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Palaeoanthropology > H. sapiens > Flashcards

H. sapiens Flashcards

1
Q

H. sapiens cranial anatomy

A 
Chin - mental eminence
Small teeth
Small nose
More vertical forehead
Parietal bossing
Very small browridge
Rounded occipital
Small face
Depressed infraorbital region
Globular vault
Supracilliary eminance
Fine nasals
Non-prognathic face
Dental reduction
M1>M2>M3
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2
Q

Archaic vs anatomically modern H. sapiens

A

Archaic H. sapiens still retained some primitive features - H. rhodesiensis

‘Anatomically modern humans’ -> full suite of H. sapiens features
Early and recent H. sapiens still show clear differences

Substantial reduction in brain size from early to recent H. sapiens

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3
Q

H. sapiens post-cranial anatomy

A

Lower body mass
Longer lower and upper limb bones
Narrowing of thoracic region
Narrowing of pelvic region

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4
Q

Self-domestication in H. sapiens

A 
Domesticated animal traits shared by H. sapiens:
Smaller crania and bodies
More gracile
Facial retrognathism
Smaller teeth
Reduced sexual dimorphism
Reduced agression
Domestic animal traits possibly shared by H. sapiens:
Variation in hair/coat
Increased fat storage
Greater breeding seasons
Increased lactation

Domestic animal traits not shared by H. sapiens:
Greater litter size

Mechanisms:
Inherited genetic changes - artificial or natural selection
Niche construction - created environments to suit our needs - CHANGED environments - modified selection pressures
Human cultural niche construction has essentially domesticated us?

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5
Q

Specimens postdating the likely divergence between Neanderthals and H. sapiens

A

Cannot be ancestral to both. African groups are more likely to be related to H. sapiens (based on biogeography) - or part of sister group

Ndutu, Tanzania - 350-400kya - gracile, small face, thin eyebrows

Kabwe,Zambia - 300kya - strong browridges, receding forehead, occipital torus

Eliye Springs, Kenya - 200-300kya - vertical frontal, rounded occipital

Bodo, Ethiopia - 600kya - large brain, projecting nose, parietal bossing

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6
Q

First known H. sapiens

A

Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, 315kya

Derived H. sapiens traits:
Reduced browridge
Inflexed infraorbital region
Dental morphology
Presence of chin

Primitive traits:
Non-globular braincase
Associated with brain and behavioural differences between early and recent H. sapiens?

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7
Q

Early H. sapiens specimens

A

Jebel Irhoud, Morocco - 315kya

Misliya, Isarael - 190kya

Herto, Ethiopia - 160kya

Omo, Ethiopia - 190kya

Omo and Herto are the oldest hominins showing clear H. sapiens affinities

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8
Q

Omo 1 and Omo 2

A

Ethiopia, 195kya

Omo 1: H. sapiens derived traits - rounded occiptal, reduced browridge, chin

Omo 2: Bigger browridge, retreating frontal, thicker vault - more archaic

Different species/date? Variation?

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9
Q

Herto

A

Ethiopia, 160-180kya

Largest cranium - 1450cc
Primitive: occipital and supraorbital ridges
Derived: globular neurocranium, retracted face

Ritual mortuary practice?
Cutmarks, polish on child’s skull
Different treatment to fauna

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10
Q

Earliest evidence outside Africa

A

Misliya, Israel

Maxillary bone with teeth dated to 190kya

Small, modern-looking teeth
As old as (or even older than) Omo and Herto specimens

Age remains controversial - could be no more than 60-70kya

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11
Q

Levantine modern humans

A

Qafzeh, Israel - 100kya

Skhūl, Israel - 120kya

Presence of both H. sapiens and Neanderthals

Possible location of interbreeding event(s)

Mousterian artefacts in sites of both species

Contact zone between Eurasia and Africa - dependent on climatic conditions

Skhūl/Qafzeh - short-lived expansion north or ancestors of eventual dispersal towards Australia?

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12
Q

Skhūl

A

Israel, 120kya

10 individuals - male, female and juvenile

Mixture of primitive and derived traits

Primitive - large browridges and prognathism

Deliberate burials -> good preservation

Reconstructions argued to obscure morphology

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13
Q

Qafzeh

A

~100kya, 14 individuals

Some elaborate (ritual?) burials
Qafzeh 11 child - skull and antlers of red deer
Qafzeh 9 - 6yo child across feet

Very unlike Neanderthals from same time period

Tall (170-180cm)

Derived traits: short crania, reduced browridges, high forehead, chin -different to Skhūl

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14
Q

‘Failed’ dispersal?

A

75-130kya - warm interglacial period.
Skhūl/Qafzeh fossils correspond to a first wave of migration

60-75kya - cold glacial period.
Modern humans retreated during the following cold period.

25-60kya - warm interglacial period.
Successful later modern human migration.

12-25kya - cold glacial period

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15
Q

Asian modern humans

A

Until recently, H. sapiens presence outside Africa before 60kya was not accepted

  • Lacked clear chronostratigraphic context
  • Taxonomic assignment to H. sapiens was not clear

Increasing evidence for early H. sapiens in Asia

  • Some sites potentially >100kya
  • Chronologies and/or affinities are still disputed
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16
Q

Zhirendong

A

China
>100kya

Debated

  • Robust mandible but incipient chin
  • H. sapiens or gracile H. erectus?
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17
Q

Daoxian

A

Fuyan Cave, China

47 human teeth

80-120kya

Extremely modern-looking
Cavities

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18
Q

Al Wusta

A

Saudi Arabia, 85-95kya
Oldest directly dated fossil outside Africa or Levant

Modern human manual phalanx

Samples obtained from the fossil using laser ablation

19
Q

Australia

A

Separated from SE Asia by ocean - sea levels sometimes lower, exposing Sunda and Sahul shelf

Ocean-going craft required - explains why not colonised until H. sapiens

Rapid eastern and western routes that reached southern Australia by 45kya

Related to later Australian aboriginal populations

First Australians are very variable in morphology

Madjedbebe, Devil’s Lair, Lake Mungo

20
Q

Madjedbebe

A

Northern Australia, 65kya

Distinctive stone tool assemblage
Grinding stones, ground ochres, etc.

Clarkson et al 2017

21
Q

Lake Mungo

A

SE Australia, 30-50kya

Ochre
Relatively gracile fossils

22
Q

Devil’s Lair

A

SW Australia, 40kya

Artefacts - bone points, bone beads
Animal and plant remains

23
Q

Manot Cave

A

Israel, 55kya

Closer to Upper Palaeolithic Europeans than Levantine early modern humans

Relationship with European UP modern humans?

Hershkovitz et al 2015

24
Q

Grotta del Cavallo

A

Southern Italy, 43-45kya

Deciduous molars, originally classified as Neanderthals

New quantitative analysis show clear modern human affinity

Benazzi et al 2011

25
Q

Grotta di Fumane

A

Northern Italy, 41kya

Deciduous incisor

Modern human mtDNA

Benazzi et al 2014

26
Q

Kent’s Cavern

A

Devon, Britain, 42-44kya

Shares more dental traits with modern humans than with Neanderthals

Badly worn - many dental traits cannot be assessed

Higham et al 2011

27
Q

Cro Magnon

A

SW France, 28kya

Cro Magnon 1 - old man (died in middle age)
Skull surface eroded
Evidence of pathology - fungal infection

Cro Magnon 2 - younger female

Not representative of Upper Palaeolithic H. sapiens
- More gracile and ‘modern’ - more like extant humans

28
Q

Possible migration routes to the Americas

A
  1. Overland and through an ice-free corridor
    - Siberia inhabited by 39kya
    - Ice-free corridor closed between 20 and 13ya
    - Either 40-20kya or after 13kya
  2. Bering island/coastal route
  3. Across the Pacific Ocean
  4. Across the frozen North Atlantic via Greenland
29
Q

Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

A

Pennsylvania, USA, 17ya

Only lithic remains

Age suggests that humans got to North America before the closure of the ice free corridor from 20-13kya

30
Q

Early North American fossils

A

Kennewick man - Washington state, USA, 9.4kya - Rasmussen et al. showed DNA relationship closer to east Siberia than Europe/south Pacific

Spirit Cave - Nevada, USA
10.6kya

31
Q

Monte Verde

A

Chile, 14.8kya
Hut structures, evidence of complex subsistence strategy

1800 years before Bering Strait would have been passable - supports coastal route of pre-20kya migration

32
Q

Models for the origin of H. sapiens

A

Replacement theory/recent African origin model (no hybridisation)

  • Modern humans evolved in Africa and replaced existing populations as they dispersed
  • Classic model based on analysis of mtDNA/mitochondrial Eve
  • Nuclear DNA disproves stirct interpretation

Hybridisation model

  • African origin, hybridisation and replacement
  • Similar to RAO
  • More interbreeding between migrating early H. sapiens and indigenous hominins outside of Africa
  • Migration of African populations a key factor in emergence of modern Eurasians

Assimilation (with replacement) model

  • African origin of modern H. sapiens
  • Significant interbreeding with other indigenous hominins
  • Limited impact on morphology
  • Differences with hybridisation model are subtle

Multiregional evolution theory (most hybridisation)

  • Modern humans evolved concurrently from existing archaic populations all over the Old World
  • Neanderthals in Europe
  • H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis in Asia
  • H. rhodesiensis in Africa
  • Maintained species integrity because of constant gene flow
  • Large/visible impact on morphology

Current model: OOA with assimilation/hybridisation

33
Q

Hybridisation

A

Hybridisation did not have a limited impact - played a crucial role in driving behavioural and morphological modenity

Morphology: creates novelty and increases variation
Rapid morphological adaption to new environments

Behavioural: drives innovation
Mixing of different hominin cultures led to behavioural modernity

Used to be a taboo topic but hot topic today - fossil recrd, experimental models, aDNA analysis, GWAS studies

34
Q

Modern contemporary humans

A

Single species that evolved in Africa and spread across the globe BUT different extant human groups carry small amounts of genetic material from multiple extinct hominin groups due to past interbreeding.

Limited mtDNA variation compared to apes - suggests modern humans organised recently

Modern humans are genetically very similar - suggests significant gene flow

Genetically homogenous but phenotypically very diverse

35
Q

African modern human genetic variation

A

No Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA in African populations

African populations genetically more diverse than non-Africans

African populations are closer to the modern human origin

‘Serial founder effect’

36
Q

Serial founder effect

A

Explains the two defining features of human genetic variation

  1. Genomes in Africa have many unique variants
  2. Reduced genetic diversity outside of Africa
37
Q

Modern human behaviour

A

Sophisticated stone, bone and wood tools

Hunting and gathering of a diverse set of animals (both marine and terrestrial) and plants

Symbolic behaviour including personal ornamentation, figurative art, and music

Living shelters, burials

Models of the evolution of behavioural modernity

  1. Gradual African origin (beginning 200kya)
  2. Punctuated late African origin (beginning 50kya)
  3. Gradual origins across multiple continents and multiple hominin species (beginning 200kya)
38
Q

Aurignacian stone tools

A

Mode 4, H. sapiens
36-28kya

Succeeded by Gravettian (28-21kya), Solutrean (21-16.5kya) and Magdalenian (16.5-11kya)

Blade-based technology
Complex tools
Regional variation in fairly sophisticated bifacial tools (cultural differences)

39
Q

Hunting strategies

A

Advantages of projectiles (later stone age)

  • More success
  • Less risk
  • Survivorship increases
  • Competitive advantage
40
Q

Art and music

A

After 40kya, in Europe and Africa
Intensification and consistent presence of artistic behaviours
- Cave art (high concentration of sites in France and Spain e.g. El Castillo 40kya and Altamira 15kya, Spain + Chauvet 32kya and Lascaux 17kya, France)
- Portable art, including figurines
- Music

Cave art made using natural substances - red and yellow ochre, manganese, charcoal - create a variety of colours
Different instruments - horsehair, sticks, and fingers used to apply paint

Significance is unclear
Magic purpose - improve hunting success
Other ritualistic or symbolic purpose - naturalistic scenes, including animals that were not hunted

Venus figurines
e.g. Brassempouy, France
Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic
Venus of Willendorf, Austria
Venus of Lespugue, France

Music: expression of social and emotional information
Flutes made from animal bones
Debate about Neanderthals having music traditions or not
Clear that modern humans had them

Personal ornamentation
Shell beads
Üçağızlı, Turkey, 40kya
South Africa, 70kya

41
Q

Burials

A

Lake Mungo, Australia, 30-50kya
Sungir, Russia, 28kya

Ochre
Increased use of grave goods - beads etc.
Concept of live after death?

42
Q

Shelter

A

Mezhirich, Ukraine, 16kya

Bones from at least 149 mammoths
Evidence of increased mobility and portable protection from the environment

43
Q

Subsistence strategies

A

EXPANDED SUBSISTENCE BASE
More varied diet, which also included use of aquatic resources

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
Sites occupied for longer periods and extensively modified
Evidence of more permanent shelters e.g. mammoth bone shelters

Palaeoanthropology (9 decks)

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