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Principles of Physical Anthropology > Unit Three Important Topics > Flashcards

Unit Three Important Topics Flashcards

1
Q

What makes a hominin?

A
  • Bipedalism
  • Larger Brains
  • Requires energetic investment
  • 2% body mass, 17% metabolic rate
  • Dental/dietary changes
  • Longer life history
  • Material culture
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2
Q

Bipedalism

A
  • Expressed in found fossils

- Known to be the MAIN source of locomotion

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3
Q

What are the characteristics of someone who’s bipedal?

A
  • Have an S curved spine
  • Foramen Magnum (the hole in our skull that our spine goes in) found “under the head”
  • Longer legs than arms
  • Broader pelvis
  • Our femurs have evolved to be angulated in ways other femurs aren’t
  • Big toe not perpendicular to other toes, the toe is in alignment with toes
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4
Q

Theories on Bipedalsim

A
  • Energy efficiency
  • Predation avoidance
  • Feeding on bushes/tall grasses
  • Carrying
  • Heart dispersal
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5
Q

Laetoli Trail

A
  • Located in East Africa

- Hardened volcanic ash that imprinted footprints and has fossils of hominins

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6
Q

Benefits of Big Brain in Hominins

A
  • The exploitation of patchy resources (eco intelligence)
  • Predator avoidance
  • Social negotiation (social brain)
  • Development of complex culture (language, tools, clothing, shelter)
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7
Q

Dental/dietary changes in Hominins

A
  • Changes in dental arch shape
  • Reduced size of anterior teeth (incisors and canines)
  • Increased size of posterior/cheek teeth (premolars and molars)
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8
Q

What are the two types of fossil dating methods?

A

Relative Dating and Absolute Dating

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9
Q

Relative Dating

A
  • Age of fossil relative to another fossil
  • Stratigraphy (based on a very basic principle: the deeper you go into the ground, the older the artifacts you find will be)
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10
Q

Absolute Dating

A
  • Specific, numeric age
  • Radiocarbon (limited as it only can date back 55-75 thousand years ago rather millions of years ago)
  • Potassium/Argon Dating (Used on volcanic rocks; fossils ended up in between volcanic rocks; can look at the dates of the rocks surrounding the fossils to approximate how old the fossil is)
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11
Q

Earliest forms of Hominins (in relative order)

A
  • Sahelanthropus tchadensis
  • Orrorin tugenensis
  • Ardipithecus ramidus
  • Australopithecus
  • Paranthropus
  • The genus Homo
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12
Q

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

A
  • Possible earliest fossil hominin
  • Discovered in 2001 in Nothern Chad
  • Cranial capacity 320-380 cc
  • Small canines
  • Scientists debate if it is a human ancestor or an ape ancestor
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13
Q

Orrorin tugenensis

A
  • Discovered in Kenya
  • Shows some terrestrially bipedal and some arboreal adaptations
  • Large canines
  • Controversy about bipedalism
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14
Q

Ardipithecus ramidus

A
  • Discovered in Ethiopia
  • No honing (reduced canine size and sharpened shape)
  • Fully bipedal
  • Curved pedal phalanges (grasping big toe)
  • Elongated arms and fingers
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15
Q

Australopithecines

A
  • AKA southern apes
  • General term that refers to several genuses of hominins
  • Found over a broad swab of Eastern and Southern Africa
  • Australopithecus
  • Paranthropus
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16
Q

Australopithecus

A
  • Gracile

- Seems to have survived and ultimately give rise to our genus (Homo)

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17
Q

What are the two different types of Australopithecus?

A
  • Australopithecus afarensis

- Australopithecus africanus

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18
Q

Australopithecus afarensis

A
  • Lived in parts of East Africa
  • Had a cranial capacity similar to modern chimpanzees (relatively small brain)
  • Had many ape like facial features
  • Small-bodied hominins
  • Arms are fairly long
  • Curvature in phalanges
  • Femur is angled inwards
  • Pelvis is very wide relative to its height
  • Smaller gap between incisors and canines
  • Big molars
  • Significant sexual dimophism
  • Lucy
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19
Q

Lucy

A
  • Australopithecus afarensis
  • Found in 1974
  • Relatively complete fossil
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20
Q

Australopithecus africanus

A
  • Lived in South Africa
  • Brain is posterior to face
  • Dental shape is arched
  • Molars are large
  • Arm bones and leg bones suggest a more primitive structure
  • Less sexually dimoprhic than Australopithecus afarensis
  • Taung Child
  • Little Foot
21
Q

Taung Child

A
  • Australopithecus africanus
  • Found in 1924
  • Thought to have died between 3-6 years old
  • Fossilized brain
  • Large canines
22
Q

Little Foot

A
  • Australopithecus africanus
  • Debate over whether it is an australopithecine
  • Fossil of foot was found first but eventually the entire skeleton was found
23
Q

Paranthropus

A
  • Robust
  • Seem to have gone extinct
  • From neck down, very similar to Australopithecus
  • From neck up, very different to Australopithecus
  • Relatively small incisors and canines
  • Relatively larger premolars and molars
  • More robust mandible
  • Eats stalky, starchy vegetable food
  • Flatter face
  • Flatter forehead
24
Q

What are the three different types of Paranthropus?

A
  • Paranthropus aethiopicus
  • Paranthropus boisei
  • Paranthropus robustus
25
Q

Paranthropus aethiopicus

A
  • The black skull
  • Found in Kenya
  • Snout sticks out
  • Enormous upper jaw
  • Earliest example of robust australopithecine
26
Q

Paranthropus boisei

A
  • Nutcracker man
  • Great, big, broad, flat face
  • Enormous cheek teeth
  • No postcranial remains
  • Sexual dimorphism in cranium
27
Q

Paranthropus robustus

A
  • Found in South Africa
  • Broad flared zygomatic bones with enormous hole through which the temporalis muscle would have past
  • Specialized dental anatomy
28
Q

The Genus Homo

A
  • Bipedal
  • Continued (dramatic) increase in brain size
  • Reduced size of cheek teeth
  • Increase in body size
  • Decrease in sexual dimorphism
  • Continued change in limb proportions
  • Prolonged life history
  • Expanded geographic range
  • Appearance of stone tools, control of fire, and language
29
Q

List the difference species in the Genus Homo

A
  • Homo habilis
  • Homo erectus/Homo ergaster
  • Homo antecessor
  • Homo heidelbergensis/Homo rhodesiensis
  • Homo naledi
  • Neanderthals
  • Denisovans
  • Homo sapiens
30
Q

Homo habilis

A
  • Overall time range: 2.8-1.6 mya
  • During this time we see the first tools made by hominins (Oldowan tools)
  • Arms somewhat longer than legs
  • Bipedal but still some evidence of arboriality
  • Gradual curvature of dental shape
  • Molars are starting to decrease in size
  • Cranial Capacity: 500-700 cc
  • Brains are getting a little bigger
  • The face is becoming orthognathic (flatter face, less of a snout)
  • Homo rudolfensis is thought to be another time of Homo habilis
31
Q

Oldowan Tools

A
  • First tools made by hominins
  • Pebble tools
  • Made by a process called flint knapping
  • Doesn’t need to look a specific way as long as it has a sharp edge
  • Good for cutting up food
  • Good at fracturing large animal bones
  • Led to first uptick in brain size
32
Q

Homo erectus/Homo ergaster

A
  • 1.8-2 mya
  • Begins to resemble modern humans
  • Cranial Capacity: up to 1,000 CC
  • Jaws and teeth that we would recognize quite readily as being well on their way towards modern human-like
  • Similar body appearance to humans
  • Turkana boy
  • Use of Acheulean tools
  • Earliest evidence for the controlled use of fire
  • First hominin to leave Africa (found in Georgia)
  • Debate about name
  • ergaster pertains to Africa
  • erectus pertains to Asia
33
Q

Turkana Boy

A
  • Homo erectus/ergaster
  • 1.6 mya
  • From Kenya
  • Pelvis morphology suggests that it is male
  • Estimated to be around 16 years old at time of death
  • 5’6” at time of death
  • Cranium is not entirely modern in its configuration
34
Q

Acheulean Tools

A
  • More elaborate than Oldowan Tools

- Made to look a certain way (pre-conception of how they should look and have symmetry)

35
Q

Benefits/outcomes of the controlled use of fire

A
  • Keeps you warm
  • Generates smoke to keep away insects
  • Allows you to cook
  • Modern humans have evolved not to be able to consume raw food (example of biocultural evolution)
36
Q

Homo antecessor

A
  • Very limited number of fossils

- Some people say that it is just a part of H. erectus

37
Q

Homo heidelbergensis/Homo rhodesiensis

A
  • 600,000-100,000 years ago
  • A later version of Homo erectus/ergaster
  • Geographic range from Southeastern Africa to Europe and Asia
  • hedelbergensis pertains to Europe
  • rhodesiensis pertains to other locations
  • Brain size is larger
  • Heavily built cranium
  • Still making acheulean tools (but better; finner points; thinner; require more refined techniques to manufacture them)
38
Q

Homo naledi

A
  • Discovered in a cave in South Africa in 2015
  • About 16,000 bones were found
  • Cave could only be accessed by really small people because of its dimensions
  • Very small
  • Hips and femura suggested that this was a biped
  • Flared pelvis
  • Feet and ankles similar to members of the genus Homo
  • Hands were more human like
  • Skulls had a tiny cranial capacity
  • Their teeth look fairly derived
39
Q

Neanderthals

A
  • The first non-human fossil ever found in the 1850s or 60s
  • Very heavily built crania with very pronounced brow ridges
  • Have very broad crania
  • Very large nasal openings
  • Eyes, nose, and cheek bones project more forward than modern humans
  • Larger brain size than modern humans
  • Larger bodied
  • Have shorter forearms/distal limb segments
  • All of their distinguishing characteristics are characteristics of adaptations to cold climates (well suited for peak glaciation)
  • Able to reproduce with Homo sapiens
40
Q

Denisovans

A
  • Able to interbreed with Homo sapiens
  • Found in Southwestern Siberia
  • Shared an ancestor with humans about a million years ago
41
Q

What are the three species that Homo sapiens were able to interbreed with?

A
  • Neanderthals
  • Denisovans
  • Other unidentified group
42
Q

Anatomy of Homo sapiens

A
  • Big brain
  • vertically taller and anterior-posteriorly shorter cranium
  • Small, flat face
  • Chin
  • Long limb bones
  • Long distal limb segments
  • Less postcraniul robusticity
  • Significant diversity in earlier members of our species
43
Q

Homo 1 and Homo 2

A
  • Homo 1 looks totally modern

- Homo 2 looks more like Homo erectus

44
Q

Piltdown Man

A

A hoax to try to prove that white people aren’t from Africa (during a time of intense scientific racism)

45
Q

Multiregionalism vs. Out-of-Africa debate

A

Debate revolved around whether or not living human populations in different parts of the world could directly trace their ancestry back to Africa or could we explain that Homo sapiens emerged quasi-independently in different regions. Out-of-Africa believers thought that Homo sapiens arrived in regions out of Africa and replaced the current members of the Homo genus that were already there. Multiregionalists believed more in gene flow. Turns out we need to take a little bit of information from both sides of the debate to get the correct answer.

46
Q

The Flores “hobbit”

A
  • Specimens that were found on the island Flores in Indonesia
  • Given the name Homo floresiensis
  • Called “hobbit” because they are very small
  • Very small cranial capacity
  • Used stone tool technology
  • Debate on why they are so small (some think its because they live on an island; others think it could be signs of dwarfism)
47
Q

“Clovis first”

A
  • Clovis is the name given to what were supposed to be the earliest human occupants of America
  • Thought to have existed 12-14,000 years ago
  • The story is that humans made the jump from Old World to New World at some point during the last Glacial Maximum
  • There are problems with this story bc fossils have been found that date back up to 30,000 years ago
  • Maybe clovis wasn’t first but it was second?
48
Q

Clovis stone tool

A
  • Pointy stone
  • Fixed to an end of a spear
  • Thrown with something called an Atlatl
  • Used to kill big animals for food
  • We see the megafauna that used to exist begin to disappear around the same time of the Clovis’ arrival

Principles of Physical Anthropology (2 decks)

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