Terms Flashcards
(13 cards)
Hominin
Early ancestors of humans as well as current species of Homo Sapiens
Homo Sapien
Neanderthals
Australopithecus Afarensis (Lucy)
Bipedalism
Process of standing upright
3 main benefits:
Stand up and see further
They could use their hands
Conserved enough energy to have one more child
Taxon
Classification of animals
Helped with the idea of evolution and organize the animals
Occam’s razor
Simplest concept is most likely the right answer
Natural selection
Idea of how an animal evolves over time
Brought to popularity of Charles Darwin in his theory of evolution
Animals with beneficial traits will survive when animals with unhelpful traits will die off
Evolution errors - Mismatch
Using our bodies in ways that were not intended to be used. Like sitting, eating high-calorie food.
Evolution errors - Trades offs
Things that make us uncomfortable but won’t kill us. Moved our eyes forward, but to do so we needed to make our faces flatter, which moved our sinuses up.
Evolution errors - Diet
We could scavenge anything we could. We stopped producing vitamins because we realized we could get it from external factors
Evolution errors - Mind
Brains and minds adapted in a very different world than we live in now. We have errors in judgement, and cognitive biases (anxiety, distrust of others).
Evolution errors - Reproduction
We can’t fully develop children. If we let them develop the whole time in the womb, no one would survive childbirth because the head would be too big. We have to give birth prematurely and then they require a ton of parental care for the first few years.
Evolution errors - Genome
The code that tells our body how to grow. But 75% of the code has no known specified used.
Cradle of humanity
Area of Africa where the first evidence of humans were found
Broca
Area of the brain that controls speech
