Lecture 11: Human Evolution and Expansion Flashcards
Who first coined the term “homo”?
Carl Linnaeus in 1735 put apes and humans in the same order based on morphological characteristics
What was Lamarck’s theory of evolution?
Acquired characteristics can be inherited (ex: if you work out a lot and gain muscle then your kids will be muscular or if you lose a hand then your kids will be born with one hand)
What was Thomas Huxley’s theory?
Shared anatomical traits between apes and man meant that they had a recent common ancestor based on Darwin’s theory of evolution
What is sexual dimorphism?
difference in traits between men and women
Who were the homo neanderthalensis?
a sister species to us who survived many ice ages and bred with homo sapiens, living in europe and central asia
What are the three main types of progression seen with evolution?
Physical changes like bipedalism, larger brains, vocal tract
Technological changes like stone tools
Social changes like caring practices
What was the old type of evidence that supported evolution?
Morphological traits –> but it was different to distinguish between natural variation within a species compared to traits actual separating species
What are the issues with using DNA as evidence for evolution?
DNA has a half-life of 521 years whereas most other hominids went extinct 20,000+ years ago.
What is aDNA?
ancient DNA –> more degraded than normal DNA but can still be used to somewhat map out a genetic code
What is extant vs extinct?
extant = still existing
extinct = no longer still existing
what is a sister species?
evolved from a common ancestor
