Lecture 18 Flashcards
Homo heidelbergensis
A Middle Pleistocene hominin with larger brains than H. erectus, showing a mix of ancestral and derived traits; considered a “catch-all” species.
Vitamin A Poisoning
Toxic buildup of Vitamin A (especially from liver); evidence in KNM-ER 1808 fossil suggests high meat consumption.
Tapeworm Evolution
Genetic evidence shows human tapeworms diverged from carnivores’ ~1.7–0.8 MYA, linked to early hominin meat-eating.
Expensive Tissue Hypothesis
Proposes that meat-eating allowed for smaller guts, freeing energy to support larger brains.
Simple Residential Mobility
Foraging while moving, no consistent home base or food storage/sharing.
Central Place Foraging
Gathering resources to bring back to a central location for sharing or delayed consumption.
Logistical Mobility
Foragers make planned trips (forays) from a central base to gather specific resources.
Biface
A symmetrical stone tool flaked on both sides; hallmark of Acheulean technology.
Zone of Latent Solutions
The range of behaviors a species can develop independently, without social learning.
Triadic Attention
The ability to jointly focus on an object with another person—key to teaching and social learning.
Social Learning
Acquiring skills or knowledge by observing or interacting with others.
Skill
The intersection of conceptual knowledge (planning, goals) and practical ability (bodily control, precision).
Pro-sociality
Social behaviors like empathy, cooperation, and patience that support group living and cultural learning.
Distributed Cognition
Shared knowledge within a community—skills and information are socially stored and accessed.
Koobi Fora
Kenyan site (~1.5 MYA) with some of the earliest evidence of fire (burnt bones/sediment).
Wonderwerk Cave
South African site (~1.0 MYA) with fire deep inside a cave—likely controlled by hominins.
Gesher Benot Ya’aqov
Israeli site (~0.78 MYA) with evidence of fire use and shaped wooden artifacts.
Hayonim Cave
Israeli site (~350 KYA) with early hearths; evidence for habitual fire use.
Schöningen Spears
Wooden hunting spears found in Germany (~400 KYA); early evidence of shaped wooden tools and active hunting.
Kalambo Falls
Site in Zambia with shaped wooden tools (e.g., points, wedges) dated to ~476 KYA.
Mauer Mandible
The type specimen for Homo heidelbergensis, found in Germany, dating to ~534–475 KYA.
Kabwe 1
Fossil skull from Zambia (~300 KYA) showing a mix of modern and archaic traits; associated with H. heidelbergensis.
Bodo Skull
Fossil from Ethiopia (~600 KYA); shows both H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis traits.
Atapuerca (Sima de los Huesos)
Spanish site (~430 KYA) with over 30 individuals; possibly ritual burial or body disposal.
Marine Isotope Stages (MIS)
Alternating warm (odd-numbered) and cold (even-numbered) periods based on oxygen isotope data; reflects glacial cycles.
