Week 4-Paleoanthropology

Question 1

Bipedal characteristics

Answer 1

• Shortened pelvis
• Gluteus Maximus muscle attachment
• angling inward of the femur
• Arch in foot and big toe in line with rest of toes

Question 2

Laetoli footprints

Answer 2

• 3.6 million years old
• 2 or 3 early hominids we’re walking bipedal through a damp area and volcanic ash from an eruption preserved them.
• other animal footprints show what animals coexisted with them

Question 3

H. Naledi

Answer 3

• Hominid existing between 200,000-350,000 years ago.
• Mixture between old and modern hominid.
• potentially found in burial site
• small brain/body
• chimp like arms
• human hands/teeth
• small brows
• long legs

Question 4

Australopithecus Physical Characteristics

Answer 4

• Bipedal
• big toe in line with others
• femur bends inward
• shorter pelvis
• skull on top of spinal column
• u-shape dental arches with large molars

Question 5

Oldowan Tradition

Answer 5

Early tool technology

• cores and flakes. Hit original stone with another to flake off sharp pieces.
• homo habilis was using tools

Question 6

Homo erectus/Homo ergaster

Answer 6

• migration (India-java)
• smaller molars & less robust jaw
• similar proportions to humans
• bamboo tools(Asia), stone tools
• may have lived in small bands/hunted in groups
• endurance running

Question 7

Replacement continuity model

Answer 7

• Only one subpopulation of Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens
• Homo sapiens multiplied and moved out of Africa. Gradually populating the globe and replacing remaining homo erectus.

Question 8

Regional continuity model

Answer 8

• All different populations of Homo erectus gradually evolved into archaic Homo sapiens
• mated with eachother and the genetic differences eventually evened out

Question 9

Shanidar Cave

Answer 9

• Iraq
• 60,000-80,000 years ago
• Taught us how Neanderthals lived
  - elderly male with physical ailments would have needed help-strong community bonds
  - dead buried with stone points and deliberately piled rocks
  - flower burial (pollen could be from mourning or from burrowing rodents)

Question 10

Examples of early art

Answer 10

Divje babe flute

• earliest musical instrument (40,000 years old)
• femur of cave bear with holes poked through

Cave art

• Lascaux, France
• incredible intricate paintings

Question 11

Why is the development of early art important?

Answer 11

• people have time to spend on things not required for survival
• people are thinking abstractly-imagining things & interpreting what they see in the world

Question 12

Monte Verde site

Answer 12

Old civilization in Chile

       - log foundation houses, clay lined hearths
       - older than previously “oldest” people in America. The Clovis. 

Leads to coastal migration hypothesis and kelp highway hypothesis
Does not disprove ice-free corridor hypothesis

Question 13

Ice-free corridor hypothesis

Answer 13

People came into the America’s by a small stretch of land that ice had melted from.

-complicated by the Monte Verde site since it shows there were many different migrations of people

Question 14

Coastal migration hypothesis

Answer 14

People got in boats and travelled from Asia

Instead if walking they took the sea route

Question 15

Kelp highway hypothesis

Answer 15

• People traveling by boat were taking advantage of and following the kelp
• Kelp could be used for lots of purposes including food and medicine.

Question 16

Relative dating

Answer 16

Identifying the age of an object as being older or younger than others by arranging material evidence in a linear sequence.
(Which is older than which)

• stratigraphic superposition
• typological sequences

Question 17

Stratigraphic superposition

Answer 17

Dig deep in earth and core a sample of the layers. Law of superposition states that the bottom layers must be older than the top layers.

Question 18

Typological sequences

Answer 18

Classifying fossils or artifacts into a series of types based on their similarities and differences. Objects looking most alike are grouped together, compared with similar kinds, and ordered in a chronological developmental sequence

Question 19

Absolute dating

Answer 19

Generating an exact date with laboratory methods by measuring an aspect of that object or layer.

• carbon dating
• dendrochronology

Question 20

Carbon dating

Answer 20

Take charcoal sample and send it off to a lab. The lab puts it through a mass spectrometry machine that determined when it was burned.

Question 21

Dendrochronology

Answer 21

A crosscut section of a tree is analyzed. Each ring represents about a year.
Thicker rings=wet years
Thinner rings=dry years

Question 22

How do scientists study ancient climates?

Answer 22

Cores drilled into the ocean floor or glaciers.

-creatures die and their skeletons are found in layers of the ocean floor. It can be determined which isotope of oxygen is in their skeleton which tells us if a glacier was present.