Big History Threshold #6: Early Humans and Collective Learning

Australopithecine

The earliest bipedal species of hominin species with brains about the size of those of chimpanzees; they flourished in Africa between 4 and 1 million years ago; famous fossil "Lucy"; may have used rudimentary tools to crush bones.

Lucy

The nickname of a partial female skeleton of a fossil hominid found in Ethiopia in 1974, about 3.2 million years old and 1.2 m (4 ft) in height.; the nickname stems from Archeologist Donald Johanson's love for the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".

Homo Sapiens

The scientific name for our species, which is thought to have evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago.

Homo Sapiens

The scientific name for the only surviving species in the Homo group, which is thought to have evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago; it's name means "Wise Man".

Anthropology

The scientific study of human culture including beliefs, customs, and archaeological records.

Archaeology

The scientific study of humans and their ancestors by excavation and examination of material remains.

Bonobos

One of Homo sapiens closest living relatives in the primate family, they are female dominated, relatively peaceful although the females will gang up on males who get out of line.

Out of Africa Theory

Paleoanthropology theory that asserts that modern humans evolved during the past 200-300,000 years in Africa, and then migrated out into Eurasia.

Fire

The ability to master _____________, by Homo Erectus/Ergaster at least 700,000 years ago, led to higher protein diets and contributed to the evolution of early humans with larger brains.

Collective Learning

The ability to share, preserve, and build upon ideas over time.

Bipedalism

The ability to walk on two rear legs.

Foraging

The act of searching for food and provisions.

Culture

The customs, values, beliefs, and general patterns of behavior of a particular group of people.

Flaked stone artifacts

The earliest "tools" which date back to 3.3 million years ago predate the Genus Homo, were the work of Australopithecines Genus.

Berengian Strait (aka Beringia)

The land bridge created during the last ice age when sea levels were lower due to glaciation that was used by Homo sapiens to cross from Siberia in Asia to North America.

Mammalian Radiation

The rapid adaptive radiation of a few shrew like mammals into more than 5,000 distinct species due to the KT Extinction and the opening of so many niches globally.

Taxonomy

The science of classifying different forms of life based upon distinguishing characteristics.

Genetics

The science of how traits are inherited from parents to children/across generations.

Interbreeding Theory

The theory of what happened to other early human species such as Homo Erectus/Ergaster and Homo neanderthalensis, in which the interbreeding of species led to Homo sapiens being the only living Homo species.

Replacement Theory

The theory that humans, through natural selection and possibly through outright domination, warfare, and genocide, through which Homo sapiens came to be the only living member of the Homo group.

Neanderthal

A species closely related to homo sapiens that went extinct 30,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Exchange Network

A system of interaction through which humans share and trade information, goods, and, sometimes, diseases; often key "hubs" where "collective learning" takes place

Humans

Members of the primate genus Homo, especially the species Homosapiens, distinguished from other apes by a large brain and the capacity for speech.

Migration

Movement of animals from one place to another, often in search of more abundant resources; early humans did this, leaving Africa and populating the globe.

Symbolic Language

A form of communication that uses symbols that is more powerful than communication by other animals because it conveys more info., more precisely, across generations.

Symbolic Language

A form of communication using symbols that allows humans to pass on information from generation to generation.

Homo Habilis

A hominin relative of human beings that appeared in Africa between 2 and 3 million years ago, Homo habilis was able to make simple tools; name means "Handy Man"; there is no fossil evidence they migrated out of Africa's Rift Valley.

Primates

A member of the order of mammals appearing between 60-70 mya, characterized by a relatively large brain, hands with multiple movable fingers and nails instead of claws, and eyes positioned on the front of the skull to enable stereoscopic vision.

Hominins

All bipedal species in the human line since it diverged from the common ancestor with chimpanzees; first appeared 8 to 5 million years ago. The only survivors of this line are Homo sapiens, or modern humans.

Symbiosis

An interdependent relationship between different species that may or may not benefit one or both of the species.

Cooperative Breeding

Anatomical changes affected how we raise our young, which led to this in which groups beyond just direct parents help to keep young members of the group, village, or family, alive in their early years.

Language

Audible, articulate, meaningful sounds produced by the action of the vocal organs or physical gestures that allow for systematic communication of ideas or feelings.

Denisovans

DNA analysis in 2010 of a 50,000 year old fragment of a girls finger bone in led to this "mysterious" hominin population who had an ancient relationship to neanderthals; they have a special gene that allows for high altitude breathing; modern Homo sapiens in Melanesia have up to 4% of their DNA proving there was interbreeding.

Homo Ergaster (aka "Homo Erectus")

Hominin species that appeared in Africa almost 2 million years ago that was almost as tall as modern humans, had brains were larger than those of Homo habilis; known for being first to control the use of fire, and made more complex stone tools.

Chimpanzees

Homo sapiens closest living relatives in the primate family, they are male led, use tools, can be warlike and violent.

Paranthropus Group

Human species (c. 2.7 mya) known for large teeth and powerful jaws that enabled them to feed on a variety of foods, likely evolved from Australopithecus species.

Homo Neanderthalensis

Human species of that lived in Europe and Middle East between 28,000 and 300,000 years ago, who had bigger brains than H. sapiens and were shorter and brawnier; Europeans have 2% of this species DNA mixed into their genetics.

Savannahs

Rapildly changing climate led to the spread of _________________ (grasslands with sparse forestation) over the past 2-3 million years is a goldilocks condition that led to the evolution of primates from tree dwellers to bipedal species such as Homo sapiens, etc.

Paleolithic Era

Refers to the era of human history from the origins of our species about 200,000 years ago to the appearance of agriculture about 10,000 years ago; known as the "Stone Age" as most surviving evidence consists of stone tools.

Mitochondrial DNA

The type of genetic markers you get from your mother, not found in the cell nucleus, which has enabled geneticists to form a human family tree that shows that all humans share a common female ancestor who lived between 100,000-200,000 years ago..

Cave Paintings

This form of early human art often depicted humans/the human body, stars, the sun, animals (sometimes with a sense of movement to them) and provide Anthropologists with evidence of the evolution of human creativity and culture.

Evolution of Language

This happened due to anatomical changes to the human body, such as to Broca's area of the brain, the larynx, culminating in a rapid diversity in languages (more than 7000 today), conceptual thinking, culture, religion, etc.

Ardipithecus

a genus of extinct early hominids known from skeletal remains from northeastern Ethiopia that includes two identified species (A. ramidus and A. kadabba) known for "grasping hands"

Geneology

a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor; a plant's or animal's line of evolutionary development from earlier forms.

Radiometric Dating

a method of dating geological or archeological fossils/specimens by determining the relative proportions of particular radioactive isotopes present in a sample.

The Rift Valley

location in Africa, dominated by plate tectonics and volcanism, is where all hominin species originally evolved and eventually migrated out of.