Weeks 11-12 Flashcards
What characteristics do early Homo fossils assigned to this genus share with modern humans? (8)
- Larger brain
- Larger body
- Less sexual dimorphism in size
- Shorter arms relative to legs
- Longer legs relative to body
- Reduced canines
- Long and straight fingers
- Broad and barrel shaped thorax
When did genus Homo appear?
About 2.8 mya
Which hominins could have made Olduwan tools?
H. erectus, H. antecessor H. heidelbergensis
When did human ancestors expand beyond Africa? What genus was it that expanded into Eurasia?
Approximately 2 million years ago genus Homo expanded into Eurasia
What were some of the biological characteristics or cultural innovations that allowed for the major geographic expansion of genus Homo into Eurasia? (4)
- Global climatic and habitat changes caused widespread movement;
- Changing body morphologies in H. erectus;
- Development of Acheulean tool kit;
- Controlled use of fire and the cooking of food;
How does the Acheulean tool kit differ from the Olduwan tool kit?
Acheulean are bifaced tools (flaked on both sides) that are more complex to make and allow more kinds of manipulation than Olduwan tools; used to process meat and hides and possibly to modify wood and bone
How do you think these fire and construction of shelters may have transformed human life?
Fire- Being able to create fire for warmth would decrease the amount of deaths by hypothermia or other cold-weather related illnesses; fire could be used for protection as intimidation against predators; fire is used to cook meat and other foods making them less likely to transfer disease to the human
Shelter- Provides protection from cold/wet weather; provides protection from predators; allows humans to move at will since they know how to build a shelter rather than relying on caves or other naturally occurring shelters
Who are the “archaic humans”?
Archaic H. sapiens, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis
When and where did the Neanderthals live?
Many parts of Europe and the Middle East from 300,000 to 27,000 years ago
What are the major biological differences between Neanderthal and later modern humans? (7)
- Larger craniums
- Large midfaces and noses that project forward
- Large gap behind the third molar
- Large protruding occipital bones
- Large chewing muscles
- Large incisor teeth
- Weak/receding chin
Why do scientists debate whether we and the Neanderthals are members of a single species, or separate species?
There is a fossil of a young child who displays characteristics of both Neanderthals and modern humans, which is evidence of mating between the two, suggesting they are not two species but rather two distinct populations (sub-species). However, one 379-base-pair Neanderthal mtDNA sequence was found to have 27 differences with modern human mtDNA, which shows they are biologically quite different from one another.
What were the major points of the “Man the Hunter” concept that became popular in the 1960s in museum dioramas? (5)
- Justification for the emphasis on hunting,
- women are rarely mentioned and usually only appear in the context of food
- monogamy
- home base
- well-defined sexual division of labor
In the 1980s, Owen Lovejoy’s article on “Origin of Man” was published in the prestigious journal Science. What was Lovejoy’s argument?
He argued that males, not females, gathered plant food in pair-bonded families. Hominids needed to increase their population size by decreasing the amount of time between births, so females reduced their mobility, stayed near a home base, and became dependent upon males who provisioned their own mates and offspring.
What are the main points of Zihlman’s critique of Lovejoy’s argument?
Studies show that female monkeys/apes and foraging women are mobile throughout all reproductive stages. Studies show that the birth interval for foraging women/great apes lies between 3 and 5 or more years.
How do popular books and museum displays mirror this history of debates over the social life of our ancestors?
Many popular books still display early human ancestors as hunters and dismiss evidence of heavy plant gathering. The museum display, however, shows the importance of plant gathering in early hominids. This shows how there has been a shift in recent decades from the popular man-the-hunter hypothesis to man-the-gatherer hypothesis.
