Final Flashcards
- All early hominin fossils, older than 2 mya are found.. 2 main regions
in Africa.
Parts of East and South Africa.
All early hominin fossils
*why Africa?
- Likely larger populations lived in this area than other areas.
- Geological features may help them preserve better.
- Caves in South Africa:
- Taung- Taung child cranium 1925
- Sterkfontein
- Fromfraai
- Swartkrans
- Malapa- recently, found in 2008.
- These have been made UNEXCO Heritage site called Cradle of Humankind
Dolinas
- Vertically oriented caves
- Formed by dissolving limestone, eroded bedrock.
- Over millions of years, these grows large and deep into large cavities with a small opening at the top.
- Stratification happens in the cave.
- Some used by hyenas.
- Some hominin groups used Dolinas for living.
- Breccia-
new rock that forms over time.
* 10-40 meters deep.
- Sterkfontein
20 m of breccia deposits. Date to 3.5 million years ago at the bottom and 200 000 years ago at the top.
* Over 700 hominin bones and fragments have been found here.
* Almost complete skeleton was found here, same as Taung child.
* Need to use very small tools as its wedged in there.
Australopithecus
- Malapa
- Mostly complete hominin skull found date to 2 million years ago.
- .
Australopithecus sediba
- More sites in East Africa
More sites in East Africa than south Africa
* Tanzania- Olduvai Gorge, Laetoli
* Kenya- West Turkana, Koobi Fora
* Ethiopia- Hadar and Kada Gona.
* Not individual sites, but large areas on the landscape where fossils are found.
- Olduvai Gorge-
- 2 million years ago it was a lake, and hominins and animals lives along the shore
- Found stone tools and bones, phytoliths- plant matter from fossilized palm trees.
- Used to have lake but now dry and lots of erosion- so that means fossils are able to be found.
- Lousi and Mary Leaky started finding fossils in 1959
- Laetoli
- Famous for Mary Leakey’s discovery of hominin footprints in volcanic ash from 3.5 million years ago.
- Over 70 footprints from 5 individuals, give info about walking gait at that time. Many animal footprints found as well
Australopithecus
- Koobi Fora
- Animal and hominin footprints
- 1.5 million years old.
- Genus homo fossils found here- most complete ones
- West Turkana
- Old river deposits to 4 million years ago.
- Stone tools sating to 3.3 mya? Possibly- would be the oldest artifacts ever found.
- Afar Depression- Ethiopia.
- Used to be thick forest and wet marshy areas
- Hadar
- Rich in hominin remains, date from 4.5 to 3 million years ago
- Ongoing erosion changes the landscape and makes it so that fossils can be found even if the area was already searched.
Lucy found here
- Kada Gona
- Previously oldest stone tools 2.6 million years ago
- What is a Continental Rift?
- A linear zone along which continental lithosphere stretches (and thinned) and pulls apart. Its creation may mark the beginning of a new ocean basin
- Tensional forces and buoyant uplifting of the heated lithosphere cause the upper crust to be broken along normal faults, while the lower crust deforms by ductile stretching.
- As the crust is pulled apart, large slabs of rock sink, generating a rift valley
- Further spreading generates a narrow sea
- Eventually an expansive ocean basin and ridge system are created.
- The East African Rift
is a continental rift that extends through eastern Africa for approximately 2,000 miles. It is made of several interconnected rift alleys that split into eastern and western sections around Lake Victoria. Eventually, a section of Africa will be divided by ocean.
- What causes Rifting?
- Mantle Convection
- Plumes
- Slab Pull and Ridge Push (subduction)
- Gravitational Collapse
- Started 24 MYA
- Rift in Malawi opening at less than 3 mm per year.
- What is the geological effects of the African Rift?
- Creation of a ocean basin.
- The opening of a new ocean basin begins with the formation of a continental rift. When rifting continues, the rift system evolves into a young, narrow ocean basin.
- Earthquakes.
- Any movement within a fault system can cause strain that builds up and result in devastating earthquakes
- Rift Volcanoes.
- Rift volcanoes form when magma rises into the gap between diverging plates.
- Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa The Taung Skull Fossil Site
- :
- 1924 the celebrated Taung Skull – a specimen of the species Australopithecus africanus – was found
Makapan Valley, also in the site, features in its many archaeological caves traces of human occupation and evolution dating back some 3.3 million years
Fossils found there have enabled the identification of several specimens of early hominids, more particularly of Paranthropus, dating back between 4.5 million and 2.5 million years, as well as evidence of the domestication of fire 1.8 million to 1 million years ago
The Earliest Fossil Hominins
Extinct or fossil species that are linked to us.
A couple of important terms:
Plesiomorphic Trait A primitive trait inherited by a species from their ancestor.
prehensile feet in living apes
Apomorphic Traits New or ‘derived’ trait. It first appears in the species in question. Not inherited from an ancestor. E.g. Early Miocene apes had no tail. Likely as they were in trees less so didn’t need it. They did evolve from monkeys with tails tho.
no tail in primitive apes- no tail in humans.
non-prehensile feet in later hominins
Plesiomorphic Trait
A primitive trait inherited by a species from their ancestor.
Apomorphic Traits
New or ‘derived’ trait. It first appears in the species in question. Not inherited from an ancestor. E.g. Early Miocene apes had no tail. Likely as they were in trees less so didn’t need it. They did evolve from monkeys with tails tho.
no tail in primitive apes- no tail in humans.
non-prehensile feet in later hominins
When researchers dig up a new fossil …
They need to decide if it is … ??
Where does it fit into our evolutionary tree?
* just another example of something we’ve already found before?
* or a new species?
* or even a new genus?
* Need to study the features of the fossil.