ANTH1

Pre-australopithecines vs australopithecines

Australopithecines have: - Have non honing chewing - Have lost vestiges of apelike, arboreal traits - Have a slight increase in brain relative to body size.

I'm an australopithecine from South Africa. Compared to my other australopithecine friends, my face is much more prognathic. The most famous fossil specimen of my species is the Taung Child, which was a small child that may have been carried off by a large bird of prey.

Australopithecus africanus

Nonhoning chewing

- Blunt, non-projecting canine - Small canine relative to size of other teeth - No diastema - Wear on tips of canines and of third premolars - Cusps on lower third premolar equal size - Honing vs. apical wear - Shearing vs. grinding - Male-male aggression

HOMO ERECTUS IN EUROPE

- By 1.2 MYA, Homo erectus had arrived in Europe - Gran Dolina, Italy - Dated at 900 KYA - Homo erectus in Europe had features that differed from its Asian and African counterparts: wider nose, Increased robusticity - European Homo erectus was somewhat isolated - Separate species? - Homo antecessor - Neanderthals ancestors?

Different ways we have drawn evolutionary australopithecine relationships / Diversification of the Homininae

- By 3 MYA, the australopithecine lineage began to diversify. - Several different lineages coexisting: - Robust australopithecines - Southern australopithecines - Australopithecus garhi - By 2 MYA, genus Homo arrives - Big question: Which hominin lineage gave rise to Homo?

Why is Olduvai Gorge so important?

- Strongly suggested the place would yield early hominin remains. - Laid essential groundwork for our current understanding of the first humans and their place in evolution. - The bits of bone and the teeth found in 1959 turned out to be a crucially important hominin skull. - Expanded the territory in which early hominins were known to have lived—at that point, they were known just from South Africa—but it added a whole new dimension to their variability and geographic distribution. - The Leakeys' pioneering work in East Africa was built around questions still central to paleoanthropology..

Increased Symbolic Behavior: Art

- Cave paintings - Carvings - Venus of Schelkingen, Venus of Willendorf

Who Were the First Hominins? Sahelanthropus tchadensis

- Chad, Central Africa - 6-7 million years old - Forest near lakeo - Found by team led by Michel Brunet - Anatomy: Small brain (350 cc) - Possibly bipedal (position of foramen magnum) - Nonhoning chewing - U-shaped dental arcade - Reduced canines - Massive brow ridge - Fossils found so far: One cranium, Five pieces of jaw, Several teeth, Bipedalism disputed, Foramen magnum position could indicate bipedalism, but no post-cranial bones have been identified - Canines similar to other miocene apes - Possible common ancestor to chimpanzees and humans

HOMO ERECTUS IN EURASIA

- Homo erectus evolved in Africa, but almost immediately spread into Asia. - Some of the oldest Homo erectus fossils found outside of Africa - Dmanisi, Georgia - Dated to 1.7 MYA - Cranial capacities range from 600-750 cc - Long legs compared to arms

I'm dated to around 4.4 million years ago. While my skull and spine suggest I was bipedal, my divergent big toe and relatively long arms suggest I was spending quite a lot of time in the trees as while. In fact, finding me has shown that the first bipeds may not have originated in an open savanna, like previously thought.

Ardipithecus ramidus

Which of these is not a relative dating method?

radiocarbon dating

Agriculture

- Agriculture has been amazing for the development of human society, but not so great for our health and development! - Example: Because we eat softer foods, our jaws do not grow as strong, and we end up with crowded teeth and malocclusion.

Modern Homo sapiens

- Modern Homo sapiens look like us! - High, vertical forehead - Pronounced chin - Reduced brow ridges - Flat faces - Narrow, gracile bones

Archaic Homo sapiens in Africa

-Large face with browridge -Large, heavily worn front teeth -Near modern brain size 1. Bodo (Ethiopia) -600,000 years old -Brain 1,250 cc 2. Kabwe (Zambia) -~250,000 years old -Brain 1,300 cc

Which of these are believed to be ancestral of modern tarsiers?

omomyids

3 groups of primates living in the Fayum

◦ Oligopithecids ◦ Parapithecids ◦ Propliopithecids

Archaic Homo sapiens in Europe

- All date to between 500 - 200 KYA - Large brow ridges, robust skeletons - Projecting face with wide nasal aperture (opening for nose) - Selection for large front teeth - possibly used as a tool - Was this population becoming genetically isolated?

South African Australopithecines

- Au. africanus - Au. (Paranthropus) robustus - Au. sediba

Eocene Euprimates: Omomyids

- Eocene euprimates that may be ancestral to tarsiers. - had large eyes and large eye orbits on the front of the skull, grasping hands and grasping feet, and a reduced snout. Like tarsiers, these earliest primates were nocturnal -

AL-333 Cold Case

- In 1975, Don Johanson and his team found a trove of over 200 fossils - "First Family" - Between 13 and 17 individuals - Johanson: 9 adults, 5 children, 3 adolescents - Individuals appeared to have died at the same time - Possible explanations: Flash flood/Large predator

Archaic Homo sapiens in Asia

- Ngandong, Indonesia - Narmada, India - Dali, China - long, low braincases, large brow ridges, and cranial capacity within modern human range

Paleolithic Time Frame

- Paleolithic : "Old Stone Age" - Middle Paleolithic: associated with archaic H. sapiens tool use - Upper Paleolithic: some archaic, modern H. sapiens tool use

Models for Explaining modern Homo sapiens origins

- See notability

Half-life

- The time it takes for half of the radioisotopes in a substance to decay; used in various radiometric dating methods. - 5,730 years - Used for radiocarbon dating - Relate back to "Absolute dating: Radiocarbon dating"

RELATIVE METHODS OF DATING: WHICH IS OLDER, YOUNGER, THE SAME AGE?

- The time of events can be determined based on relative position in the stratagraphic column - Stratigraphic Correlation - Chemical Dating - Fluorine dating - Biostratigraphic (Faunal) Dating - Cultural Dating

Neandertal Body Proportions

1. Bergmann's Rule - Cold-adapted animals are large - Reduced surface area relative to body size (reduce heat loss) 2. Allen's Rule - Cold-adapted animals have short limbs - Reduce surface area through which heat escapes

Where do we find Homo erectus fossils?

Africa, Eurasia, Indonesia, China, Europe

I lived about 3.6 - 3 mya, in East Africa. My height has been contested, as one specimen suggests I was only 3 ½ feet tall, but another shows that I may have been much taller! My species may have been sexually dimorphic. I'm quite possibly one of the most famous of all of the hominin fossil specimens, too!

Australopithecus afarensis

Early Modern Homo Sapiens (Culture and behavior)

Check tables in notability

I lived about 2.4 - 1.6 mya, in Africa. For many years, it was thought that I was the first to use tools, but recent evidence has suggested that my australopithecine cousins were doing that before I was! My cranial capacity is smaller than the rest of the members of my genus, at around 650cc.

Homo habilis

Human and Nonhuman Dentition

Humans' nonhoning chewing complex is characterized by canines that are much shorter than those found in nonhuman primates' honing complex, such as this gorilla's. In addition, humans lack the diastema that nonhuman primates such as gorillas have.

I lived around 6 mya, in East Africa. Paleoanthropologists don't know too much about me, except that the shape of my femur suggests that I was bipedal. I'm represented by a fairly small sample of post-cranial bones.

Orrorin tugenensis

2/3 haplorhine primates: Parapithecids

- Anthropoid ancestors from the Oligocene, found in the Fayum, Egypt - 2/1/3/3 dental formula

Was Au. afarensis alone?

- For years, researchers hypothesized that Australopithecus was a single, evolving lineage - The discovery of Burtele foot fossil in 2012 indicates that another fossil, similar to Ardipithecus, coexisted with Au. afarensis - Opposable big toe: tree climbing - Possible contender: Australopithecus platyops, aka Kenyanthropus platyops

Origin of the Hominoids (Apes)

- Miocene Epoch - Warming trend at end of Oligocene - Raditation of Proconsulids (17-22 mya) - Y-5 molars, fruit eating, honing canines - No tail - Early apes

Notable Homo erectus fossils

- OH 9 (Olduvai Hominid 9) - Daka skull - Bodo skull - Sangiran 17 - Peking Man

How does Homo habilis differ from the australopithecines?

- See tables on notability

True or false: You can use 14c (radiocarbon) to date things like fossils and rocks.

False

Sometimes researchers will call members of my genus that lived in Africa a different name. One thing is for sure, though, and that's the fact that I was the first hominin to leave Africa. In fact, fossils of my species have been found in China and Indonesia. My cranial capacity varies 900 - 1100 cc, which is good, because my big brain was needed for all of those tools, fire, and early cultural developments that I made!

Homo erectus/ergaster

What primate features have changed between the Paleocene and the Oligocene?

Oligocenes had but Paleocenes didn't: - Increased Vision - Partially/fully enclosed eye orbits - Convergent eyes - Primate like dentition (small incisors, large canines) - Nails at ends of digits - Opposable thumbs (mobile, grasping digits) - Reduced smell - Short snout - Large brain size

Çatalhöyük

One of the earliest agricultural communities in southwest Asia, Çatalhöyük eventually grew into a city with a large sedentary population. (a) This reconstruction shows how closely spaced the houses and other buildings were in the bur- geoning city. (b) Skeletal remains have been discovered at the Çatalhöyük site, such as this Neolithic adult male. An obsidian knife can be seen on his left shoulder. Skeletons such as these provide an immense amount of information about life in this early city. - 10 KYA - Farming, then villages

Why is it hard to determine the evolutionary relationships of australopithecine species?

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. - The rate at which early hominid evolution happened is still impossible to determine because there are not enough fossils. - Many possible ways in which they might related to the other species - diversity becomes even more complex with the appearance of new adaptive patterns associated with the origin and evolution of a new genus, the genus Homo.

The Good and Bad of Agriculture

- Agriculture had many advantages for human adaptation, but there were also trade-offs. - Advantages 1. Support for larger numbers of people 2. Creation of surplus food 3. Long-term food storage, especially of grains - Disadvantages 1. Increased demands on the environment (land degradation) 2. Pollution 3. Conflict between populations competing for the same lands 4. Loss of wild species through overhunting 5. Decline of biodiversity 5. Health costs and quality-of-life implications

Australopithecus garhi

- Found in Ethiopia - Dated to 2.5 MYA - Discovered by team led by Tim White and Yohanes Haile-Selassie - Anatomy: Large teeth (premolars and molars), Greater prognathism than other australopithecines, Cranial capacity: 450 cc, Long legs - Stone tools? - Antelope bones with cut marks discovered in association with Au. garhi bones.

Australopithecus anamensis

- Found in Kenya and Ethiopia - Dated to 4 MYA (Pliocene epoch) - Found by teams led by Meave Leakey and Tim WhiteoAnatomy:oBipedal (tibia) - Nonhoning canines - U-shaped dental arcade - Found in woodland area - 21 fossils found so far - Upper and lower jaws, Cranial fragments, Humerus fragment, Tibia fragments, Radius fragments

Australopithecus Africanus: Taung Child

- Identified by Raymond Dart in 1924 - Australopithecus africanus - Approximately 3 years old at death - First australopithecine identified! - Cranial capacity at age 3 larger than fully grown chimpanzee - 400 CC - Gracile, flat face without pronounced brow ridge - Cause of death undetermined for years - Likely eagle or large bird

PEKING MAN

- In the 1920s and 1930s, remains of up to 40 individuals were found in a cave in Zhoukoudian locality China - Dated to 750 KYA - Caves indicate these individuals were not washed in after death, nor were they inadvertently left by a predator - Stone tools, controlled fire - Fossils lost after WWII, but thankfully many casts were distributed throughout the world!

HEALTH AND THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: Nutritional Consequences of Iron Deficiency

- Iron deficiency (anemia) - Lack of meat - Corn reduces iron absorption - Hookworm causes iron loss - Skeletal indicators - Porotic hyperostosis - Cribra orbitalia - Iron deficiency is rarely caused by dietary stress and is more often related to nondietary factors. Parasitic infections, for example, are a primary cause of iron deficiency anemia in many regions of the globe. One such infection, hookworm disease, is caused when someone inhales or ingests hookworm larvae. The worm (Ancylostoma duodenale, Necator americanus) extracts blood from its human host by using the sharp teethlike structures in its head to latch itself to the intestinal wall. When several hundred or more of these worms are present, severe blood loss—and therefore anemia—can result. - Abundant evidence of anemia exists among skeletons in numerous settings worldwide. In response to anemia, red blood cells increase in production, potentially leading to porotic hyperostosis in skulls and cribra orbitalia in eye orbits. These abnormalities were quite rare before the Holocene but then suddenly appeared, especially in agricultural groups. - porotic hyperostosis - Expansion and porosity of cranial bones due to anemia caused byan iron-deficient diet, parasitic infection, or genetic disease. - cribra orbitalia - Porosity in the eye orbits due to anemia caused by an iron-deficient diet, parasitic infection, or genetic disease.

Relative method: Flourine dating

- James Middleton - A relative (chemical) dating method that compares the accumulation of fluorine in animal and human bones from the same site. - Fluorine dating reveals the relative ages of fossil bones at the same site. It does not provide absolute dates, and it cannot be used to compare fossils from different sites because fluorine levels in soil vary from place to place. - Applied fluorine dating to human and animal remains found in Krapina, Croatia, in the late 1890s and early 1900s. - Hypothesizing that the bones buried in strata at the site had absorbed fluorine, he wanted to determine if the human bones, all representing humans called Neanderthals, were the same age as the animal bones. - The animal bones were from long-extinct, Pleistocene forms of rhinoceroses, cave bears, and cattle. Some scientists believed that the Krapina Neanderthals were not ancient, however, but had been living at the site in recent times only. - They considered the Neanderthals simply different from people living in Croatia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. - If Gorjanović-Kramberger could show that the two sets of bones—human and animal—contained the same amount of fluorine, he could prove that the Neandertals were ancient and in fact, had lived at the same time as the extinct animals. - When the simple chemical analysis revealed that the Neandertal bones and the animal bones had very similar amounts of fluorine, this pioneering study demonstrated human beings' deep roots.

Neanderthal Intelligence: Spoken Language

- Kebara hyoid: Same shape as modern humans - Brain laterality: Scratches on teeth indicate handedness and thus laterality. - FOXP2 gene: Only present in DNA of modern humans and Neanderthals

Miocene apes: Proconsulid

- Kenya - 23-14 MYA during Miocene epoch - 2:1:2:3 dental pattern - Y-5 pattern, and the cusps are wide and rounded for eating fruit - frugivore - Smaller hands - More restricted pelvis - Arms and legs are same size - lacked specializations for knuckle-walking or arm-swinging - had wrist bones (carpals) that articulated directly with the ulna, one of the two forearm bones. This direct articulation, a primitive characteristic, indicates relatively limited wrist mobility - anklebones were slender, but the big toes were large - walked on the tops of tree branches on all fours - Because these creatures lacked a number of anatomical features that living hominoids share, they can be used as a model of the animals that gave rise to the last common ancestor of all later hominoids.

Late Archaic Homo sapiens in Europe: Neanderthals

- Krapina Rock Shelter, Croatia - 130,000 years old - Hundreds of fossils - Cannibalism? - Be careful with interpretations about cut marks - they may not always indicate cannibalism! - Cold adaptations -Large nasal aperture (heat the air) -Large infraorbital foramina (blood flow to face)

Australopithecus afarensis pt2

- Laetoli footprints - Dated at 3.6 mya - Bipedalism - Evidence of sexual dimorphism - Two, possibly three bipedal individuals - There is some evidence that Au. afarensis spent time in trees as well - Curved phalanges, but not as curved as a modern ape - Dikika infant scapula revealed anatomies that are consistent with suspension - Au. afarensis may have climbed into trees for safety at night.

What kind of cultural behaviors are associated with Homo erectus?

- Larger brain (900-1100cc) - Small back teeth - Low, long, thick skull with small chewing muscles and large browridge - Long legs - Increased body size - Increased tool use - Acheulean tool complex

Absolute dating: Radiocarbon dating

- Willard Libby - The radiometric dating method in which the ratio of 14C to 12C is measured to provide an absolute date for a material younger than 50,000 years. - The element carbon exists in multiple forms that all contain the same number of protons - Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons - 14C is not stable and decays into Nitrogen-14 - The rate at which 14C decays into 14N happens at a predictable and constant rate - Half of the radioactive carbon in a substance will decay into nitrogen in 5,730 years (Half-life) - During life, 14C levels are stable - After death, 14C levels begin to decay - We can use the percentage left in a bone to tell how old it is, but only up to 50-75,000 years! - Involves dating carbon isotopes. - Isotopes are variants of an element based on the number of neutrons in the atom's nucleus. Some isotopes of an element are stable—in theory, they will last for an infinite amount of time, at least with respect to maintaining the same number of neutrons. - Other isotopes are unstable—over time, they decay radioactively, transforming themselves into stable isotopes of either the same element or another element. - Carbon has one radioisotope (unstable or radioactive isotope), identified as 14C because it has an atomic mass of 14 (SIX protons and EIGHT neutrons) in its nucleus. - Carbon has two non-radioisotopes (stable isotopes), 12C (carbon-12) and 13C (carbon-13), which have an atomic mass of 12 (SIX protons and SIX neutrons) and 13 (SIX protons and SEVEN neutrons), respectively. - The radiocarbon method focuses on what happens to the radioisotope, 14C. - Over 5,730 years, half of the 14C decays into 14N. Over the next 5,730 years, another half of the 14C decays again into 14N, and so on, until eventually most of the radioisotope will have decayed. The number representing the time it takes for half of the radioisotope to decay is called the half-life

Principle of Faunal Succession

- William Smith - Layers of rock— strata—were always positioned the same way relative to each other. He deduced this pattern from the colors and other physical properties of each stratum. He also realized that each stratum contained a unique collection of fossils representing long-extinct life-forms. From these observations, he hypothesized that the relative positions of strata and the kinds of fossils found in the layers were the same throughout England. He called his hypothesis the Principle of Faunal Succession, and he tested it with a research program that correlated strata and fossils throughout Britain. - Observation that assemblages of fossil plants and animals follow or succeed each other in time in a predictable manner, even when found in different places.

Carpolestes: An Interesting Plesiadapiform

- Wyoming: 58 mya. - Tropical forest - Primate features: Grasping feet; nail on big toe - Proprimate features: Claws on most digits; nonconvergent eyes - A link between primate like and true primate ancestors

How do we think humans got to Australia?

- boats - sea levels were considerably lower than they are today, by as much as 90 m (300 ft), exposing land surfaces now submerged by water and making them available for human occupation and movement between landmasses. - 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. - early Australians also bear a strong similarity to native people who inhabit the continent today; the anatomical evidence indicates an ancestral-descendant relationship 1. Lake Mungo, western New South Wales - 42,000 yBP - skulls resemble ones from Kow Swamp in Victoria's Murray River valley - 2 skulls - adult male and an adult female - modern characteristics: the skulls are high and have rounded foreheads with small browridges - The fossil remains show continuity with modern native people of Australia, but the mtDNA lineage went extinct at some point after 40,000 yBP. 2. Kow Swamp - 13,000-9,000 yBP - more robust, with larger browridges, larger and more robust faces, and lower foreheads than the Lake Mungo skulls - share features with H. erectus and later Indonesian hominins, especially in the facial skeleton, such as in the shape of the eye orbits.

Neanderthal Intelligence: Burial

Most of the intentionally buried skeletons were in flexed (fetal-oriented) postures. The hands and arms were carefully positioned, and the bodies were typically on their sides or backs. This vigilant treatment indicates that care was taken to place the bodies in the prepared pits. The skeletons' postures suggest, therefore, that these burials were not just disposals. They represented purposeful symbolic behavior linking those who died and those who were living.

True or false: Australopithecines had the capacity for tool usage.

True

Archaic homo sapiens (Culture and behavior)

Check tables in notability

Why do some researchers think that Australopithecus aethiopicus, Australopithecus boisei, and Australopithecus robustus should be considered to be from a separate genus (Paranthropus)?

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 sur- faces, combined with large chewing muscles, made robust australopithecines the ultimate grinders. Australopithecines' greater cranial robusticity after about 2.5 mya indicates that they were increasingly focused on acquiring and eating foods that required more powerful chewing muscles than before.

During which epoch is it generally accepted that there was a radiation of apes?

Oligocene

I lived about 2.5 mya and I have a cranial capacity of about 410 cc. I was likely vegetarian - you can tell because of my molars and my large sagittal crest. In fact, I have the largest sagittal crest of any member of my genus; it's so big that I look like I have a Mohawk!

Paranthropus aethiopicus

Which of these hominins is most likely to have been vegetarian?

Paranthropus boisei

Poor me. For a long time, people thought that I was dumb and brutish, just because of my robust body shape and large brow ridges. But they were wrong, because I have a cranial capacity of almost 1750 cc! I made art and complex tools, and it was likely that I used speech in a similar capacity to Homo sapiens. I lived in Europe and the Middle East from around 130 - 30 kya, and what happened to me is still being debated. I may be gone, but chances are you have between 1 and 4 percent of my DNA still living inside you.

Homo neanderthalensis

The most famous australopithecine fossil is nicknamed...

Lucy

Assimilation Model for Modern Human Variation

The assimilation model fits between the Out of Africa model and the multi-regional continuity model.

Advantage and disadvantage of radiocarbon method

The great advantage of the radiocarbon method is that it has a precise baseline for the start of the clock—the death of the organism. The disadvantage for dating major events in primate and human evolution is that 14C has a fairly short half-life, rendering its dates most accurate for only the past 50,000 yBP. Dates can be deter- mined for another 25,000 years or so beyond that, but they are less precise owing to the very small amount of 14C left.

Australopithecus (Kenyanthropus) platyops

- "Flat Face" - Found in Kenya - Lived in a woodland area - Discovered by a team lead by Meave Leakey - Anatomy: Bipedal, Small molars, Flat face

Miocene apes: Sivapithecids

- (8-12 mya) - Pakistan and India - Thick enamel on teeth; hard-food eater (seeds and nuts) - Orangutan-like skull; proconsulid-like body. - skulls are strikingly similar to those of living orangutans, with concave faces, narrow nasal bones, oval eye orbits from top to bottom, projecting premaxillas (the premaxilla is the area of the face below the nose), large upper central incisors, and tiny lateral incisors - Khoratpithecus (6-9 mya) 1. Thailand. 2. broad front teeth, and canines with a flat surface on the tongue side—indicate that this Miocene primate is living orangutans' most likely ancestor. - Gigantopithecus (0.5-8.0 mya) 1. India, northern Vietnam, and southern China 2. named for its massive body 3. 10 ft, 660 lbs 4. thick-enameled teeth and massive, thick-boned jaws, adapted for eating very hard foods, likely nuts, seeds, fruits, leaves, and stems.

The Paranthropines: Paranthropus Robustus

- 1.5-2 mya - Swartkscrans cave, South Africa -Small, nonhoning canines; very large premolars and molars -Bipedal -Appear as Au. africanus begins to disappear, suggesting descent -Convergent evolution?

South African Australopithecines: Australopitchecus africanus

- 2-3 mya - Small, nonhoning canines; large premolars and molars - Bipedal - Small canines - "Mrs Ples": most complete skull found - might actually be Mr. Ples!

HOMO HABILIS: THE FIRST SPECIES OF THE GENUS HOMO

- 2.5-1.8 mya -Increased use of material culture -Larger brain -Smaller teeth -Australopithecus-like body - First identified by Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge, 1960 - Homo habilis = "handy man" - Larger cranial capacity than Australopithecus, but smaller than Homo erectus - Average = 660 cc - Associated with Olduwan tool complex

Neanderthal: La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal

- 60,000 years old - M. Boule interpretation - argued that the Neanderthal cranial and post-cranial traits were simply too primitive and too different from modern people's to have provided the ancestral basis for later human evolution - How Boule interpreted Neanderthals: "walked with a bent-kneed gait—as in chimpanzees that walk bipedally—and could not have been able to speak - Arthritic , cold-adapted, elderly male Neanderthal - one of the most complete Neanderthals. they were too primitive, too stupid, and too aberrant to have evolved into modern humans."

Absolute dating: Dendrochronology

- A chronometric dating method that uses a tree-ring count to determine numerical age. - Douglass noted that in temperate and very cold regions, tree growth stopped in the winter and reactivated in the spring. This intermittence resulted in layers of growth, visible as a concentric ring pattern in the cross section of a tree. Douglass's dendrochronology, or tree-ring method of dating, involved counting the number of rings, each of which represented one year of growth. Tree-ring dating was first used on tree sections found in archaeological sites in the American Southwest. It works only when wood is as excellently preserved as it is in the arid Southwest, however, and thus can be applied in only a limited number of areas in the world.

Non-Radiometric Absolute Dating Methods: Thermoluminescence dating

- A dating method in which the energy trapped in a material is measured when the object is heated. - based on the amount of the sun's energy trapped in material such as sediment, stone, or ceramic - When such an object is heated—as in an early hominin's campfire—the energy it contains is released as light. The next time that same material is heated—as in the laboratory to derive a date—the amount of light released reveals the amount of time since the material was first heated. This method can date materials back to about 800,000 yBP. - Scientists must consider various factors when choosing an absolute dating method, among them the material involved and the time range in which the fossilized organism likely lived. Some methods date the fossil, some date the context of the fossil, and others date either the fossil or the context.

Fossilization

- A hominin collapses and dies on the shore. - After the soft-tissue remains decay, only the skeleton is left. - The hominin's footprints are left in the mud. - The water level of the lake rises, and the lake sediments settle and cover the hominin's bones and footprints. - The bones fossilize in the thick layer of sediment at the bottom of the lake, while sediments continue to be deposited as layers. - The lake dries, and other geologic processes occur. - The fossil is not embedded in a geologic stratum. - Erosion exposes strata in a geologic column, revealing the fossil skeleton and footprints. - A physical anthropologist examines the fossilized hominin remains. The bones provide material for study. The ancient soils (paleosols) provide material for environmental reconstruction.

Limitations of the Fossil Record

- A perfect representation of any given time period is nearly impossible. - Earth has a complex geologic history full of destructive processes! - Some time periods are better represented than others. - The Fayum Depression - 29-37 MYA: great - 25 MYA: nothing•Some regions are better suited for fossilization - Acidic forest soil: not so great for arboreal primate fossils! - Key stages in the record of past life are missing because (1) paleontologists have searched for fossils in only some places—they simply have not discovered all the fossil-bearing rocks around the world; (2) fossils have been preserved in some places and not in others; and (3) rock sequences containing fossils are not complete in all places.

Relative dating: Biostratigraphic (Faunal) Dating

- A relative dating method that uses the associations of fossils in strata to determine each layer's approximate age. - Gorjanović-Kramberger recognized that different strata include different kinds of fossils. He regarded these findings as chronologically significant. - the forms of specific animals and plants change over time, so the forms discovered within individual layers can help determine relative ages. - Biostratigraphic dating draws on the first appearance of an organism in the fos- sil record, that organism's evolutionary development over time, and the organism's extinction. - Pliocene and Pleistocene African rodents, pigs, and elephants and Eurasian mammals of all kinds have been especially useful for biostratigraphic dating because they show significant evolutionary change. - By determining when certain animals lived, scientists have developed biostratigraphic markers, or index fossils, for assessing age. For example, giant deer—sometimes called Irish elk—provide useful information based on their extinction because the species appears to have died out in northern Europe around 10,600 yBP, the presence of Irish elk fossils in a northern European site indicates that the site predates 10,600 yBP. - Mammoths—relatives of modern elephants—first lived and evolved in Africa, then spread to Europe, Asia, and North America around 2.5 mya. Mammoths went extinct in Africa but continued to evolve elsewhere. After 2.5 mya, their molars became increasingly complex. Paleontologists have determined how these teeth changed from the species' emergence to its complete extinction. Therefore, when paleontologists discover fossilized mammoth teeth, they can determine the relative age of the site simply by looking at the molars. Likewise, changes in molar shape and size have helped paleontologists develop relative ages for Pliocene-Pleistocene pigs in East Africa and South Africa

ABSOLUTE METHODS OF DATING: WHAT IS THE NUMERICAL AGE?

- Absolute dating is the process of determining an age on a specified chronology in archaeology and geology. - Dendrochronology - Radiocarbon dating - Radiopotassium dating - Fission track dating Non radiometric: - Amino acid dating - Paleomagnetic dating - Electron spin resonance dating - Thermoluminescence dating

EVOLUTION OF HOMO ERECTUS: BIOLOGICAL CHANGE, ADAPTATION, AND IMPROVED NUTRITION

- Accessing resources from the environment - Increased meat and increased brain growth - Changes in tool use - Acheulian complex - Organized hunting and processing - Controlled fire - Larger, more complicated social groups - Greater reliance on hunting associated with larger social group (band) size - Feedback loop between energetically dense food and brain growth

Agriculture: the human body skeleton

- Activity patterns - Leisure Time - While foragers, such as this band of !Kung, must spend many hours searching for and hunting for food, their work does not preclude them from relaxing for periods of time. However, studies of numerous foraging groups have shown a great deal of variation in the workloads and amounts of leisure time of hunter-gatherers. - the bones of the postcranial skeleton are highly plastic during the years of growth and of development, all the way through adult- hood. The general shape and size of bones—the femur, in the leg, for example, or the humerus, in the arm—are determined by a person's genes. However, the finer details are subject to work and activity. Highly physically active people's bones tend to be larger and more developed than those of not so physically active people. - agricultural populations' bones became smaller, which we interpret to mean that those populations worked less hard than their hunter-gatherer ancestors - Decrease in osteoarthritis, a disorder of the skeletal joints that often results from excessive stresses on places where the bones articulate - the reduction in human bone size represents an overall evolutionary trend in the past 20,000 years - Modern hunter-gatherers - Lee & DeVore(1960s) - workload - Variation dependent on local ecology and food

where and when did agriculture develop around the world?

- Agriculture took hold in at least 11 regions of the world and spread through a process called diffusion - Southwest Asia is the first region to yield evidence for domestication ,while sub-Saharan Africa and the US are the last. - Plant domestication was nearly as early in China (millet at 10,000 yBP and rice at 8,000 yBP) as in southwestern Asia - Mexico (bottle gourds, 10,000 yBP; corn, 9,000 yBP), New Guinea (taro and banana trees, 7,000 yBP), eastern North Amer- ica (squash, sunflowers, and goosefoot, 6,000 yBP), South America (potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc, 5,250 yBP), and Africa south of the Sahara Desert (sorghum and yams, 4,500 yBP).

Absolute dating: Fission track dating

- An absolute dating method based on the measurement of the number of tracks left by the decay of uranium-238. - Based on the radioactive decay of naturally occurring 238U (uranium-238). When the isotope decays, fragments produced in the decay, or fission, process leave a line, or track, measuring just a few atoms wide on the rock crystal. Thus, the greater the number of tracks, the older the material being dated. This method can date materials from the past several million years and has been used for dating volcanic ash and obsidian (volcanic glass).

Non-Radiometric Absolute Dating Methods: Paleomagnetic Dating

- An absolute dating method based on the reversals of Earth's magnetic field. - The Earth's magnetic poles have reversed many times over the course of the planet's history - Normal and reversed polarity can be read almost like a bar code! - We can use this pattern to infer the age of rocks in a region and the fossils these rocks contain. - movement of the planet's liquid (iron alloy) outer core creates an electric current that results in the magnetic field. When the magnetic field shifts, the magnetic north and south poles shift. - In the past 6 million years, for example, there have been four "epochs" of polar changes, or four different well-dated periods. Because certain metal grains align themselves with Earth's magnetic field as they settle and help form sedimentary rock, geologists can examine the orientation of these fragments to determine the planet's polarity at the time of the rock's formation. In addition, when molten igneous rock is produced, each new layer records the polarity, which can later be determined from the hard igneous rock.

Non-Radiometric Absolute Dating Methods: Amino acid dating

- An absolute dating method for organic remains such as bone or shell, in which the amount of change in the amino acid structure is measured. - based on the decay of protein molecules after an organism's death - when a protein is viewed under high-power magnification with a specialized light called polarized light, the molecules bend light to the left (and are called l-isomers) or to the right (d-isomers). Once an organism dies, these l-isomers begin to transform to d-isomers. The longer the organism has been dead, the greater the number of d-isomers.

Non-Radiometric Absolute Dating Methods: Electron spin resonance dating

- An absolute dating method that uses microwave spectroscopy to measure electrons' spins in various materials. - Once buried, remains such as bones and teeth absorb radioisotopes and so record the radioactivity in the surrounding burial environment. The older the fossil, the greater the concentration, and this method can date material from a few thousand to more than a million years old.

Denisovan

- An extinct hominin, likely of the genus Homo. Genetic evidence suggests they are related to Neandertals and modern Homo sapiens, perhaps sharing a common ancestor. - 40,000 yBP - from populations living in Melanesia (New Guinea and Bougainville Islands) and China. - found only a few bones and teeth - we do not know what the Denisovans looked like

HEALTH AND THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: Nutritional Consequences: Heights on the Decline

- Andrés del Ángel have found a general decline in height among the Maya of the first mil- lennium AD, a time in which this ancient civilization experienced a deterioration in environment and in living circumstances. Thus, for some groups shorter height might have been the biological result of adopting agriculture, but for other groups it might have been an adaptation to reduced resources, as smaller bodies require less food. However, all the human populations whose height decreased because of stress also experienced elevated infectious disease loads, anemia, malnutrition, and other factors indicating that a smaller body does not confer an adaptive advantage. These people were smaller but not healthier.

3/3 haplorhine primates: Propliopithecids

- Anthropoid ancestors from the Oligocene, found in the Fayum, Egypt. - Early Catarrhines - Aegyptopithecus 1. Arboreal quadruped 2. Monkey/ape ancestor 3. Sagittal crest 4. Small brain 5. Primitive catarrhine - Saadanius 1. Saudi Arabia; 28 mya 2. Larger than Aegyptopithecus 3. This genus precedes split between Old World monkeys and apes.

DNA from Archaic Homo sapiens

- Archaic H. sapiens DNA present in modern humans - Neandertals - 1%-4% in modern humans - Denisovans - Interbred with ancestors of Melanesians and Chinese

Archaic Homo sapiens

- Archaic Homo sapiens have different features: - long, low skull - Pronounced brow ridge - Wider nose - Projecting occipital bone (occipital bun) - Possibly different species: Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis

HOMO ERECTUS: EARLY HOMO GOES GLOBAL

- Around 1.8 MYA, Homo leaves Africa - H. erectus - 1.8- 0.3 million years - Africa, Asia, & Europe - Anatomy & behaviorL Larger brain (900-1100cc): Small back teeth, Low, long, thick skull with small chewing muscles and large browridge, Long legs, increased body size, Increased tool use - Acheulean tool complex - The culture associated with H. erectus, including handaxes and other types of stone tools; more refined than the earlier Oldowan tools. - more sophisticated than 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 (Eg. handaxe) - 1.6 MYA - 200 KYA - Pear or tear drop shaped - Characterized by central cores and flaked blades - Bifacial, unlike Oldowan technology - Generalized tools - Chopping, Scraping, digging

Climate stability and agriculture

- As the climate became more stable, humans could more easily rely on specific foods from year to year. - Population growth may have also triggered plant domestication - as populations grow, it is harder to sustain them with hunting and foraging. - Food storage - Controlled distribution

HEALTH AND THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: Population Crowding and Infectious Disease

- As the population increased, communities grew more committed to raising crops and became more sedentary, living in one place the entire year. Before then, the smaller number of people had moved around at least on a seasonal basis. The increase in size and density of the population, especially when the population remained in place, had enormous, negative effects on people's health. In short, humans began to live in conditions crowded and unsanitary enough to support pathogens. - crowding sets up conditions for increased interpersonal contact and the spread of infectious microorganisms and viruses - periosteal reaction - 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 - tibias are swollen and bowed, while crania have a distinctive uneven, pitted texture, venereal syphilis, nonvenereal (also called endemic) syphilis, and yaws. - Tuberculosis, measles, mumps, cholera, flu, small pox

Neanderthal Intelligence: Symbolism

- At Cueva de los Aviones and Cueva Antón, perforated marine shells similar to those in Africa and the Middle East had been painted with naturally occurring pigments, especially red, yellow, and orange. These shells were likely strung around an individual's neck. These body ornaments are evidence that Neandertals used symbolism at least 10,000 years before the appearance of modern H. sapiens in Europe. In addition, red ochre—a pigment derived from the mineral hematite—was used by hominins at least by 250,000 yBP in a range of Eu- ropean hominin contexts. Neandertals used symbols to communicate ideas and expressions.

Changing World, Changing Species

- Australopithecines develop in the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs - Sometimes referred to as "Plio-Pleistocene" - Warm, dry climate in Africa - Periods of glaciation during Pleistocene likely drove speciation - Eastern and Southern Africa - more savanna, fewer forests

Evolutionary Relationships

- Because DNA is no longer present, we have to rely on morphological characteristics - While there is consensus that Ardipithecus ramidus is likely ancestral to Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis, there is little consensus about the evolutionary relationships of other australopithecine species.

Why Did Hominins Evolve: Hunting Hypothesis

- Charles Darwin: Hunting Hypothesis - Hominins evolved in Africa - Hunting meat = tool use - Tool use = small canine - Tool use = free hands - Free hands = bipedalism - But...Darwin was wrong! Bipedalism and tool use emerge 2 million years apart - In a world where bipeds—early humans—ate mostly meat they acquired by killing animals with weapons. 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.

Agriculture around the world

- China and Southwestern Asia: Rice domesticated ~8,000 years ago - Mexico: Corn domesticated ~9,000 years ago - Spread to American Southwest and to Atlantic coast by 1,000 years ago - Animal domestication: Dogs, goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs

Out of Africa Hypothesis

- Christopher Stringer - Modern biology, behavior, and culture originate in Africa - Modern humans spread from Africa to Europe around 50 KYA - Modern humans replaced all populations once arriving in Europe, no gene flow - This model presents multiple overlapping species. - 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. - The Out-of-Africa model correctly accounts for the origin of modern human variation, but it incorrectly asserts that no gene flow occurred between Neandertals and modern H. sapiens once modern H. sapiens arrived in Europe.

The Maligning of the Neanderthal

- Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were not brutish and ape like. - Complex cultural beliefs - Spirituality/symbolism - Empathy - Intricate tools - Art and adornment - Clothing

Neanderthal Intelligence: Adornments and Clothing

- Cut marks on eagle talons indicate that they were once strung together. - Pointed tip on stone tool indicates it may have been used as an awl for sewing. - Dental wear patterns could indicate softening leather with teeth

South African Australopithecineso: Australopithecus sediba

- Dated to 2 MYA - Found in Malapa Cave - Forest and grassland - C3 food diet - Anatomy: Small brain, small teeth, 420 CC, Human like hand and pelvis, Mosaic foot, Chimp like heel

Relative method: Chemical Dating

- Dating methods that use predictable chemical changes that occur over time. - Soils around the world have specific chemical compositions, reflecting their local geologic histories. For example, some soils contain fluorine. Once a bone is buried in fluorine-bearing soil, the bone begins to absorb the element. A bone that has been buried for a long time will have more fluorine in it than will a bone that has been buried for a short time. - Eg. Flourine dating

Australopithecus afarensis

- First identified in the 1970's - Don Johanson - Lucy - partially complete skeleton - "Southern ape from Afar" - Australopithecus afarensis - Tanzania, Ethiopia - Dated to 3.6 - 3.0 MYA - Woodland and grassland - Anatomy: Bidepal (cranium, femur,pelvis), Nonhoning canines, Large molars, Cranial size: 400 - 500 cc - Hundreds of fossils found - Lucy is most famous, most complete - Other findings: Skull of young child (appx. 3 years old, Hyoid bone found along with this fossil suggests speech had not yet developed in hominins, Male skeleton

What are fossils?

- Fossils are the remains of once-living organisms. - Remains of organisms that have been wholly or partially transformed into rock through a long process of chemical replacement. - In the replacement process, the minerals in bones and teeth, such as calcium and phosphorus, are very gradually replaced with rock-forming minerals like iron and silica.

HEALTH AND THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: Nutritional Consequences Due to Missing Nutrients: Reduced Growth and Abnormal Development

- Dietary variety critical for proper growth - Lacking in agriculturalists - Results in nutritional deficiencies - Detected by enamel hypoplasias - Domesticated plants have nutritional value, of course, but they also present a range of negative nutritional consequences. For example, corn is deficient in the amino acids lysine, isoleucine, and tryptophan, and a person who does not receive the right amount of even one amino acid will neither grow normally nor develop properly. In addition, vitamin B3 (niacin) in corn is bound chemically, and corn also contains phytate, a chemical that binds with iron and hampers the body's iron absorption. Also, grains such as millet and wheat contain very little iron. Rice is deficient in protein and thus inhibits vitamin A activity. - Deficiencies in dental enamel are one of the most important nonspecific stress indicators. Typically, the deficiencies appear as lines, pits, or grooves, any of which occur when the cells responsible for enamel production (called ameloblasts) are disrupted. Consequently, when the disturbance ends (the illness or the infection is over) a defect, or hypoplasia, is left

Nutcracker Man, AKA Zinj, AKA "Dear Boy"

- Discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959 - Dentition unlike other australopithicenes - Originally named Zinjanthropus boisei - Large molars with thickest enamel - Robust australopithecines indicate that the australopithecine lineage split into at least two - the omnivorous Au. garhi and the likely vegetarian robust austrolopithecines.

HEALTH AND THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: The Consequences of Declining Nutrition: Tooth Decay

- Domesticated plants high in carbohydrates - Bacteria produce lactic acid - Higher incidence of dental caries, gum disease - A dental infection in the Neolithic = death - Cavities grew until the teeth fell out or, in some instances, people with cavities died from secondary infections. - Rice does not seem to cause it to the same extent as other domesticated plants. Corn causes it considerably.

Piltdown Man Hoax/Forgery

- Eoanthropus dawsoni - 1912 England; Charles Dawson - Cranial shape resembled modern humano - Ape-like dentition - Honing canine - Until 1950's, considered to be most likely candidate for human/ape split - African Australopithecine fossils largely ignored by scientists until... - In 1953, it was determined that "Piltdown Man" was comprised of a human skull and an altered orangutan mandible - Racism, prevailing ideals about European superiority

The Paranthropines: Paranthropus aethiopicus

- Ethiopia & Kenya, Africa - 2.5 million years old - Woodland & grassland - Sagittal crest & large molars - Apically worn canines - not chimp/gorilla ancestor - Cranial capacity: 410 cc - Likely vegetarian - "the black skull"

The Paranthropines: Paranthropus boisei

- Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya - 2.3 - 1.2 MYA - Grassland - Large sagittal crest and molars - Cranial capacity: 550 cc - Diet contested: morphology and wear of teeth indicate different things

Pithecanthropus erectus

- Eugene Dubois, 1891 - Found in Indonesia - Skull too large to be an ape, but too small to be human - "upright-walking ape-man" - The name first proposed by Ernst Haeckel for the oldest hominin; Dubois later used this name for his first fossil discovery, which later became known as Homo erectus.

Eocene Euprimates: Adapids

- Euprimates of the Eocene that were likely ancestral to modern lemurs and possibly ancestral to anthropoids - Likely related to lemurs - diurnal and had longer snouts than omomyids - Sexually dimorphic - The lower incisors of modern lemurs just forward to form a tooth comb. This feature was absent from adapids

Eocene Euprimates: The First True Primates

- Euprimates: first true primates - Appeared at the start of the Eocene, approximately 56 MYA - Appearance coincides with extinction of plesiadapiforms and global warming - Adapids and Omomyids - Western US, Western Europe, Africa, Asia - Primate characteristics: 1. Post-orbital bar 2. Opposable thumbs 3. Nails 4. Generalized dentition 5. Large brain relative to body size

Miocene apes: Oreopithecids

- Europe - 8 to 7 mya - tropical forests - teeth were highly specialized for eating leaves - known as swamp ape - medium-size primate, weighing an estimated 30-35 kg (66-77 lb), but it had a tiny brain - long arms - some form of suspensory locomotion, similar to that of a modern gibbon

Homo Erectus and Fire

- Evidence from South African cave of Wonderwerk suggests Homo erectus had controlled fire by 1 MYA - Fire is useful for warmth, protection from predators, and cooking food - Cooked meat is softer and more digestible - Rapid access to nutrients

Miocene apes: Dryopithecids

- Expansion out of Africa in Middle Miocene (~15-18 mya) - Europe: Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Turkey - found in southern France and northern Spain - Teeth like proconsulids - Body like modern apes - Dryopithecus resembled living apes in many ways: its canines were sharp and tusk-like; its cheek teeth were long and had very simple chewing surfaces, well-adapted for chewing fruit; and microscopic studies of cross-sections of the teeth enamel indicate that these apes grew slowly. Their brains were larger than those of earlier primates, similar to those of modern chimpanzees. Their long forelimbs, grasping feet, and long, grasping hands were powerful and adapted for arm-hanging and arm-swinging, modern apes' main forms of locomotion.

Who Were the First Hominins? Ardipithecus ramidus

- Found in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia - Dated to 4.4 MYA - Volcanic ash - Team led by Haile-Selassie and White - 1994: remains of adult female skeleton - Forest dwelling - Anatomy: Bipedal, Pelvis, femur, foot, Climbing, Hand and foot, Non-honing canines, Chimp-human common ancestor? - No evidence of knuckle walking - Cranial capacity: 300-350 cc - Reduced lower facial prognathism - Stable isotope analysis suggests she ate foods from C3 plant sources, which are found in forested environments - Big toe suggests that she was able to climb, but also suggests pushing off ability

Who Were the First Hominins? Ardipithecus kadabba

- Found in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia - Dated to 5.2-5.8 MYA - Discovered by team led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Tim White - Environmental reconstruction indicates forest dwelling - Anatomy: Bipedal (toe bone), Perihoning complex (intermediate), Cranial capacity unknown - Name translates to "basal family ancestor" or "ground ape progenitor" - Fossils found so far: Molars, Big toe, Partial mandible, Possibly a sub-species of A. ramidus - Some researchers have suggested that Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, and Ardipithecus could be from the same genus (Haile-Selassie & White, 2004)

A Surprise in the Pleistocene: Homo floresiensis

- Found on the island of Flores, Indonesia - 3.5 feet tall, 400 cc cranial capacity - Island dwarfism or diseased human? - 100,000 and 60,000 yBP - Dubbed the "Hobbit" for its diminutive size, a possible new species of Homo found in Liang Bua Cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. - Brown and Morwood: a new species of Homo - In their interpretation of this dwarf species' existence, a group of primitive humans became isolated earlier in human evolution, and their isolation led to a unique pattern of biological variation. - Jacob: not part of a different species but a modern human who suffered from microcephaly or some other genetic or developmental abnormality. They point out that some cranial features of H. floresiensis are within the modern range of variation seen in living populations from the larger region. In addition, some of the creature's anatomical characteristics (such as a small or absent chin and rotated premolars) resemble those of populations now living in the immediate region.

Which Hypothesis to Accept?

- H1: No evidence supports the first hypothesis—there were no anthropoids in North America during the Eocene or Oligocene. There were various euprimates, but none resembled the platyrrhines in South America during the late Oligocene. - H2 and H3: genetic and morphological evidence supports the hypothesis that the earliest platyrrhines evolved in Africa - H4: DNA evidence shows strong relationship between OW and NW primates; no evidence for H4. Given the strong anatomical resemblance between African higher primates and South American higher primates, it is highly unlikely that anthropoids evolved independently in Africa and South America. DNA evidence that shows a strong relationship between Old World and New World higher primates is even stronger proof against the fourth hypothesis. In other words, these two groups did not evolve independently: they both originated in Africa.

Four hypotheses about how platyrrhines emerged in the New World

- H1: Platyrrhines evolved from a North American anthropoid then migrated to South America in the late Oligocene. - H2: Platyrrhines evolved from an African anthropoid and migrated across the Atlantic to South America. - H3: Platyrrhines evolved from an African anthropoid and migrated south to Antarctica and then to Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America. - H4: OW and NW anthropoids evolved independently from different lineages in Africa and South America, respectively.

Neanderthal Tools

- Levallois Technique - To produce the Mousterian tools, Neandertals used a specific technique to remove flakes from flint cores. The use of such a technique indicates that Neandertals could visualize the shape and size of a tool from a stone core, an advanced cognitive ability. - A large stone of flint is chosen. Small flakes are removed from the stone's perimeter using an antler or other tool. One side of the stone has flakes removed from the entire surface, giving it the appearance of a tortoise shell. A heavy, specific blow is directed at one end of the stone, removing a large flake. This flake is convex on one side and flat on the other. This flake can now be used for scraping or cutting. Further flake removal will produce a more specialized tool.

Lumpers and Splitters

- Lumpers: tend to classify different but similar phenotypes into one species / Two things are in the same category unless there is some convincing reason to divide them - Splitters: tend to classify different phenotypes as different species / Two things are in different categories unless there is some convincing reason to unite them.

Absolute dating: Radiopotassium dating

- Mary Leakey - The radiometric dating method in which the ratio of 40K to 40Ar is measured to provide an absolute date for a material older than 200,000 years. - The great strength of this method is the presence of volcanic rock in many places throughout the world. During a volcanic eruption, the heat is so extreme that it drives off all argon gas in the rock. The 40K solid that is in the rock sealed by lava then begins to decay to 40Ar gas, and the gas accumulates, trapped within the rock's crystalline structure. To date that rock—which could then be millions of years old—a scientist measures, with sophisticated instruments, the amount of gas (40Ar) relative to the amount of non gas (40K) in the rock. The more gas there is, the older the rock.

The Leakey Legacy

- Mary Leakey: 1913 - 1996 - Louis Leakey: 1903 - 1976 - Olduvai Gorge - bones and tools in association with very old geologic strata - First tools discovered here - Australopithecine and Homo species! - The Leakeys and their legacy at Olduvai are a great starting point for discussing hominin origins! - "Who were the first humans?" - The Leakeys demanded answers about human origins, and they were willing to do what had to be done to get those answers.

Multi-regional Continuity Hypothesis

- Milford Wolpoff - Modern humans evolved from earlier archaic populations in their respective regions - There is significant gene flow on the borders of populations - There is continuity of morphology in all regions of the globe. - This model presents Homo sapiens as a single, continuous species that evolved directly from Homo erectus - 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. - emphasizes the importance of gene flow across population boundaries—separate species of humanity never arose owing to the constant inter-breeding of human groups throughout human evolution. Not such a simple story. - The Multiregional Continuity model is not correct about modern H. sapiens' regional development. However, it is correct about gene flow and the notion that Neandertals have contributed to modern H. sapiens' gene pool.

Assimilation model hypothesis

- Modern Homo sapiens evolved first in Africa from Homo erectus. Groups of Homo sapiens then spread to Europe and Asia. Once in Europe and Asia, these modern H. sapiens interbred with populations they encountered, the late archaic H. sapiens (Neandertals). This admixture is the biological foundation for modern H. sapiens living outside of Africa today. - Fred Smith, Erik Trinkaus

HOMO ERECTUS IN AFRICA: NARIOKOTOME

- Nariokotome, Kenya - Dated at 1.6 million years old - Human-like limb proportions - Approximately 11 years old - Stature: 5 ft 6 in! - 6 feet in adulthood - Cranial capacity: 900 cc - Cause of death: tooth infection - Ileret footprints - Dated at 1.5 MYAo - Nearly indistinguishable from modern human footprints! - Arched foot, big toe in line with other toes - Suggests locomotion is nearly identical to modern humans

Mousterian / Middle Paleolithic

- Neanderthals - Mousterian - The stone tool culture in which Neanderthals produced tools using the Levallois technique. - Middle Paleolithic - The middle part of the Old Stone Age, associated with Mousterian tools, which Neanderthals produced using the Levallois technique. - 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. Contrary to the opinions of early anthropologists, this Neanderthal technology was complex and required considerable hand-eye coordination.

Late Archaic Homo sapiens in Europe: Neandertal Hunting

- Neanderthals were successful hunters! - Isotopic analysis: high proportion of meat in diet - Plaque analysis: some plant matter, sometimes cooked - Neandertals hunted the animals and processed the carcasses for food. - Measurement of stable isotopes of both nitrogen and carbon in the bones of Neandertals—from Scladina Cave (Belgium), Vindija Cave (Croatia), and Marillac (France)—indicates that Neandertals ate lots of meat, at or nearly at the level of carnivores living at the same time and place. The chemical signature of diet, then, is a powerful indicator of Neandertals' effectiveness in acquiring and consuming animal protein. That is, it shows that Neandertals were successful hunters. - Neandertals ate a diversity of plants, some of which were cooked. Neandertals might have consumed some of these plants for medicinal purposes.

Oldowan Tool Complex

- Oldowan tools are the oldest and first known examples of hominin tool use. - Other tool materials would have decomposed - Made from striking a stone with another stone to achieve a specific pattern - Mary Leakey's classification system: - Choppers: large stone cores, multi-functional, break and smash the bones to access the protein-rich marrow - Scrapers: flaked pieces, likely used for scraping, sharp edges for cutting meat from bones - Other attempts at classifying focus on the manufacture, and not the purported function - Stone tool use is associated with greater intake of meat - Scavenging or hunting? - Oldowan stone tools (2.6 million years) - Australopithecus (afarensis) may have been first stone-tool makers, not Homo - the cutmarks on the bones are from cutting meat and getting access to protein-rich marrow by use of tools - associated with Au. (Kenyanthropus) platyops, Au afarensis, Au garhi, Homo habilis,

The Fayum

- Oligocene cooling - Located in what is now Egypt - Wet, warm, and tropical - similar to Southeast Asia today

Who Were the First Hominins? Orrorin

- Orrorin tugenensis - Found in Tugen Hills, Kenya - Dated to 6 MYA - Found by team led by Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut - Anatomy: 1. Bipedal 2. Based on femur 3. Arboreal climbing 4. Hand bones 5. Partially honing canines - Cranial capacity unknown - Fossils found so far: Mandible, Several teeth, Three femur fragments, Partial humerus, Proximal phalanx, Distal thumb phalanx, Shape of femoral neck suggests bipedality, Shape of fingers also suggests tree climbing, Possibly more closely related to genus Homo than australopithecines are - hot debate!

Why Did Hominins Evolve: Provisioning Hypothesis

- Owen Lovejoy: Provisioning Hypothesis - More food = more infants - Lower interbirth interval - Suite of anatomies and behaviors co-evolve - Food provisioning - Pair bonding - Reduced canine size - Cooperation - bipedalism - 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. - 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. This model focuses on the selective and simultaneous advantages of monogamy and of pair-bonding, of food provisioning, of cooperation, and of bipedalism, all rolled into one distinctively human behavioral package.

Plesiadapiforms

- Paleocene organisms that may have been the first primates, originating from an adaptive radiation of mammals. - The problem with attributing them to the Primate order is that they lack the key characteristics that define primates today. - Early Cenozoic (~60 mya) - extinct by 56 mya - Western North America, Europe, Asia - No postorbital bar - lacked opposability - claws - smaller brain - specialized rodent-like teeth - probably not primates - Proprimates: a separate order of early primate ancestors from the Paleocene

Why Did Hominins Evolve: Patchy Forest/Savanna Hypothesis

- Peter Rodman and Henry McHenry: Patchy Forest Hypothesis (1980s) - African savanna - Two legs more energetically efficient than four? - Easy travel between trees - Prediction: some of the earliest bipedal hominins would be found in patchy environments - Recent fossil discoveries challenging this idea - 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 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.

Human migration patterns

- Prior to 50,000 yBP, humans occupied only three of the six inhabitable continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. By 50,000 yBP, populations migrated from the southeastern fringes of Asia to Australia, eventually fanning out from west to east across the hundreds of islands that dot the Pacific Ocean. - What motivated these early modern people to move? Among the multiple reasons, four are most important: population increase, disappearance of food resources, increased competition with neighbors for remaining resources, and cli- mate deterioration.

Upper Paleolithic

- Refers to the most recent part of the Old Stone Age, associated with early modern Homo sapiens and characterized by finely crafted stone and other types of tools with various functions. - Late Neanderthals participated fully in the Upper Paleolithic, the earliest cultures associated mostly with early modern H. sapiens in Europe, producing stone tools that were modern in many respects and certainly as complex as those produced by early modern humans. Moreover, the size, shape, and articulations of the Neanderthal hand reflect the kind of precise manual dexterity crucial for the fine crafting of tools

Late Archaic Homo sapiens: Neanderthals

- Regional adaptations to cold weather - Large noses, broad bodies - Strong occipital bun - Large front teeth with heavy wear - Brain size is bigger than modern humans: 1740 cc!

Relative dating: Cultural Dating

- Relative dating methods that are based on material remains' time spans. - Material culture can provide information for cultural dating. The first evidence of material culture—primitive stone tools called pebble tools—dates to about 3.3 mya. Although individually distinctive in appearance, pebble tools are not especially useful for bracketing small amounts of time, mainly because their forms changed so slowly. - For example, a pebble tool from 2.5 mya is very much like one produced 1.8 mya. However, the presence of a certain kind of tool enables paleontologists to say that the site (and its hominin occupants) dates to a certain age. - Beginning in the later Pleistocene, stone tools and other components of material culture changed more rapidly. The various regional cultures in Europe collectively known as the Upper Paleolithic provide a number of "time-specific" artifacts, such as the small sculptures known as Lion Men. - The first of these artifacts was found in a cave in Germany in 1939, neglected for 30 years in part because of World War II, and only recently restored. In the Holocene, artifacts such as ceramics became even more time-specific. In fact, ceramics were invented during this period, and their forms changed rapidly.

Why do we use relative and absolute dating methods?

- Relative dating puts geologic events in chronological order without requiring that a specific numerical age be assigned to each event. Second, it is possible to determine the numerical age for fossils or earth materials. Numerical ages estimate the date of a geological event and can sometimes reveal quite precisely when a fossil species existed in time.

HOMO ERECTUS IN INDONESIA

- Sangiran 17 - Discovered on the island of Java, Indonesia - Long, low skull - Sagittal keel - Large face & cheekbones - Large browridge - 1,000 cc brain - Similarity between this skull and the OH 9 and Daka skulls may indicate gene flow and single Homo erectus species

Late Archaic Homo sapiens in Asia: Neanderthals

- Shanidar, Iraq - 45,000 years old - Old male - Heavy wear on teeth - Very large brain - Eye injury, arm amputation, foot with arthritis - Continuing to live after healing would have required extensive assistance from other individuals - Empathy

The First Americans

- Shovel-shaped incisors - A dental trait, commonly found among Native Americans and Asians, in which the incisors' posterior aspect has varying degrees of concavity. - Fossils in Americas by ~10,000 years ago - DNA similarities with northeast Asians - Clovis and Folsom cultures: Paleoindians - Paleoindians: The earliest hominin inhabitants of the Americas; they likely migrated from Asia and are associated with the Clovis and Folsom stone tool cultures in North America and comparable stone tool cultures in South America. - Clovis - Earliest Native American ("Paleoindian") culture of North America; technology known for large, fluted, bifacial stone projectile points used as spear points for big-game hunting. - Folsom - Early Native American (immediately following Clovis) culture of North America; technology known for large, fluted, bifacial projectile points used as spear points for big- game hunting.

Early Modern Homo sapiens in Asia

- Skhul V, Israel, 90,000 years old - Cohabitation of modern H. sapiens and Neandertals - Skhul cranium - This skull possesses many characteristics associated with modern humans, including a chin, a less projecting face, small and gracile cheeks, and a high, vertical forehead. The browridges are still distinct but are much reduced compared with those of archaic Homo sapiens. - Zhoukoudian crania - One skull recovered from Zhoukoudian shows several modern human traits, but overall these crania are more robust than their modern Asian counterparts. In the older area of this site, the famous Homo erectus fossils were found prior to World War II. - Homo floresiensis

Arboreal hypothesis

- Smith and Jones - The proposition that primates' unique suite of traits is an adaptation to living in trees - Smith and Jones hypothesized that primates' defining characteristics were adaptations to life in the trees: grasping hands and grasping feet were crucial for holding on to tree branches, binocular vision allowed much greater depth perception for judging distance in the movement from place to place in the trees, smell was no longer necessary for finding food, and greater intelligence was important for understanding three-dimensional space in the trees. The movement from life on the ground to life in the trees, Smith and Jones surmised, put into motion a series of selective pressures that resulted in the ancestral primate.

Controversy in Dating: Kennewick Man

- Sometimes, the results of the dating process are less controversial than their implications - Kennewick Man was found in 1996 in Kennewick, WA - Under US law, all remains found on federal land that are estimated to be Native American are to be returned to Native American groups for reburial. - Radiocarbon dating of the bones suggests that Kennewick Man died approximately 9,000 years ago. - 2000: DNA testing inconclusive - 2004: Ninth Circuit rules that cultural link between Native American groups and Kennewick Man could not be proven. - 2015: Genetic dating finds that Kennewick Man is actually an ancestor of Colville Native Americans - 2017: Kennewick Man is reburied at an undisclosed location

Angiosperm radiation hypothesis

- Sussman - The proposition that certain primate traits, such as visual acuity, occurred in response to the availability of fruit and flowers after the spread of angiosperms. - Color vision - Knowledge of seasonality - Sussman reasoned that because there was little light in the forest, early primates required visual adaptations for seeing small objects. Moreover, their grasping toes helped the animals cling to tree branches while they picked and ate fruit, rather than having to go back to more secure and larger branches, as squirrels do when they eat nuts. Sussman's angiosperm radiation hypothesis is grounded in the acquisition of a new food source available in the early Cenozoic: fruit.

Nonhoning Chewing: Why is it so important?

- Teeth wear down throughout life - Honing chewing: 1. Slicing and sheering chewing 2. Thinner enamel, teeth maintain sharpness - Non-honing chewing: 1. Grinding and crushing 2. Thicker enamel so the teeth do not wear down as quickly

FOXP2

- The FOXP2 gene is a mutation carried by humans that allows for the development of speech - Mutation not carried by great apes. - This gene was identified in Neanderthal DNA!

1/3 haplorhine primates: Oligopithecids

- The earliest anthropoid ancestors in the Oligocene, found in the Fayum, Egypt. - 35 mya - Basal anthropoids - Catopithecus

Fertile crescent

- The fertile crescent is a region in the Middle East where the first evidence of agriculture is seen. - Evidence from early Neolithic humans suggests they were hunting and foraging for part of the year and harvesting wheat and barley for the rest. - Once domestication developed, within a short time villages sprang up; some of these villages developed into cities

Domestication of the dog

- The first domesticated animal was likely the dog - Modern dogs may have split from wolves as early as 36 KYA! (Skoglund et al, 2015) - Possible functions of first dogs: Protection, Hunting, Food

Steno's law of superposition

- The principle that the lower the stratum or layer, the older its age; the oldest layers are at the bottom, and the youngest are at the top. - Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686) - Law of superposition: higher = younger - Relative dating: the time of events can be determined based on relative position in the stratagraphic column - Stratigraphic correlation-1883: Krakatoa erupts-Ash falls more than 3,700 miles away! - Steno's law of superposition laid the foundation for relative dating, which states the relative age of one event (such as the formation of a geologic stratum) or object (such as a fossil or an artifact) with respect to another. - That is, the event recorded or object found on the bottom is the oldest, the event or object immediately above it is next oldest, and so forth. - By contrast, the numerical age of an event or object is expressed in absolute years, such as 2,000 years ago, 1.3 billion years, 4004 BC, or AD 2018. - Developed long before numerical dating.

Relative Method: Stratigraphic Correlation

- The process of matching up strata from several sites through the analysis of chemical, physical, and other properties. - Geologic correlation of strata from multiple locations in a region—matching up strata based on physical features, chemical compositions, fossils, or other properties—helps place the passage of time in a larger context. - By William Smith - For example, any volcanic eruption produces ash with an individual and a highly specific chemical signature. The eruption's force, together with powerful winds, can spread the ash over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, as when Krakatoa, an island volcano in Indonesia that erupted in 1883, sent ash as far as 6,000 km (3,700 mi) away. When an ash layer exists above or below a fossil, that fossil can be judged younger or older than the ash, depending on their relative positions. Such correlations, from various lines of evidence, involving millions of places around the world, have resulted in the geologic timescale.

Visual predation hypothesis

- The proposition that unique primate traits arose as adaptations to preying on insects and on small animals. - The first primates were insectivores - Evolved characteristics to aid in catching insects in trees - Hunting in trees - He hypothesized that the first primate specialized in preying on insects and other small creatures, hunting them in tree branches or in forest undergrowth. Cartmill argued that the shift to life in the trees was not the most important factor in explaining primate origins. Rather, the catching of small prey—using both a highly specialized visual apparatus and the fine motor skills of grasping digits—set primate evolution in motion.

How do the skeletons of agricultural and hunter-forager populations differ?

- The shift to agriculture and the eating of softer foods resulted in biological changes to the face, jaws, and teeth of modern people. Although not universal, some tendencies characterized the skulls and teeth of hunter-gatherers and of agriculturalists. - HUNTER-GATHERERS: 1. Long cranial vault 2. Large, robust mandible 3. Large teeth 4. Few malocclusions 5. Much tooth wear - AGRICULTURALISTS 1. Short skull 2. Small, gracile mandible 3. Small teeth 4. Many malocclusions 5. Little tooth wear

Taphonomy

- The study of what happens to an organism's remains. - Describes the multiple circumstances that must (and must not) occur for a dead organism to become a fossil. - An organism will not become a fossil, for example, if its remains are left exposed on the ground surface for any length of time. If the remains are exposed for more than a day or so after death, scavengers such as dogs, wolves, or birds may eat the soft tissues. - Maggots will quickly consume flesh. Once the flesh is gone, the bones of the skeleton will weather, break, or disappear. Because of the unlikelihood of a quick burial not brought about by humans, very few once-living organisms end up as fossils.

HOMO ERECTUS AND SPEECH

- There is considerable debate about whether Homo erectus was capable of speech - Skeletal morphology of Nariokotome Boy indicates full human linguistic capabilities not yet developed - Daka skull indicates presence of Broca's area (needed for speech), which could indicate human linguistic capability!

The Robust Australopithecines: the Paranthropines

- Three species of hominins are also categorized as being part of genus Paranthropus: 1. Paranthropus boisei 2. Paranthropus robustus 3. Paranthropus aethiopicus - We call these the "robust" australopithecines - Evidence for split: -Sagittal crest -Large mandibles -Large molars - Wide range across Africa - 2.5-1.5 mya

Rapid Changes in Tool Culture

- Upper Paleolithic and early Neolithic tools become more refined and specialized - Tools for hunting, fishing - Cooperative hunting - Aurignacian: bone, antlers, first musical instrument - Gravettian: nets, needles - Solutrean: arrowheads, spears - Magdalenian: ivory, domestication of the dog - Check notability

What is a Hominin? / What is different about humans?

- Upright walking -Nonhoning chewing -Material culture -Speech -Hunting & cooperation -Domestication of plants & animals

Early Modern Homo sapiens: Culture and behavior

- fishing and the use of aquatic resources as an important part of diet are first documented at Katanda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where early modern H. sapiens were exploiting huge catfish by at least 75,000 yBP. - more specialized kinds of hunting, wider employment of raw materials (such as bone) for producing tools, advanced blade technology, and trade - Tools - Early modern humans used a variety of special-ized tools, including bone tools shaped for specific purposes. Dating between 35,000 and 18,000 yBP, tools made from bone that were found at Ma'anshan Cave are the oldest in China.

Disadvantage of amino acid dating

- rate of the chemical decomposition resulting in the shift from l to d—a process called racemization—is largely determined by the temperature of the region. - a region with a higher average temperature will have a faster rate of chemical decomposition than will a region with a cooler average temperature. Therefore, the method is dependent on the local climate and is not broadly comparable across large regions.

Ape Skeleton

1. Position of the foramen magnum: The ape head sits on the front of the trunk. 2. Length of the leg: The long arm of the ape reflects its suspensory use in trees. 3. Longitudinal foot arch: Apes have flat feet, which reflect the adaptation of their feet for grasping. 4. Opposable big toe: The ape toe has a dual function, including terrestrial walking and grasping or manipulating objects.

Early Modern Homo sapiens in Europe

1. Dolni Vestonice skulls, Czech Republic - a few Neandertal characteristics, but they are clearly more modern in appearance than the Mladeč people 2. Cro-Magnon, France (30,000-25,000 yBP) - archetypical example of the earliest modern people. vertical forehead, narrow nasal aperture, and small browridges (Figure 12.41). In addition, unlike Neander- tals, their tibias are long and their body trunks are narrow. Like Neandertals, these people lived in cold climates of the late Pleistocene, but their very different body morphology suggests adaptation to warmer climates. 3. Mladeč skulls (35,000 yBP) - remarkable variability, including a mix of Neandertal characteristics in some (occipital bun, low skull, large browridges, large front teeth, and thick bone) and modern characteristics in others (nonproject- ing face, narrow nasal opening) 4. Lagar Velho, Portugal - 5 year old boy skeleton, 24,000 yBP, has a number of archaic, Neandertal-like cranial and postcranial features, such as its limb proportions and robusticity. human-neanderthal hybrid

Early Modern Homo sapiens

1. Location •Africa •Asia •Europe 2. Chronology •180 KYA Africa •90 KYA Western Asia •35 KYA Eastern Asia •32 KYA Europe 3. Anatomy •vertical forehead •Reduced facial robusticity •1500 cc cranial capacity 4. Culture and Behavior •Upper Paleolithic •Increased symbolic behavior •Grave goods •Increased fishing

HOMO ERECTUS IN AFRICA: MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE

1. OH 9, found at Olduvai Gorge - 1.2 Mya - Heavy brow ridge, large muscle attachments at back of skull 2. Daka skull, found in Ethiopia - Similar to Homo erectus found in Asia - Supports the hypothesis that Homo erectus is just one variable species 3. Bodo skull - Dated to 6 KYA - Cranial capacity: 1200 cc - Cut marks on skull indicate defleshing after death - Burial rites? Cannabalism?

Early Modern Homo sapiens in Africa

1. Omo and Herto, Ethiopia - 200 - 150 KYA 2. Klasies River Mouth Cave, South Africa - 90 KYA - Anatomies: 1450 cc, High forehead and round skull with reduced face and teeth, smaller browridges, Chin, Gracile postcranial skeleton - Robusticity of skull not eliminated with evolution of modern H. sapiens - Diet dependent-Agricultural development associated with gracile skulls

Hominin Skeletons

1. Position of the foramen magnum: In humans, the foramen magnum is on the bottom of the skull, closer to the teeth. 2. Shape of the spine: In humans, the spine has an S-shape. In apes, it is straighter, almost C-shaped. 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. 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. 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. Humans have largely lost their ability to manipulate objects with their toes.

Early Modern Homo sapiens: Timeline for Major Upper Paleolithic Cultures of Europe

1. The Aurignacian (45-30 KYA) •Associated w/ first anatomically modern humans 2. The Gravettian (30 - 20 KYA) •Perigordian in France •Carved figurines •Lagar Velho burial in Portugal 3. The Solutrean (21 - 17 KYA) •France and Spain during the last glacial peak •Made very fine stone points 4. The Magdalenian (17 - 12 KYA) •Successful hunters of reindeer, horses •Spread across Europe •Paintings, carvings

HOMO ERECTUS IN CHINA

1. Zhoukoudian, China - Peking Man - Majuangou - Stone tools, animal bones with cut marks 2. Gongwangling Cave - 1.2 million year old skull - Cranial capacity 800 cc

How many years is the half life of c14?

5,730

Agriculture: the human body skeleton - activity pattern comparison

Activity Pattern Comparison - Biological anthropologists compared cross sections of the femurs and humeri from prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists living on the southeastern US Atlantic coast. The larger sections in the hunter-gatherers indicate greater bone strength than in their agricultural descendants. The reduced bone strength in the Mission-era Indians reflects less mechanical stress in the prehistoric farmers in this setting. - Greater bone strength associated with hunting-foraging. - Bone mass decreases with agriculture. - Human body size decreases with agriculture. - Reduced osteoarthritis, but increase in bone spurs and bone injuries related to repetitive activity.

Gigantopithecus blackii is ancestral to the North American wood ape.

False

True or False: Chronometric dating techniques can give us an exact date.

False

Agriculture: an adaptive trade-off - Population

Neolithic Demographic Transition, AKA Agricultural Demographic Transition - this shift from low birthrate to high birthrate resulted in a rapid increase in the world's population. The greater number of births was brought about by a reduced period of weaning. The availability of grains cooked into soft mushes and fed to infants made it possible to wean infants earlier in their lives. With earlier weaning, spacing between births was reduced, and mothers were able to produce more offspring. - Increasing population, especially with increased reliance on agriculture, leads to competition for resources. As communities began to compete for increasingly limited resources (for example, arable land for crops), organized warfare developed. - massacre of numerous individuals dating to 7,600-6,900 yBP. There, the remains of 26 children and adults show consider- able blunt-force cranial trauma and postcranial fractures, along with a high prev- alence of infectious disease. This is one of a number of sites that contain victims of early war in the Neolithic showing similar patterns of stress, foreshadowing full-scale warfare in later times, such as in the early civilizations in Southwest Asia, Central America, and South America or in the medieval wars in Europe, where thousands of people were killed. - High birthrate, rapid weaning - 2-3 million, 10,000 years ago - 300 million by 2,000 years ago. - 7 billion today

Agriculture: the human body skeleton - i beam

biological anthropologists have developed a means for assessing the robusticity of bone cross sections. Based on the simple premise that material placed farther away from an axis running down the center of the bone is stronger than material placed closest to the axis, it has become possible to look at the degree of bone development and determine by empirical means how bone strength has changed over the course of human evolution to the present. Bone comparisons—from hunter-gatherers' to later agriculturalists' to modern peoples'—show a remarkable decline in size.

What was the cause of death of Taung Child purported to be?

carried off by large bird

Which of these hypotheses is not related to the emergence of primates?

hunting hypothesis