Chapter 9: Paleoanthropology: Reconstructing Early Hominid Behavior And Ecology

Front 1

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.

Back 1

Mosaic evolution

Front 2

The earliest members of the hominid lineage, as yet basically unrepresented in the fossil record; thus, their structure and behavior are reconstructed hypothetically.

Back 2

Protohominids

Front 3

Scientists who study ancient environments.

Back 3

Paleoecologists

Front 4

Material traces of hominid behavior. Very old ones are usually made of stone or, occasionally, bone.

Back 4

Artifacts

Front 5

The study of how bones and other materials came to be buried in the earth and preserved as fossils. A taphonomist studies the processes of sedimentation, the action of streams, preservation properties of bone, and carnivore disturbance factors.

Back 5

taphonomy

Front 6

The environmental setting where an archaeological trace is found. A primary context is a setting in which an archaeological trace was originally deposited. A secondary context is one to which it has been moved (e.g., by the action of a stream).

Back 6

context

Front 7

A dating technique that gives an estimate in actual numbers of years.

Back 7

Chronometric dating

Front 8

Study of the sequential layering of deposits.

Back 8

stratigraphy

Front 9

Dating method based on the shifting magnetic pole.

Back 9

paleomagnetism

Front 10

Dating method based on evolutionary changes within an evolving lineage.

Back 10

biostratigraphy

Front 11

What an archaeological trace is found with.

Back 11

association

Front 12

Thin-edged fragment removed from a core.

Back 12

flake

Front 13

Stone reduced by flake removal, and not necessarily a “tool” itself.

Back 13

core

Front 14

Those who flake stone tools.

Back 14

knappers

Front 15

Striking a core or flake with a hammerstone.

Back 15

direct percussion

Front 16

Small stone tools usually produced from narrow blades punched from a core; found especially in Africa during the latter part of the Pleistocene.

Back 16

microliths

Front 17

A method of removing flakes from a core by pressing a pointed implement (e.g., bone or antler) against the stone.

Back 17

Pressure flaking

Front 18

Polishes, striations, and other diagnostic microscopic changes on the edges of stone tools.

Back 18

microwear

Front 19

Microscopic silica structures formed in the cells of many plants, particularly grasses.

Back 19

phytoliths

Front 20

General, speculative reconstructions derived from various scientific data. In paleoanthropology, scenarios are usually presented as imaginative reconstructions of early hominid behavior. Such interpretations are broader than typical scientific hypotheses and theories and are not as rigorously amenable to verification.

Back 20

scenarios

Front 21

An interpretation that links simple environmental changes directly to a major evolutionary shift in an organism. Such explanations tend to be extreme oversimplifications of the evolutionary process.

Back 21

environmental determinism

Front 22

A view that postulates a correlation of periods of hominid diversification during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene with major shifts in several African mammalian species. These changes in mammalian evolution, in turn, are thought to be related to periodic episodes of aridity.

Back 22

Evolutionary pulse theory