Genus homo - early Flashcards
when did genus homo begin? epoch?
2.5mya
pleistocene
describe homo habilis
- 2.5 - 1.8 mya tanzania, l.leakey
- Increase use of material culture / stone tools
- Larger brain 600 cc
- smaller teeth - big change from australopitheus
- Australopithecus like body - about same overall size
Homorudolfensis
• 2 mya kenya
• 775 cc cranial capacity
• Homo habilis or aust?
distinct lineage
pliestocene environment
ice coverage - glacial maxima
•
• Where the ice wouldve been
Environment plays a huge role in finding fossils
describe homo erectus - where was it? when? anatomy?
- Huge geographical range
- Don’t need to memorize sites, but know its spread out across africa, asia, and europe - due to climate change? Or other selective pressures?
- Increase in cranial capacity
- Longer limos
- 1.8-0.05 mya
- Sagittal keel - ridge of bone along the sagittal suture commonly found on H. erectus crania - not all of the homo erectus crania have this
was h erectus successful?
- Very successful hominin - maybe even more than us bc longer time span - more than a million years
- Widest part low down vs ours which is high up
distinct phyical traits of h erectus
• Long low vault • Thickly walled • Little development of forehead • Prominent brow ridge • Larger cranium than earlier fossils Max breadth below ear opening
aus boisei vs homo erectus: what was in common?
around at same time
Commonality - bipedal + non honing canines
Nariokotome boy - describe
• Discovered in 1984 • West side of lake turkana kenya • Dates to 1.6 mya • 8-12 years old • Arm/leg ratio human like • May have been almost 6 feet? • Cranial capacity 900 cc homo erectus
illeret kenya finding?
- 1.5 mya
- Foot prints
- Perhaps homo erectus
h. erectus in ethiopia
daka cranium 1 mya
bodo crNIUM 0.6 MYa
• Keep in mind the looong time frame and wide geographical spread - but don’t focus too much on this example
H. erectus in asia?
skull 5
1.8 mya dmanisi georgia
• All features of homo erectus but size was different! A bit smaller
KNOW this one
remarkable completeness of the skull—the most complete of Early Pleistocene Homo—helps paleoanthropologists to understand the full morphology of the cranium, mandible, and teeth of some of the earliest members of our genus. Skull 5 has the combined features typical of H. erectus in having a long, low cranium and relatively large browridges. The individual combines a small braincase (brain size is 546 cc) with a large face
This skull and other remains from Dmanisi provide evidence for a single evolving lineage of early Homo and for continuity of evolution from at least 1.8 mya across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
java man?
• Indonesia
• Cranial capacity 1000 cc
• Myositis ossificans
• Top of cranium - evidence of a brow ridge! = homo erectus
• Other bone femur - individual was injured - calcified - community? Did this person require help?
h. erectus
theory on moving across water for h. erectus?
• Water craft? Experimental archeology
• How did they move? Water craft possible?
• • Robert Bednarik and team constructed
bamboo rafts and attempted to sail
between the islands of Indonesia
• About 48 km - they made it the 2nd time
• Suggests water craft was likely used
what defines the paleolithic?
• The period of human history where humans have created stone tools
qq
what hominins in lower paleolithic
25mya - 200,000 yrs
homo habilis, homo erectus, pre modern homo sapiens
Archeulian stone tool tradition
homo erectus
•
• More complex than oldewan
• Named after a site in france - st. acheul
• Oldest site with acheulian tools in kenya - 1.76 mya
• Bifacial plate - symmetrial tool, wide range
• Researchers trying to find out how they were used - check protein and cut marks on bone, etc
use of fire by h erectus?
• Advantages: illumination, cooked food, warmth, protection
• Best evidence - hearth = human involvement, created in a systematic way - expect to find charcoal, bones, broken bones w cut marks etc
Ex. Wonderwerk cave south africa - evidence of fire
• Zhoukoudian site?
• China
• Homo erectus
• Know this one!!
connected to the fossil known as peking man - not used anymore, but in case
homo erectus in europe site?
• Gran dolina site in spain
• Not as extensive as sites in africa and asia
• Know this one best - don’t need to know other european sites
This evidence indicates that hominins processed and consumed animals and other hominins
the mid-1990s, the excavation of this Spanish cave site uncovered fossil remains of at least six individual hominins along with hundreds of stone tools. In addition, ample evidence that both hominins and other animals were butchered there has led some researchers to suggest that these hominin ancestors practiced cannibalism.
• Pre modern (archaic) homo sapiens
features?
- Still brow ridge, not much of a forehead
* Another jump in cranial capacity
Kabwe cranium - pre modern humans
kKabwe (Broken Hill) cranium • Zambia, Africa • complete cranium • yBP • cranial capacity 1300 cc • low forehead, large brow ridges
