The first digit of the foot—the big toe—is opposable in apes but not in humans. This difference reflects the function of the foot, which is solely (pun intended!) to support the body during walking and running in humans. The ape toe has a dual function, including terrestrial walking and grasping or manipulating objects. Humans have largely lost their ability to manipulate objects with their toes

Mata Menge Fossils

2014 on Flores Island, Indonesia. Gerrit van den Bergh and fellow discoverers found something very new and very different. a partial adult mandible and six isolated teeth representing at least two children. the Mata Menge mandible (and, by inference, the rest of the skeleton) is extraordinarily small, perhaps representing an adult having half the body size of other contemporary hominins. Homo floresiensis ("Hobbit"), also from Flores Island and dating between 100,000 yBP and 60,000 yBP. The Mata Menge hominins are likely not H. erectus, but rather represent descendants of H. erectus that had settled on Flores Island in the middle Pleistocene. Mata Menge and the later hominin from Flores Island, the very small body size may have been due to their having lived on an island with limited food resources.

What are some advantages of bipedalism? What are some disadvantages?

ADVANTAGES Bipedalism's advantages over quadrupedalism included an increased ability to see greater distances (thanks to an upright posture), greater ease of transporting both food and children, ability to run long distances, and the freeing of the hands for, eventually, such remarkable skills and activities as tool manufacture and tool use. DISADVANTAGES it also brings exposure to predators. Standing or walking on two feet while simultaneously lifting or carrying heavy objects over long periods of time causes back injury, such as that associated with arthritis and with slipped intervertebral disks. Bipedalism also places an enormous burden on the circulatory system as it moves blood from the legs to the heart. The result of this burden is the development of varicose veins, a condition in which overwork causes the veins to bulge. Lastly, if one of a biped's two feet is injured, then that biped's ability to walk can be severely reduced. Unable to move about the landscape, an early hominin would have had limited chances of surviving and of reproducing.

Amud-7 and Teshik-Tash

AMUD- 7:Amud-7 represents the remains of an 8-10 month old infant Neanderthal. This skeleton was found articulated in a burial pit, and on top of the pelvis, there was a maxilla from a red deer. TESHIK-TASH: the Teshik-Tash Skull has been estimated to belong to a Neanderthal child around 8 or 9 years of age. The Teshik-Tash Skull was found in a shallow pit, and around the perimeter of the burial, five pairs of ibex horn cores had been placed. Researchers suggest that these ibex horns may indicate that the Teshik-Tash Skull was buried in a ritual manner. But, there is some controversy over this particular burial, because ibex horn cores were actually found all over the site. Some researchers have used this fact to argue against the symbolic meaning of this burial, suggesting instead that the horns may not have been deliberately placed.

What is the distinction between Archaic and Modern Homo sapiens? Use morphological features in your explanation.

ARCHAIC 1,200 cc cranial capacity early 1,500 cc cranial capacity late Both skulls and skeletons less robust than modern humans Reduced tooth size, but most of reduction in premolars and molars (front teeth increase in size). Appearance of Neandertal morphology after 130,000 yBP in Middle East and Europe (long, low skull; wide, large nose; large front teeth with common heavy wear; forward-projecting face; no chin; wide body trunk; short limbs) Distinctive mtDNA structure MODERN Vertical forehead, high skull, rounder skull, reduced facial robusticity, smaller teeth, reduced midfacial prognathism, 1,500 cc cranial capacity Heat-adapted body morphology (small trunk, long limbs)

Why is agriculture referred to as an "adaptive tradeoff"? What are some of the positive effects of agriculture, and what are some of the negative effects?

Agriculture is an adaptive tradeoff because while it allowed human society to grow and support a growing population but there are many downfalls. ADVANTAGES -supports a larger number of people -creation of surplus food -long-tern food storage, especially with grains DISADVANTAGES -increased demands on the environment -pollution -conflict between populations competing for land -loss of wild species due to overhunting -decline of biodiversity -health costs and quality of life implications

Why are AMH the first species to leave the Old World? What factors may have caused this migration?

Among the multiple reasons, four are most important: population increase, disappearance of food resources, increased competition with neighbors for remaining resources, and climate deterioration. late Pleistocene humans would have needed sophisticated boating technology and equally sophisticated navigational skills. No evidence of such technology and skills has been found. Modern humans seem to have had simply enough know-how to reach Australia, which they ultimately colonized.

Six Milestones of Human Evolution

BIPEDALISM 6 MYA- The upright, bipedal (two-footed) gait was the first hallmark feature of our hominin ancestors.: the foramen magnum is positioned on the bottom of the skull, the spine is S-shaped, the ilium is short from front to back, the legs are long relative to the body trunk and arms, the knees are angled inward, the foot has a longitudinal arch, and the big toe (hallux) is not opposable. NONHONING CHEWING 5.5 MYA- Humans' nonhoning chewing complex (below) lacks large, projecting canines in the upper jaw and a diastema, or gap, between the lower canine and the third premolar. living and past hominins have small, blunt, and nonprojecting canines and no diastema. Hominin canines wear on the tips instead of the backs. The cusps on both sides of the lower third premolars are similar in size, hominins do not hone their canines as they chew. hominins have evolved thick enamel on their teeth MATERIAL CULTURE/TOOLS 3.3 MYA- Humans' production and use of stone tools is one example of complex material culture. The tools of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, do not approach the complexity and diversity of modern and ancestral humans' tools. SPEECH 2.5 MYA- In the entire animal kingdom, only humans can speak and, through speech, express complex thoughts and ideas. The shape of the hyoid bone is unique to hominins and reflects their ability to speak. Speech is part of the overall package in the human lineage of increased cognition, intelligence, and brain-size expansion. HUNTING 1 MYA- Humans' relatively large brains require lots of energy to develop and function. Animal protein is an ideal source of that energy, and humans obtained it for most of their evolution by eating animals they hunted. To increase their chances of success in hunting, humans employed tools they made and cooperative strategies. DOMESTICATED FOODS 11,000 YEARS AGO- In recent evolution, humans domesticated a wide variety of plants and animals, controlling their life cycles and using them for food and other products, such as clothing and shelter.

What are the two behaviors that must be present for a fossil species to be considered a hominin?

Bipedalism and nonhoning chewing

Why did hominins emerge? What are the theories for the emergence of bipedalism?

CHARLES DARWIN HUNTING HYPOTHESIS The characteristics that distinguish living humans from living apes, Darwin reasoned, derive from one key evolutionary event in their common ancestor; namely, the shift from life in the trees to life on the ground. He observed four characteristics that set living humans and living apes apart: (1) humans are bipedal, while apes are quadrupedal; (2) humans have tiny canines, while apes have large canines; (3) humans rely on tools in their adaptation, while apes do not; and (4) humans have big brains, while apes have small brains. He concluded that bipedalism had freed the hands for carrying the weapons. To manufacture and use these tools, the early humans needed great intelligence. Once they had the tools, they did not need the big canines for hunting or for defense. Although he saw tool production and tool use as essential factors in the development of human intelligence, Darwin believed that humans' large brain resulted mainly from the presence of language in humans. -pros: Darwin was correct that bipedalism was a defining characteristics of hominins. -cons: we now know that tool use and intelligence came after bipedalism and reduction in canine size. RODMAN & MCHENRYS PATCHY FOREST HYPO. They suggest that bipedalism arose in areas where the forest was becoming fragmented, a process that began toward the end of the Miocene. Apes' quadrupedalism, they note, is not energy-efficient in Africa's patchy forests. As the forests became patchy and food became more dispersed, early hominins would have used their energy much more efficiently once bipedalism freed their hands to pick up food. The early hominins could then have fed in trees and on the ground, depending on the availability of resources. LOVEJOYS PROVISIONING HYPOTHESIS Lovejoy hypothesizes that if infants and mothers were provided with more food, then they would not have to move around as much for resources. If males provisioned mothers and their offspring, then each mother would be able to care for two or more infants at a time. In other words, the mother could have more births—the time between births would be reduced. Lovejoy makes the case that for early hominins, a monogamous father enhanced the survival of the mother and offspring by providing both food and protection from predators. This habitual provisioning required the male to have free hands for carrying food, so bipedalism arose.

AMH Art (types they made)

Cave Art in AMH: Portable Sculptures in AMH:

. What effect does cooking your foods have on brain size, jaw size, and overall body size?

Cooking your food leads to an increase in brain size, and a reduction in jaw and body size

Compassion / Concept of Family?

Feelings like compassion and a concept of family are very complex emotions, and Shanidar 1 has been used to infer these feelings in Neanderthals. But like I said with some of the burial conclusions, you should decide for yourself how much stock you'd like to put in this evidence. Remember, just like speech, ideas like "compassion" and "family" cannot be physically preserved in the fossil record. But, the researchers do have modern cultural examples to back up their claims, and I feel pretty good about the idea of compassion in Neanderthals, at the very least!

. Neanderthals are adapted to live in a harsh, cold environment. Explain the morphological features associated with Neanderthals that reflect this adaptation.

However, nasal features are more likely part of an adaptive complex reflecting life in cold climates during the Upper Pleistocene. The shape and size of any nose is an excellent example of the human face's highly adaptable nature, especially in relation to climate. One of the nose's important functions is to transform ambient air—the air breathed in from the atmosphere—into warm, humid air. Large noses have more internal surface area, thus providing an improved means of warming and moistening the cold, dry air that Neandertals breathed regularly. Moreover, the projecting nose typical of Neandertals placed more distance between the cold external environment and the brain, which is temperature-sensitive. The foramina's increased size is due to the blood vessels that tracked through them having been quite large. The larger blood vessels may have allowed greater blood flow to the face, preventing exposed facial surfaces from freezing. The larger body trunk reduces the amount of surface area relative to the body size. This helps promote heat retention. Moreover, animals that live in cold climates have shorter limbs than animals that live in hot climates (Allen's rule). This, too, promotes heat retention in cold settings.

What is the relationship between the emergence of material culture and tools and the possible emergence of speech?

In Neanderthals, they used the stuf - and - cut method to help process their meat, the resulting scratches on their incissors show a preference for left handed and right handedness. This is a result of brain laterality which can be used to connect the possibility of language in this species.

Koobi Fora

Koobi Fora is a site in Kenya that has produced evidence for a ton of early hominin specimens, including Au. anamensis, Au. boisei, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus (although some people would call this Homo ergaster since it's the African version). The earliest potential use of fire comes from Koobi Fora, and the layers with potential fire use have been dated to about 1.5 mya. In the 1970s, researchers discovered patches of reddened soil at Koobi Fora, and experimental studies and chemical analysis of the soil suggests that this kind of discoloration happens between 200-400° C (or 400-750° F). The interesting thing about the reddened patches of soil at Koobi Fora is that the discoloration also happened in circular patches, which is not a pattern you would expect to see with natural landscape fires.

Which species may have been the first to bury their dead? What evidence do we use to infer intentional burial?

Neanderthals may have been the first species to bury their dead. Some evidence of intentional burial are bodies in pits that look intentional, the individual is usually in a fetal position, there may be evidence of returning to this spot leaving gifts such as flowers.

Pre-Australopithecines

Pre-australopithecine fossils are few in number and quite fragmentary, but they have provided critically important information about the origins and earliest evolution of the Hominini. The pre-australopithecines had a number of primitive attributes, and in some respects they were more apelike than humanlike. They represent the first recognizable ancestors of the lineage leading to humans.

What is the distinction between Gracile and Robust Australopithecines?

ROBUST Compared with earlier australopithecines, these remarkably robust australopithecines had smaller front teeth, larger back teeth, and larger faces. Their most visually striking characteristic was a massive attachment area, on the skull, for the temporalis muscle, resulting in a well-developed sagittal crest. Both their premolars and their molars were enormous. These big teeth with large chewing surfaces, combined with large chewing muscles, made robust australopithecines the ultimate grinders. GRACILE Australopithecus afarensis and africanus, and the other species above, are known as gracile australopithecines, because of their relatively lighter build, especially in the skull and teeth.

Anthropogenic

Refers to any effect caused by humans.

The adoption of agriculture led to MANY physical changes and diseases in humans. What are some changes we see in the skull and the teeth? How does the postcranial skeleton change with agriculture? What are some examples of diseases that are associated with agriculture?

SKULL & TEETH -The consumption of softer foods puts less strain of the chewing muscles, leading to a smaller face and jaws. -Animals fed soft-textured foods develop far more occlusal abnormalities, such as crooked teeth, misaligned jaws, and chewing problems, than do animals fed hard-textured foods. -Caries is a process in which the natural bacteria in your mouth—common culprits are Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus—digest the carbohydrates there. One end product of this digestive process is lactic acid, which literally dissolves tooth enamel POSTCRANIAL -Highly physically active people's bones tend to be larger and more developed than those of not so physically active people. Bone comparisons—from hunter-gatherers' to later agriculturalists' to modern peoples'—show a remarkable decline in size. DISEASES -periosteal reaction, or bone buildup, which is sometimes combined with an abnormal expansion of a bone's diameter. The reaction is often caused by localized infection, such as from the so-called staph bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus. The infection essentially stimulates new bone growth, hence the swollen appearance -treponematoses-A group of related diseases (venereal syphilis, yaws, endemic syphilis) caused by the bacteria Treponema, which produces pathologic changes most often to the cranium and tibias. -measles, mumps, cholera, smallpox, and influenza

Divje Babe Flute

The Divje Babe Flute was recovered in the Divje Babe archaeological park in Cerkno in Slovenia, and it has been dated to around 43 kya. This artifact is the femur of a cave bear. The ends are broken, but there is evidence of at least four holes carved in the diaphysis. Some researchers argued against the idea that this artifact is a flute, saying instead that these holes could have been caused by scavenging damage. But, taphonomy experts have analyzed these holes, and there are no known species that would have created a bite mark with two round holes 34 mm apart. Additionally, the other marks of carnivore damage (such as breaking the diaphysis to get to the marrow, or counter-bites on the opposite side of the bone) are not evident on this artifact. Instead, many researchers suggest that this is a flute. If this is the case, the Divje Babe Flute is possibly the oldest known musical instrument in the world! This flute has been analyzed by countless experts (taphonomists, archaeologists, musicologists, etc.), and these researchers argue that the placement of the holes in a line is extremely unlikely by any force other than human manufacture. Additionally, a Canadian musicologist named Bob Fink suggests that these holes are consistent with four notes on the diatonic scale (do, re, mi, and fa). He argues that the likelihood that these holes would coincidentally appear in a line and be consistent with a recognizable musical scale is on the order of a few in several million.

Multiregional Continuity Model

The Multiregional Continuity hypothesis regards the transition to modernity as having taken place regionally and without involving replacement. From this point of view, African archaic H. sapiens gave rise to African modern H. sapiens, Asian archaic H. sapiens gave rise to Asian modern H. sapiens, and European archaic H. sapiens gave rise to European modern H. sapiens.The Multiregional Continuity model emphasizes the importance of gene flow across population boundaries—separate species of humanity never arose owing to the constant interbreeding of human groups throughout human evolution. Not such a simple story. Throughout evolution, there is always significant gene flow on the borders of populations.

What is the Neolithic Revolution? Define domestication in your answer.

The Neolithic Revolution was the transition from hunting and gathering to being able to control and manipulate plants and animals to be more beneficial to humans and therefore being able to live a sedenary life.

Out-of-Africa Model

The Out-of-Africa hypothesis states that modern H. sapiens first evolved in Africa and then spread to Asia and Europe, replacing the indigenous archaic H. sapiens populations (Neandertals) living on these two continents. The Out-of-Africa model explains the single species of living humans by emphasizing a single origin of modern people and eventual replacement of archaic H. sapiens throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe. A simple story. Modern humans replaced all populations once arriving in Europe, with no gene flow.

THE AUSTRALOPITHECINES (4-1 MYA)

The australopithecines are represented by hundreds of fossils, representing as many as 10 species. Some of the species are members of ancestral-descendant lineages . That is, we can link an ancestral species with its descendant species. On the other hand, some species overlap in time, and some of the species and their evolutionary relationships remain unclear. Australopithecine variation is mostly in size and robusticity—ranging from relatively small and gracile to large and robust. As a group, the australopithecines had small brains, small canines, large premolars, and large molars). The latest australopithecines' face, jaws, and teeth were very large.

Acheulean Tool Complex

The culture associated with H. erectus, including handaxes and other types of stone tools; more refined than the earlier Oldowan tools. were produced from a wider variety of raw materials, and were fashioned into a greater range of tool types, with a greater range of functions. This diversity suggests increased familiarity with the necessary resources and with their availability. Within this diversity, the dominant tool is the handaxe (Figure 11.22). The handaxe's sharp edge was used in cutting, scraping, and other functions. In addition, the tools became increasingly refined; better made than before, they clearly required a great deal of both learning and skill to produce. Acheulean tools are found in association with large animals, suggesting that these tools were used to kill large animals and butcher them.

We see complex cave paintings in AMH, but not in Neanderthals. What might be the relationship between distance hunting and drawing, and how might these two behaviors have given AMH an adaptive advantage?

The development of the parietal cortex gave AMH greater visual input and motor skills to be able to create tools for distance hunting and being able to accurately aim. This gave them the advantage of spatial reasoning that may have aided them in creating the cave paintings from the top of their head.

Hominin

The earliest humanlike ancestors. A hominin is much better understood as having two obligate behaviors- bipedal locomotion and nonhoning chewing- and the suite of associated physical characteristics that manifest these behaviors. A member of the primate family Homindae.

Masticatory Functional Hypothesis

The hypothesis that craniofacial shape change during the Holocene was related to the consumption of softer foods.

Neolithic Revolution

The late Pleistocene-early Holocene culture, during which humans domesticated plants and animals. the transitional process of domestication—the dietary changes, biological adaptations, and resulting health changes—was quite rapid.

Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave

The paintings at Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave have been dated between 32-30 kya. While most Paleolithic cave art is dominated by herbivores, Chauvet Cave is a different story. This cave system does include paintings of herbivores, such as mammoths and rhinoceroses, but it also features many predatory animals, such as cave lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas. Chauvet Cave also includes scenes of animals interacting with one another, such as woolly rhinoceroses butting horns. This is unusual for the time period, since most paintings are simply isolated creatures. The artists at Chauvet Cave prepared the walls before painting, scraping the area to leave a smooth, lighter area on which to work. There is also a three-dimensional quality to some of the paintings, which was achieved by etching around the outlines of certain figures to create relief.

Lascaux Cave

The paintings at Lascaux Cave have been dated to around 17 kya. Most of the paintings at Lascaux Cave include large animals known to exist at the time based upon fossil evidence, such as aurochs (large, extinct wild cattle), horses, and deer. Lascaux Cave actually contains over 900 paintings of animals, 605 of which have been specifically identified. This cave is particularly famous for a section called The Hall of the Bulls (see image below). There are 36 animals in this hall, all bulls, equines, and stags. The largest of the figures is an auroch bull which measures 17 feet long, the largest animal so far discovered in cave art! As for Lascaux Cave, one of the more complex pieces found here is referred to as the "Crossed Bison". There are two bison next to one another, and the hind legs of one bison were painting on top of the other. The light outline around the bison on the left creates the illusion that the left bison was closer to the observer than the right. This visual depth and perspective in the painting was quite advanced for the time period!

Domestication

The process of converting wild animals or wild plants into forms that humans can care for and cultivate.

How have our cultural practices affected our biology throughout hominin evolution? On the flip side, how has our biology affected our cultural practices?

The way have manipulated the environment around us has changed the way we look. Our biology such as a growing brain has allowed us to be able to have complex thought

Laetoli Footprints

These footprints, found in Tanzania, resolved any doubt as to whether Au. afarensis was bipedal. The tracks were made by three bipedal hominins, two adults and a child who walked in the footprints of one of the adults. In addition to the hominin footprints, many other prints were found at the site, including those of large animals, such as elephants and giraffes, and those of small animals, including rabbits and birds. One of the most important characteristics of the Laetoli footprints is the nondivergent big toe.

Mousterian Tool Complex

This culture's stone tool technology, lasting from about 300,000 to 30,000 yBP, includes a complex and distinctive type of flaking called the Levallois technique. This technique involves preparing a stone core and then flaking the raw materials for tools from this core. The stone tool culture in which Neandertals produced tools using the Levallois technique.

Nariokotome Boy

This remarkably complete skeleton dates to about 1.6 mya. One of the most striking modern characteristics is the combination of relatively short arms and long legs. completely committed to terrestrial life. He was quite tall, about 166 cm (66 in). Had he survived to adulthood, he would have grown to nearly 180 cm (71 in) in height. cranial capacity was about 900 cc.

Venus Figurines

Venus figurines are statuettes portraying women. Most have small heads, wide hips, and legs that taper to a point. A general trend in Venus figurines is to exaggerate sexualized areas, such as the abdomen, hips, breasts, thighs, or vulva. So, some researchers suggest that these may be related to fertility rituals. Still others speculate that the Venus figurines may be religious figures, erotic art or sex-aids, or self-depictions by female artists. Most Venus figurines date between 26-21 kya. The earliest example is the Venus of Hohle Fels from Germany dated to 35 kya,and the most recent is the Venus of Monruz from Switzerland dated to 11 kya.

Island dwarfism

We know that many species of animals living in island settings worldwide have reduced body size, owing to limited food resources. Simply, stunted size requires less caloric intake. Therefore, it would seem that small body size would have a selective advantage in these circumstances.

Neanderthal Art (types they made)

body Ornamentation: At two sites in Spain (Cueva de los Aviones and Cueva Antón), marine shells have been found with perforations in them. he perforations in these shells have been used to argue that they were likely put on a string and worn as a necklace. These shells were also painted with naturally occurring pigments (most often red, yellow, and orange). But, these shell necklaces have been dated to about 50 kya, and AMH didn't show up in Europe until about 35 kya. This suggests that Neanderthals were using symbolism at least 10,000 (maybe 15,000) years before Modern Homo sapiens ever came to Europe! Portable Sculptures: potential sculpture attributed to Neanderthals is called the Mask of la Roche-Cotard. The artifact has been dated to around 33 kya, and it was found in a cave named La Roche-Cotard on the banks of the Loire River in France. The Mask of la Roche-Cotard has been attributed to the Mousterian period and culture, suggesting that it was a product of Neanderthals. This artifact is a piece of flint that has been shaped to resemble the top portion of a face (eyebrows and the bridge of a nose), and a piece of bone was pushed through a hole in the "nose", possibly to represent eyes.

Ileret Footprints

dating to around 1.5 mya. They reveal that the Ileret H. erectus walked just like a modern human. In fact, these prints provide the first solid evidence of fully modern walking. We know this because the footprints have all the fundamentals that we see in our feet, namely, the double arch (the long one extending from your heel to the base of your toes and the side- to- side one) and an adducted big toe (the big toe is close to the second toe). the prints are big, as would be expected given the great heights of H. erectus compared to earlier hominins. The pelvis and leg bones of H. erectus had strongly indicated the modern form of walking. The Ileret footprints provide further proof that this hominin had a foot adapted for activities requiring travel, such as hunting and long- distance walking, behaviors likely first seen with H. erectus.

Art (two necessary components)

in thropology, we typically define art as "the application of imagination, skill, and style to matter, movements, and sound that goes beyond the purely practical" (Miller 2017). There are a couple of key features in this definition that we're going to focus on: "the application of imagination" and "beyond the purely practical". Art requires complex thought the same way burial would have, but it also requires imagination. art also does not serve any practical purpose.

Shanidar 1

it has been dated between 45-35 kya. Shanidar 1 represents the remains of a male Neanderthal, likely between the ages of 35-50 years. This doesn't sound very old to us, but to another Neanderthal, this would have been considered very old. The skull of Shanidar 1 shows blunt force damage to the left side of the cranium The resulting fractures in his skull possibly led to blindness in one eye, and it appears to have damaged the area of the left hemisphere responsible for movement of the right half of the body. As a result, his right arm is atrophied and his right leg may have been paralyzed. The right arm was fractured in several places, possibly as a result of disease (something like brittle bone disease, perhaps) or trauma. There is also evidence of a possible amputation later in life, resulting in a missing distal radius and ulna and the right hand. His feet show signs of arthritis, which may be the result of traveling across difficult, mountainous terrain in this area of Iraq. But, the most interesting thing about Shanidar 1 is the fact that all of these injuries show signs of healing! The skull fractures are fully healed, and the possible amputation of his right arm had healed. The fact that these injuries are healed, and that Shanidar 1 lived to what would have been old age for Neanderthals, suggests that someone may have been helping this man survive! This burial has been used to infer than Neanderthals as a group may have taken care of the sick and elderly, which some researchers refer to as group concern, or compassion.

Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus)

it is represented by a huge assemblage of fossils. These fossils include the most complete early hominin skeleton found to date, along with bones and teeth of at least 35 other individuals, all bracketed to a depositional period of less than 10,000 years, an eyeblink in human evolution. Second, the fossils provide us with a snapshot of the species: their behavior, their adaptation, and what life was like for them not long after the chimpanzee and human lineages had diverged from their common ancestor in the late Miocene. This picture includes unprecedented ecological detail derived from the study of thousands of fossilized plant and animal remains from the site in conjunction with the study of the fossil hominin remains. The ecological context shows that these early hominins lived in a forest. Unlike an ape's foot, however, Ardi's foot lacked the flexibility required for grasping tree limbs and moving through trees. The musculature and construction of Ardi's foot were rigid, a hominin adaptation for using the foot to propel itself forward when walking bipedally. The phalanges of the feet and hands were curved, indicating grasping capabilities similar to apes'. In addition, Ardi's wrist lacked the articulations and specialized adaptations of today's suspensory, knuckle-walking great apes. These details show that Ardi was adapted to life in the trees and to life on the ground.

Concept of Afterlife?

researchers have found a significant number of skeletons within pits, both in Europe and western Asia. When a skeleton is found in a pit this means that the pit had to have been dug, the corpse was placed inside the pit, and the pit was then filled in. These sorts of pits have been found in Spy Cave in Belgium (36 kya), in various sites in France such as La Chapelle-aux-Saints where the image above is from (60 kya), at Shanidar Cave in Iraq (65-35 kya), and at Amud (70-50 kya) and Tabun (120 kya) in Israel. Most of the intentionally buried skeletons were found in the flexed position - fetal-oriented Their hands and arms were carefully positioned, their legs were typically drawn up toward their torso, and the bodies were typically on their sides or back. This vigilant treatment indicates that care was taken to place the bodies in the prepared pits. Some Neanderthal burials include red ochre, a pigment made from hematite. Red ochre has been used in many cave paintings, but it has also been discovered in association with Neanderthal pit burials at La Ferrassie and La Chapelle-aux-Saints in France, and at Spy Cave in Belgium. In the Neolithic period (starting around 12 kya), some researchers suggest that red ochre had a symbolic meaning in a burial. This pigment could be a symbolic representation of returning to the Earth or of rebirth, in which case the color would symbolize the blood.One Neanderthal site, Shanidar Cave in Iraq, yields other evidence for potential mortuary practices. There is a famous burial from this cave called Shanidar-4, but it's colloquially referred to as the "Flower Burial". In 1960, researchers found an adult male between the ages of 30-45 years placed on his left side in a partial fetal position, which suggests that he was intentionally buried. However, while collecting soil samples to do a pollen analysis to reconstruct climate, a French archaeologist named Arlette Leroi-Gourhan found whole clumps of pollen in association with the burial, rather than individual grains as they found at the rest of the site.Instead, with evidence of other burials at the rest of the site, he thinks this may represent some symbolic behavior and collective memory among Neanderthals, where they revisit burial sites.

Assimilation Model

sometime within 200,000-100,000 yBP, a population of modern heat-adapted H. sapiens migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia. Once arriving in Europe, this population encountered members of their species—the Neandertals—who were as behaviorally and technologically complex as they. Neandertals, cold-adapted people, had evolved from earlier H. sapiens populations in Europe—the early archaic H. sapiens—and they interbred with the newly arrived modern H. sapiens. Therefore, Neandertals' disappearance after 30,000 yBP or so likely resulted not from their extinction but from their assimilation by much larger, more genetically diverse populations of modern humans migrating into Europe from Africa during the late Pleistocene

Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis)

the 40% complete skeleton of an adult female Au. afarensis, found in East Africa. stood only a little more than 1 m (about 3.5 ft) and had somewhat short legs relative to the length of the arms and body trunk. Some authorities have argued that these short legs would have limited the stride in comparison with modern people. Lucy simply was short. phalanges from Lucy's skeleton are the same length as modern humans', but they are curved, like the pre-australopithecines'.

Oldowan tool complex

the first hominin culture and the earliest culture of the Lower Paleolithic.presence of stone tools dating to 3.3 mya from Lomekwi, West Turkana, Kenya. t these early stone tools must have been produced solely by the larger-brained early Homo found at the site, rather than by the contemporary smaller-brained australopithecines. Other evidence indicates, however, that at least some australopithecines made and used stone tools. Though still extraordinarily primitive, the tools would have been effective at cutting, butchering, and other kinds of food processing. The dominant tools, "chopper" tools and flakes (Figure 10.35), discovered in these early hominin sites were used to remove and process the meat from various animals, mostly herbivores. At least two activities were involved: use of flakes with sharp edges for cutting meat from bones, and use of choppers and cobbles to break and smash the bones to access the protein-rich marrow. Through experiments, the South African paleoanthropologist Lucinda Backwell and the French paleoanthropologist Francesco d'Errico have shown this kind of wear to be produced by digging in the ground, especially digging in termite mounds. Their finding supports the idea that early hominins ate insects (in addition to meat). the bone tools may have been used for digging up edible roots. Au. Afarensis, Au. (Kenyanthropus) platyops was found in the same geographic location and same time, it seems likely that this hominin also made and used these tools. Au. garhi used stone tools to process animal remains for food

Upper Paleolithic

the period of AMH occupation in Europe and Eurasia between 45-12 kya. The Upper Paleolithic marks what we call a "Golden Age" or cultural revolution. During this period, we start to see more complex or specialized tool kits, including microliths (small, finely-made stone or bone tools) and spears. As far as symbolism goes, we really see a boom in symbolic thinking in the Upper Paleolithic. Cave art during the Upper Paleolithic is increasingly complex, as are the portable sculptures made by AMH.

Biocultural Approach

the scientific interrelationship between what humans have inherited genetically and our culture.

Sedentism

when people began living permanently in one place instead of moving around to find food