anthropology exam 3 review
The genus name Australopithecus translates as?
"southern ape"
Hominin characteristics
- Bipedalism - Ability to see over long grass, carry items back to camp, reduces exposure to solar radiation by 60% - Brain size - Tool use - Earliest hominin - Ardipethecus ramidus (Ardi) - Teeth patterns - Large back teeth & thick enamel allowed hominins to eat tough vegetation, reduced sharp teeth for defense & intimidation.
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
- Oldowan tools: earliest stone tool tradition -1.8 m.y.a. at Olduvai but 2.5 m.y.a. elsewhere - Stone in not native to Olduvai = carried into the gorge - Oldowan--> Acheulian tools (Homo erectus ergaster)--> reliance on meat - Acheulian tools are found in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East but not NOT east Asia
Oldowan tool tradition
- homo habilis handy human (earliest hominid) hominid= of homo genus, hominid= all human ancestors round edge & flat edge; core tools and flake tool Dmanisi used similar tools-- 1st hominins found outside of Africa, small
Aegyptopithecus (Oligocene)
-Earliest accepted ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes -13-18 pounds - OW dental formula (2:1:2:3) -most likely arboreal/terrestrial quadruped
Acheulian Tool Tradition
-H.erectus developed a new tool making technology -they used a soft hammer technique ( a method of removing flakes from a stone core using a softer material like bone or wood) -they used a biface style which means flaking the tool from two sides making it sharper and thinner -the basic Achulean tool was the hand axe
Gracile vs. Robust Australopithecines
-gracile: smoother, smaller features with a more narrow skull -robust: wide skull with heavy features
Homo erectus may have reached Indonesia by ________ million years ago.
1.6 to 1.8
Homo erectus/ergaster
1.8 MYA to 300,000 (or later) -Acheulian toolkit - Oldowan, plus axes and cleavers -could be same species but split geographically: ergaster stayed in Africa, erectus left Africa -brain may have had Brocca's area (associated with language) -Probably used fire
When did hominins first migrate out of Africa?
1.8 mya
Pilocene Epoch
10-2 million years ago was a time of global cooling after the warmer Miocene. The cooling and drying of the global environment may have contributed to the enormous spread of grasslands and savannas during this time
The earliest known specimens of Homo erectus are dated to ________ million years ago.
2
The robust australopithecines lived roughly ______ million years ago.
2. 5 to 1
Miocene Epoch
23-5 mya age of apes
Branisella
26mya Bolivia A South American genus from the Oligocene, ancestral to platyrrhines.
When did Neanderthals go extinct?
30-50,000 years ago
The species Australopithecus anamensis dates to _______ million years ago.
4. 2 to 3. 9
Sahelanthropus dates back _____ million years.
6-7
fluorine dating
A RELATIVE(chemical) dating method that compares the accumulation of fluorine in animal and human bones from the same site.
Orrorin tugenensis
A pre-australopithecine species found in East Africa that displayed some of the earliest evidence of bipedalism. 6-5.7mya. kenya. leg bones. non-hominin.
Carbon-14 dating
ABSOLUTE/CHRONOMETRIC Process of estimating age of once living material by measuring the amount of radioactive isotope of carbon present in material.
potassium-argon dating
ABSOLUTE/CHRONOMETRIC radiometric technique using the decay of K to Ar in potassium-bearing rocks; estimates the age of sediments in which fossils are found.
Dentrochronology
ABSOLUTE/CHRONOMETRIC tree ring dating
Bipedalism first appeared in?
Africa
The first hominins are found in?
Africa
Proconsul lived in?
Africa roughly 20 million years ago
Compared with modern humans, the skull of Homo erectus is characterized by?
All of the above.
Archaic features
Archaic Homo sapiens are Middle Pleistocene hominins. moderate brow ridges
Ardipthecus Ramidus (Ardi)
Ardi is the designation of the fossilized skeletal remains of an Ardipithecus ramidus, thought to be an early human-like female anthropoid 4.4 million years old. Ardi meaning ground/floor. middle east. pliocene.
Sivapithecus lived in __ between 14 and 7 million years ago?
Asia
The best evidence for an association of stone tools with the genus Australopithecus is for the species?
Australopithecus garhi
So far, we've found very little fossil or physical evidence for this Homo species. Most of what we know is from aDNA.
Denisovans
As cranial capacity increases, facial size and tooth size also increase.
False
Homo erectus is the earliest species of Homo to use tools.
False
__________________ hominoids live today than lived between 10 and 20 million years ago
Fewer
Platyrrhines (New World Monkeys)
General features: - Arboreal - 2:1:3:3 dental formula
The earliest species in the genus Homo is?
Habilis
The Acheulian tradition is associated with?
Homo erectus
The first hominin to leave Africa was?
Homo erectus
The oldest known use of fire is associated with?
Homo erectus
The tools known as hand axes are associated with?
Homo erectus
Some anthropologists consider the early African forms of Homo erectus to be a separate species known as?
Homo ergaster
Archaic sapiens
Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals 500,000-150,000 years ago.
Neanderthals
In Europe, another human species lived and adapted to life in the cold climates of the last Ice Age.
tertiary scavenger
In a food chain, the third animal group (second to scavenge) to obtain meat from a kill made by a predator.
How is Proconsul similar to living apes?
It did not have a tail
How is Proconsul similar to living monkeys?
Its arms were roughly the same length as its legs.
Rafting Hypothesis
Late in the Eocene or very early in the Oligocene, the first anthropoids arose in Africa and reached South America by "rafting" over the water on drifting chunks of vegetation.
Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy)
Lucy, dubbed by some as the "Missing Link". The longest living hominin species. Shorter and more similar to chimpanzees. 3.7-3mya. ethiopia. pliocene. hominin.
The first fossil hominoids are found during the __epoch?
Miocene
Possible fossil hominins have been found in the?
Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene epochs
Burial of the dead was first practiced by?
Neandertals
Order of Epochs
Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Holocene
Imagine you have found a skull with an ape-size brain, very large back teeth, and a sagittal crest. Based on this information, this is most likely a specimen of?
Paranthropus
The robust forms of Australopithecus may belong to another genus called?
Paranthropus
A widely accepted model for the origins of bipedalism is ____?
Patchy forest hypothesis
______________ is an example of the earliest fossil hominoid.
Proconsul
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
The earliest pre-australopithecine species found in central Africa with possible evidence of bipedalism. Hominin. 7mya. Miocene. skull found.
models for the origins of bipedalism
The savanna-based theory was one of the earliest models to explain the origins of bipedalism and gathered support from several anthropologists. It mainly suggested that the early hominids were forced to adapt to an open savanna after they left the trees by walking erect on two feet
Taphonomy
The study of how bones and other materials come to be buried in the earth and preserved as fossils.
Oligocene Epoch
The third epoch of the Cenozoic era, dating between 33.9 million and 23.0 million years ago. Anthropoids underwent an adaptive radiation during the Oligocene.
(Turkana Boy) Homo erectus
This specimen is the most complete early human skeleton ever found. It is 1.5 million years old, who's teeth showed that he was eight years old and already 5'3 feet tall, the first ancestors we can really call human, a world traveler, a tool maker, a hunter, tamer of fire, creator of the first human societies
Some consider Homo heidelbergensis a transitional species between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.
True
What can we say about the common ancestor of the human and African ape lines?
We have several good candidates, such as ouranopithecus and dryopithecus, but we can't pick the best one at present.
Biostratigraphy
a RELATIVE dating technique based on the regular changes seen in evolving groups of animals as well as the presence or absence of particular species
The large teeth, jaws, and chewing muscles of the robust Australopithecines reflects adaptations to?
a hard diet
Compared with modern Homo sapiens, archaic humans had?
a sloping forehead
Out of Africa Theory
also called the replacement theory; this theory refers to when Homo sapiens sapiens began spreading out of Africa to other parts of the world about 100,000 years ago and replacing populations of earlier hominids in Europe and Asia
Neandertals are ____________ humans that lived in ___________________.
archaic / Europe and the Middle East
The cranial capacity of _____________ and _____________ is roughly the same.
archaic humans / modern humans
The position of the foramen magnum in skull fragments of Ardipithecus suggests that this species was?
bipedal
Hunting Hypothesis
considered gracile australopithecines to be carnivorous
The climate became ______________ during the Miocene epoch.
cooler and drier
Shanidar fossil 1
crushing blow to his head 35-45yo signs of healing, but caused his death pleistocene.Nandy, congenital disease of his withered right arm. 80yo today.
Ouranopithecus is a?
fossil ape that may represent the common ancestor of the African ape and human lines.
Hominoid
group of anthropoids that includes gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans
Anthropoid
humanlike
Australopithecus anamensis?
is an early species of gracile Australopithecine
Anthropoid characteristics
larger body size and brain, no rhinarium, more complex social systems, complete rotation of eyes, longer periods of gestation, less specialized dentition
The __________ of Orrorin suggests that it was bipedal
leg bone
Catarrhines (Old World Monkeys)
live in africa and asia
Proconsul had ___________, which is a characteristic of modern apes, and ___________, which is a characteristic of modern monkeys.
no tail / front and rear limbs of equal length
Many Neandertals possessed a _____________, where the back of the skull is puffed out.
occipital bun
The facial structure of some species of Sivapithecus suggests that they might be the ancestor of the modern?
orangutan
Language Capabilities
our tongue, the larynx, and the hyoid bone to which they attach—fulfill a more basic function in that they allow us to eat. ... A larynx located in the neck can execute these maneuvers.
Biped anatomy
presence of a bicondylar angle, or valgus knee; a more inferiorly placed foramen magnum; the presence of a reduced or nonopposable big toe; a higher arch on the foot; a more posterior orientation of the anterior portion of the iliac blade; a relatively larger femoral head diameter; an increased femoral neck length; and a slightly larger and anteroposteriorly elongated condyles of the femur.
Homo habilis/rudolfensis
rudolfensis-large and wider molars compared to Homo habilis. While their teeth were only slightly smaller than those seen in robust australopithecines, H. rudolfensis-didn't have the heavily-built jaw and strong jaw muscle attachments seen in robust early humans. were they the same of a variation? 2.4-1.65mya pleistocene
Compared to modern Europeans, Neandertals were?
shorter and stockier
Sahelanthropus has several characteristics similar to later humans including?
small canine teeth and a non-protruding face
Stratigraphy
the branch of geology concerned with the order and RELATIVE position of strata and their relationship to the geological time scale.
Pleistocene Epoch
the first epoch of the Quaternary period Ice Age
multiregional hypothesis
the hypothesis that modern humans originated through a process of simultaneous local transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens throughout the inhabited world
A sagittal crest is frequently found in?
the robust australopithecines
The first hominins?
were bipedal and had small cranial capacities
Shanidar fossil 4
whose body lay beside a flower that can either be explained as evidence of burial rituals or animal contamination.
Hominoid characteristics
• Generally larger body size • No tail • Shortened trunk (esp. the lumbar area shorter and more stable) • Shoulder joint designed for suspensory locomotion (brachiation) • More complex behavior • More complex brain and enhanced cognitive abilities • Increased period of infant development and dependency
Cooking Hypothesis
• Your digestive system is designed to need quick food, so your body wont absorb the calories from raw food • Homo erectus went from big gut to more barrel chested. As they controlled fire, they relied more and more on basic technology • We adapted to like the taste of cooked food better because we get the energy without the toxins
