Cultural evidence (6) Flashcards
Fossils and genetic evidence are not the only
evidence of human evolution. Early hominins very
gradually began to control their environment; to
use it to alter their way of life because of the unique
combination of: (2)
- a larger brain, especially the cortical area.
- specialised physical features such as more dexterous hands.
This non-genetic means of adaptation, called cultural evolution, improved the success of early hominins.
African apes use objects such as _____ (to crack
nuts) and thin sticks (to pull termites out of
termite mounds). This behaviour is learnt from
their parents and it is likely that the common
ancestor of _____ and humans used tools
similarly. However, they did not make tools.
Therefore, the remains of manufactured tools are
evidence of human _____ evolution.
stones
chimpanzees
cultural
What is the next major step in human evolution in human evolution?
After the evolution of bipedalism (4.2 mya) in the
earliest genus of hominins, Ardipithecus, tool-
making was the next major step in human
evolution. It marks the first trait that is unique to
the genus Homo.
Why are hominin hands well adapted for tool-making?
Hominin hands are well adapted
for tool-making as they are capable of fine
manipulation and coordination.
Tool-making (modification of rocks and later bone,
metals, wood, etc.) and the use of the tools lead to: (2)
- new ways of getting food, e.g. the ability to crack open long bones and get at the marrow, to dig and to sharpen or shape wooden implements.
- efficient hunting in organised groups with the later more sophisticated tools. Hunting also required the development of good communication.
How did cultural evolution take place?
Gradually as the learned skills and behaviours
were passed on to offspring cultural evolution
occurred.
What does dating tools help with?
By dating stone tools, a clear pattern of tool evolution can be seen. The earliest tools were large, simple and crude while the most recent were small, complex and elegant. Put simply, much less skill was needed to make the early tools than the later tools. The greater the evidence of skill the more the brain, particularly the cerebral cortex and thus the species, must have evolved.
The first evidence of the intentional manufacture
of any stone-tool comes 2.5 mya from the _____ ______ ______.
Ethiopian Rift Valley
The early humans, probably ___ ____ , used hammerstones to strike stone cores and produce sharp flakes. These large simple tools represent the simplest form of stone tool technology and are known as _____ tools.
Homo habilis
Oldowan
Nonetheless, they are evidence that the early humans had intellectually evolved beyond their earlier hominin ancestors, the ________, who did not appear to make tools.
australopithecines
_______ ______ might have made bone tools for gathering plant foods. For more than 2 million years, early humans used these tools to cut, pound, crush and access new foods-including meat from large animals.
Paranthropus ropustus
There were two groups of tools. What were these? (2)
- Choppers (the remains of the core), which were for crushing nuts and seeds, or bones to get the marrow and for softening vegetable material.
- Scrapers (the flakes chipped off the core), which being sharp could cut the meat off a carcass killed by other animals.
These unsophisticated tools suggest that the early Homo species, Homo habilis, were _____ and not hunters.
scavengers
At about the same time as ____ _____ appeared archaeologists found that there was a major change in the stone-tool industry.
At about the same time as Homo ergaster
What did the advanced tools of the Archeulian industry show?
These more advanced tools of the Archeulian industry showed a preconceived design, not just a random hammering of a core stone.
