Intro to Human Evolution

Question 1

When did we diverge from chimpanzees?

Answer 1

~7 MYA

Question 2

What are the various dating methods?

Answer 2

Radiocarbon

Amino acid racemization

Radiopotassium

Fission track

Optical dating - how long something has been exposed to the sun

Uranium series

Question 3

How do we study human evolution?

Answer 3

Reconstruct the palaeogeography

Reconstruct the environment

Use evidence from living organisms - can use anatomy, physiology, genomics and behaviour

Use evidence from fossils

Use evidence from archaeology - tools, fire building

Eventually can use art and burials - but it is difficult to interpret art

Question 4

Why is the fossil record of humans poor?

Answer 4

They lived in small populations over small geographical areas

Live terrestsrially so fossils need to wash into rivers to be preserved - which is rare

Our skulls are fragile - find many jaw bones instead

Question 5

How to classify extant primates?

Answer 5

Prosimians - lemurs, tarsiers and bushbabies

New World Monkeys - marmosets, spider monkeys and howler monkeys

Old World Monkeys - macaques, baboons, colobus monkeys

Hominoids - apes and humans (hominins)

Anthropoids are the monkeys and the apes

Question 6

Give the basic overview of primate evolution

Answer 6

85 MYA - primates appear

65 MYA - K/T mass extinction

50 MYA - Primates of modern aspect appear and there is adaptive radiation. Anthropoids evolved in Africa-Asia

22 MYA - Hominoids in Africa

18 MYA - Hominoids migrate into Asia and there is adaptive radiation

10 MYA - An Asian Hominoids migrates back to Africa and is ancestral to all later Hominoids

Question 7

What was the earliest Hominoid?

Answer 7

Proconsol

22 MYA

Question 8

How can the apes be split up?

Answer 8

Lesser apes - gibbons (16 species)

Great apes:

-orangutans (3 species)
-gorillas (2 species)
-chimpanzees (2 species)
-hominins (1 species)

Question 9

Give some of the important fossil finds of early humans

Answer 9

1891-1892 - Java man is discovered in Asia. Dubois wanted to prove humans evolved from orangutans. Java man was later found to be a fossil of *Homo erectus *

1925 - Taung boy is discovered. Found to be a fossil of Australopithecus africanus which dates back 3.5-2.5 MYA

1927 - Peking Man is discovered in China and is found to be a fossil of Homo erectus although it was destroyed during WW2

1925-1935 - Fossils of Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus robustus are found

1908-1913 - Piltdown man was discovered in England