Human Evolution

Question 1

Sahelanthropus Tchadensis

Answer 1

“Saharan hominin from Chad”

Sahelanthropus, Early Hominins
🐵 Homininae (African apes)
🕰️ 7-4.4 MYA
📍 Djurab desert, Chad, Central Africa

🐒 Earliest contender of divergence from chimpanzees
💀 Foramen magnum at centre, Large bow ridge, protruding jaw, flatter than apes.
🦷 Small canines, worn at tip, no gap
👣 Bipedal, upright walking
🥗 ??
🧠 1.2% bodyweight, 360 cm2
📏 ? 1.3m / 50kg
🌳 River or riverside surrounded by forests, savannah, grasslands

🔬☠️ “Toumai” - hope of life
🥼Michael Brunet, 2002
3 localities, at least 6 individuals found

Question 2

Orrorin Tugenensis

Answer 2

“Original Man” from Tugen

Sahelanthropus, Early Hominins
🐵 Homininae (African apes)
🕰️ 5.7-6.2 MYA
📍 Tugen Hills, Kenya

🐒 Uncertainty about their relationships to other species
💀 ?
🦷 Premolar honing complex similar to female chimps
👣 Bipedal, long femoral neck, strong muscle attachement on humerus, powerful arms for climbing
🥗 ??
🧠 ?
📏 45kg
🌳 Woodland habitat close to stream

🔬☠️ 4 locations around Tugen Hills
🥼Brigitte Senut, 2001

Question 3

Purgatorius

Answer 3

A shrew/squirrely-like animal believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes, dating to as old as 66 million years ago.

Question 4

Omomyids

Answer 4

Group of early primates
Eocene 55-34 MYA

❓Perhaps ancestral to tarsiers & anthropoids
🌍 North America, Europe, Africa & East Asia

Question 5

Cynodont

Answer 5

🐊 🦭 Common ancestor of mammals

Group of mammal-like reptiles of the order Therapsida that existed from the Late Permian to the Early Cretaceous Epoch (259.5 million to 100.5 million years ago).