Human Taxonomy Flashcards
is biocultural and biosocial. We cannot understand biology without culture, and vice-versa.
Anthropology
It deals with the past, with ongoing, evolution, adaptation, with many important applications for health and medicine, nutrition, forensics.
Biological Anthropology
Biologists, following folk concepts, originally thought of two kingdoms:
Plants and Animals
has its medieval roots
Kingdom
is related to dominion.
Domain
They provide emic or insider concepts on how a culture classifies human and non-human actors and objects of cultural significance. For example,
in the Philippines, some tribes may classify animals differently from the scientific and conventional way.
Biological ethno-taxonomies
Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Sand
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Kingdom;
Animalia
Phylum;
Chordata
Class;
Mammalia
Order;
Primata
Family;
Hominidae
Genus;
Homo
Species;
sapiens
Human scientific name;
Homo sapiens
can demonstrate the evolution of major organisms. Modern humans are one of the most recent organisms to have developed. Our roots go much deeper, however, as our ancestors appeared millions of years ago.
Earths geologic timescale
take time to be created.
Fossils
are examples of what we call living fossils.
horseshoe crab, cockroach, and the assassin bug
are primates that belong to family Hominidae.
Humans
include gorillas, chimpanzee, apes, and humans.
Hominids
Among these members, only humans and chimpanzees can be considered as
Hominins
all hominins are hominids;
but not all hominids are hominins.
Hominins have anatomical characteristics that reflect two fundamental behaviors:
bipedal locomotion and non-honing chewing.
allows us to walk, run, and stand on one foot and stand taller.
bipedal locomotion
enables us to eat hard food but leaves our teeth subject to wear and tear.
non-honing chewing.
is common among non-hominins. Their teeth become sharper as they chew.
Honing chewing
Human heads sit on top of the body trunk. Ape heads sit on the front fo the trunk.
Position of the Foramen Magnum
Position of the body trunk’s center of gravity above the pelvis, providing more stability during walking and running in humans. Remember
Apes move using their four limbs.
Shape of the Spine
Enhances stability of the pelvis during standing, walking and running.
Shape of the Pelvis
Increases stride efficiency in bipedal humans.
In apes, arm length reflects increased supersensory use in trees.
Length of the Leg
Places the feet together beneath the center of gravity that provides stability in walking, running, and grounding of one foot during locomotion.
Valgus Knee
The arch in human foot gives increased leverage as the body pushes forward and serves as a shock absorber when the feet make contact with the ground.
Flat footedness is an adaptation of their feet for grasping.
Longitudinal Foot Arch
In humans the foot serves to support the body during walking and running in humans.
In apes toes have dual functions. This includes terrestrial walking, grasping and manipulating objects.
Humans have lost the ability to manipulate objects with their toes.
Opposable Big Toe
Chewing muscles are called?
Masticatory Muscles
The vertical orientation of the temporalis muscle
in humans allow us to crush food.
the muscle is oriented horizontally
In non-human primates, producing slicing motions.
is the outermost layer of the exposed part of a tooth.
it is the hardest substance in the human body.
enamel
is thicker than chimpanzees because of our diets heavy in hard food such as seeds and nuts.
Human enamel
Scientists have hypothesized about the
Emergence of Hominins
Hypothesis in emergence of hominins
Hunting
patchy forest
provisioning
Hunting Hypothesis models the shift from life in the trees to life on the ground. Who proposed this hypothesis?
Charles Darwin
H.H assumes that our ancestors were arboreal
Arboreal means what?
Lived on trees
the shift from life in the trees to life on the ground.
Hunting Hypothesis
Explains the emergence of hominins due to the patching of African forests.
patchy forest hypothesis
Who proposed the patchy forest hypothesis?
Peter Rodman and Henry McHenry
This lead to more dispersed food sources and searching food in open land. Bipedalism freed the hands of hominins allowing them to pick up food.
patchy forest hypothesis
states that hominins emerged due to increased infant survival rates among humans and their species.
Provisioning Hypothesis
Provisioning Hypothesis is proposed by whom?
Owen Lovejoy
Due to provisioning roles of parents, the survival of both offspring and parents is ensured. As fathers find food to provide for their families, mothers are given time to take care of their offspring. This gives the latter time to recover from successive births.
Provisioning Hypothesis
You can see that our common ancestors are:
Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
Ororin tugenensis, and
Ardipithecus
gave rise to Homo habilis from which emerged the Homo erectus.
Australopithecus garhi
The most famous Australopithecine is
Lucy
Recently, the fossil remains of 3-year-old child were recovered and nicknamed
Lucy’s baby
The name Lucy was derived from a song by
The Beatles
was the first hominin to have anatomical and behavioral characteristics that foreshadowed the evolution of Homo sapiens; greater intelligence, reliance on tools, and dietary and behavioral flexibility.
Homo habilis (2.5 – 1.8 mya)
Homo habilis remains were discovered in
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, South Africa.
They manifested tool use, they had smaller face, smaller jaws, and smaller teeth. Increased intelligence is supported by increase in brain volume. There was no significant change in body size and leg to arm ratio.
Homi habilis
were dated after the homo habilis. The differences in dates indicate that the two species may have overlapped.
Homo erectus
it is the ‘upright man.’
Homo erectus
The lack of a sagittal crest indicated that the species had smaller chewing muscles, reflecting a much softer diet. The genus had much smaller molars and thinner enamel, reflecting its softer diet.
Homo erectus
Dating technologies reveal the movement of Homo erectus out of
Africa
H. erectus marked
beginning of globalization
are the first of our species, beginning some 350,000 yBP (years before present) globally and evolving locally from earlier H. erectus populations.
Archaic Homo sapiens
evidence of housing structures, large- game hunting, fishing and use of aquatic resources after 100,000 yBP, increased use of various raw materials besides stone after 100,000 yBP, skilled tool production, Burial of deceased after 100,000 yBP, symbolic behavior, social care of sick and injured, and articulate speech is likely.
Culture and behavior of archaic H. sapiens
are late archaic Homo sapiens who are believed to have roamed Europe.
Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis)
The average lifespan of Neandertals is
35 years.
Evidence showed that they had some reliance on tools and had a nomadic culture
Neandertals
In 2003, the_______ was discovered in Flores Island, Indonesia.
Flores Woman
This “Hobbit” represents a group of early hominins that evolved in isolation in the far western Pacific region. Others believed this skeleton belonged to a modern human who had some developmental or genetic abnormality. The species was named____?
Homo floresiensis.
include use of upper paleolithic tools, increased visible symbolic behavior (cave art), burial of deceased with grave woods, decreased hunting, increased fishing, consumption of aquatic food and likely more plants, and reduced focus on big- game animals. Technology changes reflect increased focus on fishing using bone and harpoons.
(Slide 51-52)
Culture and behavior of early modern H. sapiens
Human animals possess_______that make them human
six characteristic
6 characteristic
bipedalism that developed 6 mya.
nonhoning chewing that developed 5.5.mya.
material culture and tools that developed 3.3 mya.
speech that developed 2.5 mya
hunting that develop 1 mya.
domestication of food that developed 11,000 years ago
