human ancestors Flashcards
Sahlanthropus tchadensis (pre-aus)
7-6 mya by M. Burnet in Chad. 350 cc, which is ape like. Massive browridge, nonhoning chewing complex, and lived in forests. Mostly bipedal based on foramen magnum. suggested it existed close to divergence of the common ancestor for apes/humans.
Orrorin tugenesis (pre-aus)
6 mya by Senut & Pickford in Tugan Hills/Lake Turkana, Kenya. Mostly post cranial elements with mandible fragments. Suggestive of efficient bipedalism because of the top of the femur that articulates with the hop was relatively long. Chimp like teeth and lived in a dry forest environment. Hand phalanx resembles ape (tree time) & nonhoning.
Ardipithecus kadabba
Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Post cranial bones and teeth. 5.8 - 5.2 mya and lived in a mixed woodland environment (contradicts that hominins evolved in open grassland as thought by Darwin etc.). Big toe is flat and broad, which indicates push off by big toe during locomotion. Canines wore from tip, some honing.
Ardipithecus ramidus
Ethiopia, 5.5-5.4 mya. May have been bipedal, but had an opposable hallux and was not flexible. Many primitive ape like characteristics (phalanges curved for trees). Thin enamel, canines wore from tip, and forward foramen magnum.
Australopithecines (general)
4 - 1 mya. 9 different species, represents diversification of hominids. Robust and gracile forms. Characteristics include small brain, small canines, large premolars, and large molars. heavy chewing (hard foods) & rare/no tool use.
Australopithecus anamensis
4 mya found in Aramis, Ethiopia. Broadly similar to Ardipithecus, possible relationship. Ape like characteristics include large canines and parallel tooth rows. Bipedal femur and human like ankle. Woodlands.
Australopithecus afarenis
Donald Johanson. 40% of skeleton Lucy. Many ape like characteristics and a true biped. Found in Hadar, Ethiopia, 3.6 - 3.0 mya. Primitive characteristics include parallel teeth, less than 500 cc, ape like face proportions, curved phalanges, and long arms.
Au. afarenis Laetoli footprints
Laetoli, Kenya, 3.6 mya. Fossil trackway created after rain turned the volcanic ash into mud and then covered in a new layer of ash.
Australopithecus (Kenyanthropus) platyops
3.5 mya, with 400-500 cc. Discovered by Leaky, west of Lake Turkana. Derived characteristics include flat faces and small molars. Same time as Au. afarensis (Lucy). Woodlands.
Australopithecus garhi
2.5 mya, E. Africa, small brain 450 cc, larger teeth than Au. afarensis, primitive nose projection. Some features indicate it may be ancestral to early Homo because of gracile features and arm/leg ratio is more human like. May have used tools (cut animal bones found). Lakeshore.
Robust australopithecines (paranthropus)
3 - 1 mya. Characteristics include 410-530 cc, sagittal crest, very large teeth, and dish faced. 3 members of the genus: P. boisei, P. aethiopicus, and P. robustus (Africa).
Australopithecus (Paranthropus) boisei
2.3 - 1.2 mya. OH 5 “Zinj”. Discovered by Leaky in Olduvai Gorge. 510 cc. large teeth (grinders of grasses). sagittal crest.
Australopithecus (Paranthropus) aethiopicus
The black skull, 2.5 mya, west Lake Turkana. Had a flatten cranial base, small brain 410 cc, very large teeth, sagittal crest, and perhaps ancestral to Au. boisei.
Australopithecus (Paranthropus) robustus
2 - 1.5 mya. may have lived in large groups and had a specialized diet of seeds, nuts, and tubers. sagittal crest, large premolars, longest surviving species of Au. lineage in S. Africa. Evolutionary side branch, disappeared 1 mya.
Australopithecus africanus
Gracile, 3.0 - 2.3 mya, found in Africa by Dart. Had a projecting face, small canines, post-orbital constriction. Found in rock quarries in ancient sinkholes. Larger teeth than Lucy.
Taung Baby (Au. africanus)
Discovered in 1925 by Raymond Dart. Was not immediately accepted as a hominin because people believed humans came from Europe, not Africa.
Piltdown Man
Had a big brain, but dates to the Middle Ages and was probably from an Orangutan. Fake, but rejected Dart’s Taung Baby this was found out.
Australopithecus sediba
Discovered in 2008 in Malapa Cave, South Africa. 2 individuals. 2 - 1.8 mya. 420 cc. Characteristics include small teeth, pelvis similar to Homo, and arm/leg ratio like australopithecines. Maybe tool use; contemporary version of robustus.
Early Homo
2.5 - 1.8 mya. Found in East Africa in East Turkana, Hadar, Olduvai Gorge, and in South Africa in Swartkrans.
Homo habilis
1.8 mya - 300kya in Java, Europe, Asia, Africa. 550-800 cc (631 avg). Sexual dimorphism: females 70 lbs and 49” (4’1”) and males 114 lbs and 62” (5’2”). Human like dentition and reduced face/larger cranium. ancestor to Homo erectus, definitely associated with stone tool use.
Homo habilis? OH 62
Found in 1980s in Olduvai Gorge by Donald Johanson. Australopithecine like post cranial remains. Skull cannot be reconstructed and may be related to Australopithecus because they have very long arms and short legs.
Australopithecus habilis?
Benard Wood and Mark Collard. Homo habilis very different from later homo. Primitive face, primitive limb proportions Should be considered australopithecine.
Lucy
3.5 ft tall and had somewhat short legs relative to the length of the arms and body trunk. male was 5-5.5 ft tall, indicating they walked similar to humans and that lucy was short. phalanges are the same length, but they are curved like pre-aus. suggests potential arboreal locomotion using the hands.
KNM ER 1470
sometimes considered Homo rudolfensis. found in Koobi Foora, Kenya. 1.8 mya. larger brain (750 cc), large premolars and molars, and larger body size.
Homo habilis - precision grip
flexor pollicis longus is a muscle in the forearm that originates at the radius. inserts on the ventral surface of the first terminal phalanx.
SK 847
evidence for early Homo in south Africa. Homo ergaster?
asian form of H. erectus
H. erectus
african form of H. erectus
H. ergaster
Homo erectus
first discovered skull cap and femur in 1891 in Java by Eugene Dubois. 1.6 mya. named Pithecanthropus erectus.
Homo erectus (Homo ergaster)
East Africa, 1.8 - 3.0 mya. 900 cc, human like limb proportions. Human like teeth and less sexually dimorphic.
Nariokotome Boy (H. ergaster)
1.6 mya. KNM WT 15000 found in West Turkana, Kenya. aged 8-12 yrs old at death. 5’3” tall (taller as an adult). 880 cc. very human like body proportions.
Ileret, Kenya (H. erectus)
1.51-1.53 mya. anatomy indistinguishable from H. sapiens. reveals truly human form of bipedalism (from footprints they found).
H. erectus (1.8 mya - 300,000 ya)
first to leave Africa, efficient bipedalism, human like body size, hunting, sweating?, clothing?, dependence on technology, and the first biocultural creature. Homo sapiens?
brain volume increased 33 percent from H. habilis due to emphasis on intelligence. starting eating more meat for protein. Wrangham says eating cooked meat would’ve increased their brain/body size. Berna claims they would’ve used fire by 1mya.
Homo erectus (out of africa)
Dmanisi, Georgia in 1990s. 1.7 mya. six individuals. relatively small brained. evidence H. erectus left Africa early in its evolutionary history.
Asian H. erectus
physiology: human like post cranial skeleton. characteristics: 850-1100 cc, heavy browridges, low forehead, sagittal keel, and nuchal torus.
Peking Man
Zhoukoudian, China.
1929 - Pei Wenshong.
1930s - Franz Weidenreich (fossils lost in late 1930s)
Cave site - dates to 670000-410000 ya. At least 14 individuals, cultural debris, evidence of fire?, and hunting?
May have been hyena den.
Homo erectus culture
Acheulean tech 1.8 mya - Africa, Europe, East Asia? more refined than earlier Oldowan tools. included handaxe for killing large animals.
Tool differentiation in later H. erectus sites. Tools found on Indonesian islands. Embraced culture as a survival strategy.
Plesitocene epoch
2.6 mya - 11,700 ya. period of global “Ice Age.” glacials, interglacials, restricted or encouraged hominin migrations. sea levels drop during glacials. food resources change.
H. heidelbergensis “Archaic” H. sapiens
700-200 kya. H. erectus populations began to diversify. retained many H. erectus chars. dervided chars appear: increased brain size, mre rounded brain case, dental reduction, less angled occipital. broadly defined category. named for a mandible discovered near Heidelberg, Germany.
Gran Dolina
Atapuerca, Spain. discovered in railway cut. 850-780 kya. 28 individuals. Found stone tools and animal/hominin bones and hominin bones had been purposely cut. hiedelbergensis
Homo antecessor
Atapuerca, Spain. 1000 cc. H. erectus like morphology, occpital bun, and human like body size.
Homo heidelbergensis Africa
Kabwe (Broken Hill), Zambia. 600-125 kya, erectus like browridge, low vault, large occipital torus, modern cranial base, thinner cranial bones, 300 cc.
Homo heidelbergensis Asia
also displays a suite of primitive and dervied chars.
Dali, China: 230-180 kya and 1120 cc.
Jinnuishan, China: 200 kya, 1260 cc, modern H. sapiens like braincase.
Homo heidelbergensis Europe
Argago, France: 400-300 kya, 23 individuals.
Steinheim, Germany: rounded occipital, large braincase. broken cranial base.
Petralona, Greece: 300-250 kya.
Swanscombe, England: 300 kya, female. Acheulean tools present.
Homo neanderthalensis
1856: Neander Valley, Germany. Feldhofer Cave in a limestone quarry.
1829: Engis, Belgium.
1848: Forbes Quarry, Gilbralta.
Neandertals
150-320 kya in Europe and the Middle East. H. sapiens neanderthalensis? many derived traits not shared with H. sapiens. very large nose aperature (adaptive to the cold), short arms/legs, wide body due to cold (bergman’s rule).
Neandertal primitive characteristics
large browridge, lack of chin, and low forehead.
Neandertal derived characteristics
projecting midface, large nose, occipital bun, large cranial capacity (1500cc).
Neandertal from La Chapelle, France (1908)
60,000 ya. buried in flexed position. severely arthritic which led to interpretation of “brutishness” and compassion?. 1620 cc.
Shaindar 1
(Asia) Shanidar, Iraq, Shanidar Cave, 45-35,000 ya. 1600 cc, 5’7”, healed cranial feature on the left side (impaired vision), and atrophied right arm (lower arm missing). severe arithritis.
Teshik - Tash, Uzbekistan
9 yr old child, 70000 ya. intentionally buried and ibex horns place around the grave.
Mousterian tool technology (neandertal)
central core, flakes drive off core, produced more cutting edge. much more efficient and had the levoallois technique. required hand-eye coordination and hand was shaped for manual dexterity.
Neandertal subsistence
big game hunting (lived in sub-arctic conditions). remains of animal bones demonstrate that Neandertals were successful hunters, ate meat almost at carnivore level. als ate a diversity of plants. used close proximity spears for hunting.
Other Neandertal Culture
burials, clothing, evidence for symbolic behavior (Drachenlock, Switerland) and art work dated to 43000 ya, which depicts seals.
Kebara Cave, Israel
60kya, nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton, which included a hyoid bone. Similar to h. sapiens.
Neandertal Large Brain
neurological differences with H. sapeins.
Neanderthal genetics
mtDna show Neanderthal are not within the range of normal human genetic variation. diverged between 690 and 550 kya (extinction hypothesis). BUT mtDNA is such a small a part of the genome, doesn’t mean other parts didn’t carry on, could’ve been lost to genetic drift.
Neanderthal genome
1-4% of non-african DNA is Neanderthal (discovered by Paabo) while African’s share none.
The Denisovans
discovered in 2008 at Altai Mountains. DNA differs from humans by 385 bases discovered by Paabo. Equally distant from Neanderthals and H. sapiens.
Homo floresiensis
“The Hobbit.” found in Flores, Indonesia (east of Wallace line where marsupials are) in 2003. several individuals date to 18000 ya. small stature, 3.5 ft. new species? developmental or genetic disorder proposed by Jacob? or perhaps an archaic group that was isolated.
Early H. sapiens fossils African sites
earliest sites dating 200kya. unique H. sapiens morphology includes high forehead, reduced browridge, chin, rounded cranium, and less robust overall.
Intermixing?
Lagar Velha, Portugal dates to 24.5 kya. modern features including chin and Neanderthal features including robust and short limbs to body size.
Neanderthal speech?
Microscopic wear patterns on teeth (some found by Frayer). Krause also found the FOXP2 gene that strongly implicates speech. Zilhao also discovered some used symbols at two spanish sites.
H. sapiens in the Americas
E. Asians and Native Americans share shovel shaped incisors. most native americans have blood type O so small founding population, who were cold adapted (unlike Australia’s heat adapted founding pop). Migration to American along a land route or deglaciated Pacific (Bering land bridge) around 15000 ybp.
