Anth 330 P2

Homo erectus

"Upright man" these hominids became skillful hunters and invented more sophisticated tools for digging, scraping and cutting. They also became the first hominids to migrate from Africa. Also were the first to use fire.

Charles Dawson

"discovered" of Piltdown Specimen, 1912, human-like brain with ape-like teeth, turned out to be a hoax

Zhoukoudian

(700,00-500,000 yrs ago) China cave site, very cold, where FIRE PITS found, prob. homo erectus lived there. "Dragon Bones"

Olduvai Gorge

-the site in which Louis and Mary Leakey found some of the oldest remains of humans and tools.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

1- 1st upright walker 2- small brain case 3- prognathic 4- smaller canines 5- large supraorbital torus(bulging forehead)

Miocene

23 mya - 5.3 mya: Continued radiation of mammals and angiosperms; apelike ancestors of humans appear.

Australopithecus africanus

3.2-2.2 million year., 2.4-2.8 mya. Slender and small. Partial bipedal. (3-4 year old Taung child discovered in 1920's). Southern Africa. Forward foramen magnum Cranial volume 490 cc

Oligocene

34mya, set off by grand coupure, major climate cooling on all fronts, rise of anthropoid grade primates, including ancestors of new world monkeys and all catarrhines

Great Rift Valley

4,000 mile long fault line, slices thru eastern part of the contentent Red sea to the zambezi river, series of mts. and valleys formed millions or yrs ago, ferile volcanic soil, hot springs, 2 of the worlds deepest lakes

Australipithecus afarensis

440cc brain size. Flat nose, strongly jutting jaw, long arms, curved fingers, generally small canines and fully bipedal.

Pliocene

5.3-1.7 mya. Global cooling

Eocene

55- 34 mya; definitively looking for PRIMATES; temperature gets very warm and tropical, europe and N.A. being to separate; adapids and Omomyids

Java Man

A homo erectus discovered by Dutch physician and anatomist Eugene Dubois in 1891 in JAVA Indonesia,

Persistence Hunting

A method of hunting involving running down prey until it collapses from exhaustion. Persistence hunting was the technique used by humans to catch there food.

Foramen magnum

A passage in the skull bone through which the spinal cord enters the spinal column.

Uniface pebble tools

A stone tool having only one side or surface flaked or chipped.

Biface stone tools

AKA Hand axe.

Tim White

An American Paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most famous for his work on Lucy as Australopithecus afarensis with discoverer Donald Johanson.

Homo ergaster

Arose in Africa 2 million years ago, was bigger than habilis. Also had a bigger brain and downward facing nostrils

"Lucy"

Australopithecus afarensis. Johanson. One of first hominin to be found

Taung Child

Austrolopithecus africanus - southern ape found in africa, dismissed as a gorilla, 3-4 yrs old, lived 2.6 mya, juvenile Hominid, Small brain, large jaw. Small brain but bipedal!

Dating methods

C-14 K-Ar dating Relative Dating

Carbon dating

Calculates the proportion of carbon-14 in dead biological material to see how long it has been dead. Up to 50,000 yBP

Bowl shaped pelvis

Characteristic of hominids that accommodates intestines, legs, etc. for an upright stance

Bipedalism first model vs. Big brain first model

Did we become bipedal first then developed brain or developed brain and then became bipedal.

Sexual Dimorphism

Differences in physical characteristics between males and females of the same species. For example, humans are slightly dimorphic for body size, with males being taller, on average, than females of the same population.

Robert Broom

Discovered an adult Australopithecus africanus skull from Sterkfonterin in 1947, making it impossible for skeptic of Tuang to insist that A. africanus was an ape because the adult form was clearly a bidepal hominid. Searched at the South African sites yielding Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominids.2-3 MYO

Cylindrical pelvis

Does not support internal organs. Suggest not bipedal.

Megadont

Enlarged teeth in early hominid, possibly for tough seed and nut diet

Lunate sulcus

Evidence for brain reorganization in hominids; a lower lunate sulcus may mean that more of the brain was meant for cognitive reasoning (e.g., lunate suclus in humans is more posterior)

Michel Brunet

Found Sahelanthropus tchadensis in Chad

Paranthropus boisei

Found in East Africa 2.2-1.3 mya, East African Man, largest brain size so far (525cc), hyper robust, large flat face, sagittal crest with tiny incissors, large molars, and also had the thickest enamel so far (hinting at a diet of seeds, tubers, bulbs, and roots).

Eugene Dubois

He uncovered what he believed to be the remains of a human ancestor. He named his find Homo erectus, meaning human who stands upright. It was nicknamed Java Man

Arthur Smith Woodward

His reputation suffered from his involvement in the Piltdown Man hoax where he gave a name to a new species of hominid from southern England, which was ultimately discovered (after his death) to have been a forgery.

Folsom Site

In Colfax county in New Mexico, association btwn stone tools and extinct form of bison, used fluted points (Folsom points).

Relative Dating

Method of determining the age of a fossil by comparing its placement with that of fossils in other layers of rock

Molecular clock

Model that uses DNA comparisons to estimate the length of time that two species have been evolving independently

Ribbon wear

More homo sapien style of eating where jaw chews in circular motion. Cannot have enlarged canines.

Crushing wear

More primitive diet suggested, tough nuts/seeds.

Turkana Boy

Name of a nearly complete skeleton of a hominid boy found in Kenya. He was a homo-erectus and lived 1.8 million years ago. He was found in 1984 by a member of Richard Leakey (son of Mary and Louis Leakey) team.

Spiral fracture

Name the type of fracture where the bone twists resulting in one or more breaks

Preservation Factors

No disturbance.

Ardipithecus ramidus

No sexual dimorphism, ~3ft tall, bipedal, 4.4 MYO, long limbs and huge hands for climbing, prehensile big toe, wooded environment

Dmanisi

Oldest known archaeological site outside of Africa, Located in the Republic of Georgia and 1.7 and 1.8mya. Homo erectus

Sir Arthur Keith

Piltdown man large brain fits his model, co-conspirator with Dawson.

Eoanthropus dawsonii

Piltdown man's scientific name

Prognathism

Projection of the jaw(s) beyond the projection of the forehead.

Raymond Dart

South Africa, Found the skull of an infant male, Taung child (looked like human) 2.8 MYO.

Laetoli Footprints

The Laetoli footprints were most likely made by Australopithecus afarensis, an early human whose fossils were found in the same sediment layer. The entire footprint trail is almost 27 m (88 ft) long and includes impressions of about 70 early human footprints. 3.6 myo

"Ardi"

The latest fossil discovery in Ethiopia. Of all the scientific discoveries in 2009, the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus was considered by Science to be the Breakthrough of the year. The species is a 4.4 million year old ancestor of humans.

Osteodontokaratic

The term osteodontokeratic was invented by the Australian archaeologist Raymond Dart, to describe the tool kit of our hominid ancestor Australopithecus africanus. Dart believed that Australopithecus built tools out of bone (osteo), teeth (donto) and horn (keratic), because a lot of broken animal bone had been found at the site Makapansgat, South Africa. Other research (such as that of C.K. Brain) has not found evidence supporting Dart's theory.

Lewis and Mary Leakey

These people found lots of Australopithecus and Homo Habilis in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. PS> - lots of places with bones = Ethipia and Kenya

Acheulan Tools

Typically tools found with Homo erectus remains. Ie. Hand axe

Davidson Black

Was invited to work at a medical college in China. He accepted in order to pursue the study of human origins in central Asia. Discovered Peking Man skulls at Zhoukoudian

The Missing Link

What was the creature that was halfway between apes and modern humans called? (Piltdown man)

Peking Man

a homo erectus skeleton about 1.7 million years old Found in Northern China near Beijeing; shows that people settled there more than 500,000 years ago.

Precision Grip

a precise grip in which the tips of the fingers and thumbs come together, enabling fine manipulation

Anaerobic environment

an environment without oxygen

Ozette Village

archaeological excavation site.Village engulfed by mudslide. Very good preservation. esp. wood.

Terra Amata

archaeological site in France excavated in the late 1960s with evidence of seasonal hunting and gathering, living huts, fossil turds, and paleomakeup that tell us about the lifestyles of H. erectus

The First Family

australopithecus afarensis, 1975, Johanson, 3 Ma

Arid environment

desert potential, evaporation exceeds the amount of precipitation

Paranthropus robustus

discovered in Southern Africa in 1938 by Robert Broome; thought to have lived between 2.0 and 1.2 mya; had large sagittal crests, jaws, jaw muscles and post canine teeth

Oldowan Choppers

earliest stone tools, 2.6 mya. Cores probably used as choppers but flakes were also likely important tools. Core would be carried around so expedient flake tools could be made at moment's notice for cutting and scraping. Good for chopping, cutting, crushing and mashing. Both cores and flakes were multipurpose tools

Homo habilis

extinct species of upright east African hominid having some advanced humanlike characteristics. >2 MYO

Piltdown Man

fossil find considered an important link in human evolution until it was shown to be a fake in 1953

Don Johanson

he is known for the discovery of the skeleton of the female hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy", in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia

Dental wear patterns

patterns on human teeth that can tell us about the diet they relied upon for subsistence.

K-Ar dating

radiometric dating method that dates volcanic rocks and ash deposits from 4.5 billion-100,000 BP

Hominid

the group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes (that is, modern humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans plus all their immediate ancestors)

Hominin

the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors (including members of the genera Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Ardipithecus)

Dental Arcade

the parabolic arc that forms the upper or lower row of teeth

Cranial Capacity

the volume of the brain case of the skull