10. Early Hominid Origins and Evolution
Definition of hominid: bipedal: walking on 2 feet. nonhoning dentition: while humans have nonhonding chewing, primates such as gorillas have a honing complex, in which their very large canines cut food, the upper canines are sharpened against the lower third premolars.
Skeletal evidence for bipedalism: foramen magnum, pelvis, knees, feet: 7 steps, position of the foramen magnum, shape of the spine, shape of the pelvis, lenght of the leg, valgus knee, longitudinal foot arch, opposable big toe.
Behavioral advantages of bipedalism: because this helps to identifided what species they were, because not many can be bipedal.
Pre-Australopithecines (7-5 mya); example “Ardi”: they have provided critically important information about the origins and earliest evolution of the hominidae, had number of primitive attributes, and in some respects they were more apelike than humanlike. they represent the first recognizable ancenstors of the lineage leading to humans.
Australopithecines (4-1 mya); example “Lucy”, “Selam AKA Lucy’s Baby” “Taung”: lucy: one of the most significant fossils. the 40% complete skeleton of an adult female A afarensis, found in East Africa. Selam AKA Lucy's Baby: recently the fossil remains of a 3 year old child were recovered and nickname LUCY'S BABY. Taung: some of the earliest evidenceof homids in South Africa was discovered in a limestone quarry in Taung.
Robust and gracile Australopithecines: different morphology, behavior, time periods
Where do they fit into our ancestral line? because they were more humanlike than apelike compared with the pre-autralopithecines.
11. The Origin and Evolution of Early Homo
Early Homo: what’s different from Australopithecus? extensive paleoanthropological investigations took place in Dmanisi after early stone tools were discovered there in 1984. Between 1991 and 2005, mmire than 20 hominid remains wer found, including skulls and mandibles. One of the more complete crania(D-22822), shown here, was discovered in 1999 and enabled researchrs to classify the hominid as Homo Eructus. Dmanisi
1st tools: who? when? where? how used? Olduwan Culture:is the archaeological term used to refer to the earliest stone tool industry inprehistory, being used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.6 million years ago up until 1.7 million years ago, by Hominines. It was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry, "Oldowan" is taken from the site of Olduvai Gorge inTanzania, where the first Oldowan tools were discovered by the archaeologist Louis Leakey in the 1930s. However, some contemporary archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists prefer to use the term "Mode One" tools to designate Oldowan tools, with "Mode Two" designating Acheulean ones and so forth.Turkana Boy
Out of Africa: who, when, where did they go? excavations reveled evidence for controlled fire use, but not to be warm or to cook. they were part of East Asia, near to Bejing, they were smaller than early homids, Zhoukoudian
Pleistocene and Paleolithic---climate and culture: they were revolutionary way of preparing food increased the aamount of energy available to early humans, these cultural developments were the harbingers of increasing environmental control and improved adaptive sucess, which form an ongoing theme of human evolution. Gran Dolina
Homo erectus: when & where; physical traits; cultural behavior; Acheulian Culture
Archaeological evidence for behavior: tools, fire, use of meat, etc.
Where do they fit into our ancestral line? the culture associated with H.eructus, including handaxes and other types of stone tools; more refined than the early Oldowan tools, handaxe the most dominant tool in the Acheulian complex, chracteried by a sharp edge for both cutting and scraping.