Major Phases in Hominin Evolution

Question 1

What are the genera of Tribe Hominini?

Answer 1

• Orrorin and Adipithecus (the earliest hominins, from Ethiopia)
• Australopithecus (from East and South Africa)
• Homo (from various sites in and out of Africa)

Question 2

What is the current hypothesis surrounding key factors in driving human evolution?

Answer 2

• that extreme shifts of climate where it swung wildly from hot and wet to dry and cold were a key factor

Question 3

Why did hominins survive the dramatic changes in the climate?

Answer 3

• nature selected for survival those variants with the ability to walk upright and with larger brains

Question 4

Which groups separated about 6 million years ago in Africa?

Answer 4

• the Tribe Hominini (humans and fossil hominins)
• the African apes

Question 5

What does the fossil evidence show about hominin evolution?

Answer 5

• humans were preceded for millions of years by other hominins
• at times many hominin species co-existed
• there was no ladder-like progression in which one species gave rise to the next

Question 6

When did Australopithecines inhabit the African landscape?

Answer 6

• between 1 and 4 million years ago

Question 7

When were Australopithecus afarensis alive?

Answer 7

• between 3 and 4 million years ago

Question 8

What is an example of a well-known Australopithecus afarensis fossil?

Answer 8

• ‘Lucy” (3,2 mya)
• a fossil that started major revisions in the understanding of human evolution
• Ethiopia

Question 9

When were Australopithecus africanus alive?

Answer 9

• 2 to 3 million years ago

Question 10

What are some examples of well-known Australopithecus africanus fossils?

Answer 10

• ‘Taung Child’ (2,5 mya)
• ‘Mrs Ples’ (2 mya), Sterkfontein caves, Cradle of Human Kind

Question 11

When were Australopithecus sediba alive?

Answer 11

• 1,7 to 2 million years ago

Question 12

When did the genus Homo begin to appear?

Answer 12

• about 2,4 million years ago

Question 13

How did the Homo genus possibly occur?

Answer 13

• dramatic climate change created evolutionary pressure on the ape-men (australopithecines)
• speciation occurred and a certain group may have started resembling the earliest members of our own genus

Question 14

What species are included in the hominins of the genus Homo?

Answer 14

• homo habilis
• homo egaster (African Homo erectus)
• homo heidelbergensis (archaic Homo sapiens)
• homo neanderthalensis
• homo sapiens (anatomically modern Homo sapiens)