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ANTH 102 > Finals Studu Guide Chapter 12 > Flashcards

Finals Studu Guide Chapter 12 Flashcards

1
Q

Genus Australopithecus

A
  • Walking around Africa on two legs
  • Different from the neck up
  • Extremely large back teeth
  • Processing difficult to digest food, like roots and seeds
  • Relatively small brains
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2
Q

Origins of Homo

A
  • ~2.3 million years ago
  • Africa
  • Larger brains
  • Smaller teeth
  • Australopithecus limb proportions
  • Rapid development
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3
Q

First members of the genus Homo is

A

Homo habilis, “handy man”
• Location: East and South Africa
• Age: 1.4 to 2.3 mya
• Description
• Originally thought to be the first makers of Mode 1 technology
• Some of the more famous fossils found at Olduvai Gorge

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4
Q

Pleistocene Climate

A

1.8 mya (Pleistocene)
• World’s climate began to cool

~1 mya
• Climate fluctuated and brought about many glacial periods (ice age)
• Last one ended 12
kya

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5
Q

Homo ergaster

A 
Homo ergaster
• Evolved from early Homo 
• Location: Olduvai Gorge, East Africa 
• Age: 0.6–1.8 mya • Description
• Evolved from early Homo
• Brain considerably larger (~900 cc)
• Back teeth are small
• First hominins to migrate out of Africa
Unique- brow ridge, occipital torus
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6
Q

H. ergaster Postcranial Morphology

A

• Postcrania
• Long legs, narrow hips, barrel chest
• Modern human body proportions
• Reduced sexual dimorphism
• Language limited? (lacked fine motor control of the
thoracic muscles) • Terrestrial biped; runner? (greater success at
scavenging or hunting?)

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7
Q

• Features of the anatomy of H. Ergaster indicate that

A

by 1.5 mya, hominins had abandoned any tree climbing for a fully
terrestrial life

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8
Q

H. ergaster: Tools and Subsistence

A

• Earlier Homo ergaster fossils found with Mode 1 technology
• Between 1.4 to 1.6 mya, the biface. More complicated to make,
premeditated

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9
Q

Tapeworms

A
  • Tapeworms evolved 0.8 to 1.7 mya, right around the time Homo ergaster began eating meat on the Africa savanna
  • Evidence through DNA
  • Occurred before domestication
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10
Q

Dispersal out of Africa

A

1) Ardipithecus and Kenyanthropus to Australopithecus and Homo habilis were all discovered on the continent of Africa
2) Homo ergaster accessed many resources from many different environments
• Technological know-how and relatively large brain
3) Homo ergaster fossils are the oldest to be found outside of Africa
4) This dispersal occurred 1.8 Mya

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11
Q

Evidence showing dispersal out of Africa

A

Evidence: Dmanisi, Georgia
• 5 skulls (brain 550–775 cc)
• Partial skeletons
• Postcrania Homo-like (long legs and short arms, arched foot)
• Brain:body ratio is closer to Homo habilis than to Homo ergaster
• Oldowan stone tools (over 1,000)

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12
Q

Dispersal out of Africa: Fossils

A 
• Location: Dmanisi, Georgia
Age: 1.8 million years old • Description
• Robust, male skull
    • Jaw protruded from the face
    • Back teeth are quite large 
• Small brain (546 cc)
• Variation of Homo ergaster
     • Similar to early Homo fossils (Africa and Asia)
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13
Q

Dispersal out of Africa: Fossils locations

A

Researchers are trying to identify when the first migration out of Africa was.
• We know that once hominins did migrate, it happened rapidly and widely in the Old World

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14
Q

Homo erectus

A

Homo erectus
• Location: Java, Indonesia
Discovered: late 1800s by Eugene Dubois
Age: 1.6 mya (based on fossil beds) •

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15
Q

Homo erectus description

A

• Skull 900 cc (halfway between a modern ape and a modern human)
• Femur suggested it walked on two legs
• Originally called Pithecanthropus erectus
• Extinct ancestors of humans preserved in the
fossil record

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16
Q

Homo erectus cranium

A 
Differences with H. ergaster
• Thicker skull
• More massive face
• More pronounced occipital torus and brow ridge 
• Sagittal keel 
• Stockier
• Adaptation to the colder climates in Asia? 
• Bone founds in cave (shelter? Warmth?)
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17
Q

Homo erectus stone tools

A

Earliest migrants out of Africa brought Mode 1

• We only find Mode 1 at Dmanisi, and almost entirely Mode 1 Odlowan tools at Homo erectus sites in Asia

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18
Q

Early middle Pleistocene climate

A

Middle Pleistocene (130,000–900,000 years ago)
• “Human like” features begin to evolve
• Climate cooler and more variable
• Ice ages: Europe and North America glaciated
• Short interglacials
• Homo sapiens evolved during this time period

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19
Q

Early middle Pleistocene climate : Habitats

A

Fluctuating temperatures impact plant life and habitats
Ice age period:
• Northern latitudes were uninhabitable,and deserts spread, separating areas of inhabitable land
•limited movement was possible for animal species (including hominins)
• Fossil evidence

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20
Q

Homo heidelbergensis

A

• Kabwe, Southern African country of Zambia
Petralona, Greece
• Description
• 1,200-1,300 cc brains (human variation)
• Larger brow ridge
• Larger faces
• Differently shaped skulls (not as round) than people today
• No chin
• Prognathic face
• Found throughout Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia) and western Eurasia (Spain, Greece, Germany)

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21
Q

Homo heidelbergensis - Toolkit

A 
-More skilled at large game hunting 
Spears
Butchered animal bones 
- Mode 3 technology begins to appear 
Tools were attached to a handle ( hafted)
Efficiency of tools increased
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22
Q

Homo heidelbergensis: Asia

A

• All of these anatomical and behavioral changes seen in Homo
heidelbergensis were occurring in Africa and western Eurasia • Description
• Large brain
• Heavy brow ridge

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23
Q

Neanderthals had evolved from

A

Homo heidelbergensis in Europe, and Homo sapiens had done the same in Africa.

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24
Q

Up to five different kinds of hominins

A

may have populated the Old World

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25
Q

Homo floresiensis:

A 
Homo floresiensis: The “Hobbits”
• Location: Flores, Indonesia
Discovery: 2004
Age: 16 kya to 74 kya 
• Description
• 11 individuals 
• Small bodied (3’ height) 
• Small brained (~400 cc, chimpanzee-sized) 
• But, sophisticated stone tools
   • Fully capable of hunting
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26
Q

Ancestral lineage of early Homo floresiensis

A

• Primitive features such as the pelvis (Australopithecine-like)

27
Q

European Homo heidelbergensis

A

• In western Eurasia, a population adapted to glacial conditions
• (“Pit of the Bones”)
Location: Spain, western Europe
Age: 500 kya
• Description
• 2,000 fossils from 24 hominins
• Brain size is within modern human range (skulls are elongated), sloping foreheads
• Skulls also possessed double-arched brow ridges (seen in
Neanderthals)
• Reflects normal variation in a population

28
Q

The Neanderthal World

A
  • Eventually, Neanderthals did evolve in Europe
    • Well-preserved, well-studied cave localities in Europe
    • NEVER found in Africa
  • Evidence they buried their dead
    • Fluctuating environment, cooling trend
    • Eurasia
  • Frigid grassland
  • Many large mammals
29
Q

Neanderthal Anatomy

A

• Large brain
• Larger than Homo sapiens (1,520 to 1,740 cc) • Oblong skulls
• Occipital bun
• Thin walled
• Large, projecting faces with a well-developed brow ridge and
very large nasal cavities
• Unique teeth
• Taurodont roots
• Expanded pulp cavity which caused the roots to expand and sometimes merge
• Heavily worn incisors (work hides or pull meat)
First species to wear clothes

30
Q

Neanderthal Anatomy: Postcrania

A

Neanderthal Anatomy: Postcrania
• Short and stocky
• More robust limbs with better-developed muscle attachments (especially in the shoulder)
• Wide torso
• Short arms and legs
Is the body form an adaptation to retaining body heat in cold climates?
We start to see clothes …

31
Q

Neanderthal Intelligence

A
  • Language?
    • Had hyoids like humans did!
    • Skull shape was different, probably didn’t produce the same range of sounds
  • Mode 3 tools
    • Mousterian industry tools (a type of Mode 3 prepared core tools)
      * Large game hunters
  • Bison • Red deer • Aurochs (wild cattle)
32
Q

Neanderthal Intelligence: Evidence

A
  • Caves
  • Burial of dead
    * Ceremonial?
    * Practical: keep scavengers away?
  • Personal ornaments
    • Necklaces
    • Body pigmentation
33
Q

The Life of a Neanderthal

A
  • Evidence of bones and teeth
  • Short lifespan, lived around 45 years old
  • Difficult lives
    • Arthritis
    • Gum disease
    • Injuries
34
Q

Homo heidelbergensis

A

evolved into Homo sapiens
Location: Africa
Age: ~200 kya

35
Q

The Road to Homo sapiens?

A 
Skulls are
• Large brained
• Face is larger, skull more robust than modern humans
• Less robust than Homo heidelbergensis
• Shows no unique Neanderthal features
36
Q

During glacial periods (ice ages),

A

Eurasia and Africa were isolated from one another

• Large deserts prevented the migration of animals (and hominins)

37
Q

During interglacials,

A

individuals could move again

• Exchange genes, information, or both!

38
Q

How do researchers trace these migration patterns?

A

• Through different stone tool technologies

39
Q

Stone tool innovations occurred primarily

A

in Africa, and their appearance at different times in Eurasia reflect several migrations of hominins Out of Africa

40
Q

Middle Pleistocene

A

Mode 1 tools prevailed in Europe and Asia

Hominin in Africa were mostly making Mode 2 Acheulean hand axes

41
Q

250-500 kya

A

Achyeulean had spread through Europe and Western Asia

42
Q

Mode 3 was invented in

A

East Africa

43
Q

The road to Homo sapiens technologies

A 
Stone tools cannot move by themselves 
Stone tools are evidence of hominins
When Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa 
- Neanderthals were in Europe 
- homo Erectus was in Asia
44
Q

Acheulean industry

A

A Mode 2 tool industry found at sites dated at 1.6 to 0.3 mya and associated with Homo ergaster and some archaic Homo sapiens. Named after the French village of Saint-Acheul, where it was first discovered, the Acheulean industry is dominated by teardrop-shaped hand axes and blunt cleavers.

45
Q

Archaic Homo sapiens

A

An older term for hominins with larger brains and more modern crania that appear in the fossil record about 500 kya in Africa and Europe, and somewhat later in eastern Asia.

46
Q

Basicrania

A

The base or underside of the cranium.

47
Q

Biface

A

flat stone tool made by working both sides of a core until there is an edge along the entire circumference.

48
Q

Cleaver

A

A biface stone tool with a broad, flat edge. Cleavers are common at Acheulean sites.

49
Q

Crural index

A

The ratio of the length of the shin bone (tibia) to the length of the thigh bone (femur).

50
Q

Hafted

A

To attach a spear point, ax head, or similar implement to a handle. Hafting greatly increases the force that can be applied to the tool.

51
Q

Hand ax

A

The most common type of biface stone tool found in Acheulean sites. It is flat and teardrop-shaped, with a sharp point at the narrow end.

52
Q

Homo heidelbergensis

A

Middle Pleistocene hominins from Africa and western Eurasia. These hominins had large brains and very robust skulls and postcrania.

53
Q

Levallois technique

A

A three-step toolmaking method used by Neanderthals. The knapper first makes a core having a precisely shaped convex surface, then makes a striking platform at one end of the core, and finally knocks a flake off the striking platform.

54
Q

Mode 2

A

A category of stone tools in which cores are shaped into symmetrical bifaces by the removal of flakes. The Acheulean industry is typified by Mode 2 tools.

55
Q

Mode 3

A

category of stone tools made by striking large symmetrical flakes from carefully prepared stone cores using the Levallois technique. The Mousterian industry in Europe and the Middle Stone Age industries in Africa are typified by Mode 3 tools.

56
Q

Mousterian industry

A

A stone tool industry characterized by points, side scrapers, and denticulates (tools with small toothlike notches on the working edge), but an absence of hand axes.
Mousterian is generally associated with Neanderthals in Europe

57
Q

Neanderthals

A

A form of archaic Homo sapiens found in western Eurasia from about 127 kya to about 30 kya.
Neanderthals had large brains and elongated skulls with very large faces. They were also characterized by very robust bodies.

58
Q

Occipital torus

A

A horizontal ridge at the back of the skull in Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and archaic Homo sapiens.

59
Q

Pick

A

A triangular-shaped biface stone tool found in Acheulean sites.

60
Q

Rock shelters

A

A site sheltered by an overhang of rock.

61
Q

Sagittal keel

A

A feature running along the midline of the skull shaped like a shallow, upside-down V. The sagittal keel is a derived characteristic of Homo erectus.

62
Q

Scapulae

A

Shoulder blade.

63
Q

Taurodont roots

A

single broad tooth roots in molar resulting from the fusion of three roots. Taurodont roots were characteristic of Neanderthals

64
Q

Sutures

A

Wavy joints between bones that mesh together and are separated by fibrous tissue.

ANTH 102 (17 decks)

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