Chapter 8: Hominid Origins

Front 1

Artifacts

Back 1

Objects or materials made or modified for use by hominids. The earliest artifacts tend to be tools made of stone or occasionally bone.

Front 2

Australopiths

Back 2

A colloquial name referring to a diverse group of Plio-Pleistocene African hominids. They are the most abundant and widely distributed of all early hominids and are also the most completely studied.

Front 3

Biocultural

Back 3

Pertaining to the concept that biology makes culture possible and that culture influences biology.

Front 4

Bipedal Locomotion

Back 4

Walking on two feet. Walking habitually on two legs is the single most distinctive feature of the family Hominidae.

Front 5

Chronometric

Back 5

(chronos, meaning time, and metric, meaning measure) A dating technique that gives an estimate in actual numbers of years.

Front 6

Culture

Back 6

Behavioral aspects of human adaptation, including technology, traditions, language, religion, marriage patterns, and social roles. Culture is a set of learned behaviors transmitted from one generation to the next through learning and not by biological or genetic mechanisms.

Front 7

Faunal

Back 7

Referring to animal remains; in archaeology, specifically refers to the fossil (or skeletonized) remains of animals.

Front 8

Habitual Bipedialism

Back 8

Bipedal locomotion as the form of locomotion shown by hominids most of the time.

Front 9

Hominids

Back 9

Colloquial term for members of the family Hominidae, which includes all bipedal hominoids back to the divergence from African great apes.

Front 10

Large-Bodied Hominoids

Back 10

Those hominoids including the great apes (orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas) and hominids, as well as all ancestral forms back to the time of divergence from small-bodied hominoids (i.e., the gibbon lineage).

Front 11

Mosaic Evolution

Back 11

A pattern of evolution in which the rate of evolution in one functional system varies from that in other systems. For example, in hominid evolution, the dental system, locomotor system, and neurological system (especially the brain) all evolved at markedly different rates.

Front 12

Multidisciplinary

Back 12

Pertaining to research that involves mutual contributions and cooperation of several different experts from various scientific fields (i.e., disciplines).

Front 13

Obligate Bipedalism

Back 13

Bipedalism as the only form of hominid terrestrial locomotion. Since major anatomical changes in the spine, pelvis, and lower limb are required for bipedal locomotion, once hominids adapted this mode of locomotion, other forms of locomotion on the ground became impossible.

Front 14

Plio-Pleistocene

Back 14

Pertaining to the Pliocene and first half of the Pleistocene, a time range of 51 mya. For this time period, numerous fossil hominids have been found in Africa.

Front 15

Postcranial

Back 15

(post, meaning after) In a quadruped, referring to that portion of the body behind the head; in a biped, referring to all parts of the body beneath the head (i.e., the neck down).

Front 16

Sagittal Crest

Back 16

A ridge of bone that runs down the middle of the cranium like a short Mohawk. This serves as the attachment for the large temporal muscles, indicating strong chewing.

Front 17

Sectorial

Back 17

Adapted for cutting or shearing; among primates, refers to the compressed (side-to-side) first lower premolar, which functions as a shearing surface with the upper canine.

Front 18

Sites

Back 18

Locations of discoveries. In paleontology and archaeology, a site may refer to a region where a number of discoveries have been made.

Front 19

Stratigraphy

Back 19

Study of the sequential layering of deposits.

Front 20

Stratum

Back 20

(pl., strata) Geological layer.

Front 21

Thermoluminescence (TL)

Back 21

Technique for dating certain archaeological materials that were heated in the past (such as stone tools) and that release stored energy of radioactive decay as light upon reheating.