Anthro Final

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Oldowan

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a term used to describe stone tools used by early hominines. Specifically named after the "Olduvai Gorge" where the first tools were found by Lewis Leakey. These tools led the way for archeulean tools. These tools are also characterized as flake and core stone tools.

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Archeulean

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typically stone based tools from H. Erectus. These tools are located in Asia, Europe, and in much of Africa. Archulean tools are more advanced and developed than the previous oldowan tools. During this time period we saw the devleopment of blade tools.

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Neandertal DNA

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this is the method used for the study of neandertal fossils. After DNA tests the genetic information showed that neandertals are 3X more different to historic H. sapiens than modern day humans are to them. DNA shows interbreeding of neandertals and H. Sapiens. Plus, this genetic information showed when the genetic split between historic hominines occured

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Flake Tools

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Flake tools are stone based tools that were used during the stone age. These are created by striking a flake from a stone core. Flake tools are easily made, extremley sharp, and easy to repair which made made them the preferred tool of prhistoric times.

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Ideas on why Bipedalism

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The theories behind becoming bipedal is based on the idea that modern humans and our ancestors slowly developed to gain a competitive advantage over other mammals. Possible other reasonsing is that being bipedal we gained the ability of increased mechanics, stamina, endurance, and agility which benifited the hunting and gathering based nomatic culture at the time.

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Encephalization

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the amount of brain mass exceeding that animals total body mass. This has been directly related to that animals level of intelligence.---proportional size of the brain relative ti another measure of an animal. Generally refers to an increase in brain siz beyond what would normally be expected in that given animal.

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Pekin Man Mystery

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a Davidson Black discovery in China. Of which the bones/fossils were passed of to the USMC in 1941, unfortunetely they were lost and remina missing to this day. All that is left are a few molds and detailed descriptions of the fossils. The Peking Man has been classified as H. Erectus

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Mosaic Evolution

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the concept that evolutionary change takes place in the body without simultaneous changes in other body parts. ex. the dental system, locomotor system, and neurological systems all evolve at different paces not all at once (simultaneously)

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Persistance Hunting

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a hunting technique where hunters use a combination of running and tracking to pursue prey to exhaustion. Becuase we can sweat to cool off our bodies this gave us an advantage to maintin hihg endurance while mammals must slow down to pant to cool off. Becuase this hunting tehcnique envolved long endurance based running humans re the only primate whom can effectivelyuse this technique

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Blade Tools

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a stone based tool made from striking a long narrow flake from a stone core. These tools are classified as 2X long as wide. Blade tools were favored during the upper paleolithic era (Archulean)

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Human Hairlessness

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unlike all other primates, humans are the least hairy. A few theories as to why humans are hairless is so we can sweat to help cool us down. Possibly that by being less hairy historic humans stayed cleaner, or that by being hairless it allowed us to blend in more to our environment.

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Occipital Bun

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A prominent buldge or projection of the occipital bone at the back of the skull. These are very importnt to the description of the neandertal skull. Very common in robust human relatives...but not in homo sapiens.

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Burial Customs

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Depending on the type of hominid the burial custom changes, Sometimes customs can include the way the body is laid down, the location of where the body is buried, and if they have any items buried with them.

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Supra-orbital Torus

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The boned ridge above the eye sockets. As humans have become more evolved this ridge has shortened. A theory for neandertals supra-orbital torus size being much bigger than any other hominid is that it cated as natural "sunglasses" that blocke the sun to imporave hunting as well as protect the eyes from rain to hunt as well.

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Bear Cult

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the religious practice of whorshipping bears. This kind of practice is generally found in North America & Eurasia cultures. But this practice does date back to the earliest of hominids, though they would whorship other naimals and characteristics of nature.

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Paleolithic

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a prehistoric era of human history, distinguished by stone tools and this period covers 99% of our history. This is followed by the mesolithic period...

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Core Tools

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The larger chunk of stone from which tools during the paleolithic era were from...tools such as flake, blade, oldowan, and archeulean all donw from the core tool idea.

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Significance of Fire

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Fire for hominines is a key value. Fire, allowed for saefty & security for the small groups becuase many predators avoid the heat/fire...this also allowed for the first comfort of warmth becuase of rain or weather allowing for a longer life span.

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Mousterian

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Pertains to stone tools that are speifically associated with neandertals. This is also called the middle paleolithic. A key characteristic of this era is a larger proportion of flake tools.

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Home Base

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once hominids began to become less nomadic, home bases were established. This is also referable to primates where majority or daily living situations occur. The home base is where the home range steams from.

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Cannibalism

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the practice of eating your own species. We see this today in many primate groups. In more advanced hominies we do not see this (viewed as a taboo) But in some cultures untouched by modern man, the practice of cannibalism can still be found.

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Nuchal Torus

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A projection of bone in the back of the cranium where the neck muscles are attached. Thes ehold up the head and allow us to be bipedal and support our head.

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Taung Child

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fossilized skull of a young Australopithecus africanis. Discovered in Soith Africa, this skull first thoguh to be a primate, after study of the skull was alter found that it wre to be postioned above the spine whihc showed an upright posture a trait that showed bipedalism of whihc only humans retain.

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Eugene Dubois

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a dutch antomist who enlisted in the militry to look for "the missing link", Dubois found the first recognixed human ancestor fosils (trinil skull cap). This site is the Java/Trinil site; over 80 speciemens have come from this site

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Ernst Haeckel

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A german biologist, naturalist and prefessor whom developed the idea behindt he controversial recapitalation theory.

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Louis Leakey

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suggested hominin with larger brain size than autralopithicus. This cam from the Oluvai Gorge site speciemens. Leakey gave name & discovered the species H. Habilis. The Leakey family has been an anthropology family. The leakey family had competing theories for homininds

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R. Viurchow

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Virchow founded the Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and PRehistory.Under his guidance he influenced and coordinated german archaeological resaerch. During his hay-day, Virchow was seen as the top authroity of any fossils or bones found in the European continent

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Mary Leakey

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Also worked at the Olduvai Groge. Her and Louis do rarely communicated. Mary Leakey though directed the excavation of the gorge from 1935-1984

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Davidson Black

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Best know for his discovery of the Peking man in china. One of his biggest beliefs was that amns orgins could be found in Asia. Davidson Black funded man other ecavations afte the Peking man discovery at the Zhoukoudian site.

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Richard Leakey

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Lead excavation in Kenya, where the most complete H. Erectus was found. Richard Leakey is the son of Louis & Mary. His discovery yielded the oldest well-dated H. Erectus. He showed the vast variation in individuals based on sexual diamorphism in the found fossils.

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Charles Dawson

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A british amateur archeologist whom is blamed for imaginative frauds. The biggest of whhihc was the Piltwon Man. Many of Dawsons discoveries wer eplants, where Dawson buried or placed fossils at a given location in orer to find them and thrive off the rewards of being the sole finder of so mnay (though fake) finds.

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Franz Weidenreich

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One of the first to claim that the Piltwon site fossils were a hoax. Weidenreich also renames the Giantopithecus to the giganthropus. He also created the Weidenreich theory of evolution whihc he based off his examination and studies of the Peking Man.

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Grover Krantz

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Made famous for his resaerch into bigfoot. Even though Krantz published 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution much of his resaerch was seen as "fringe science" and costed him grants and promotions. One of his most fmaous papers was about the speech of H. Erectus and the anatomical differneces beteen the H. Erectus and the modern day human.

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Marcellin Boule

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The first analysis of a complete neadertal speciemen. He specifically studied the fossil fround form the La Chapelle-aux-Saints site. Boule basic description of the neadertal has set the presedent for how media dn filsm portrayed, cuasing them to be seen as hihgly primative with no relation to modern humans.

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Raymond Dart

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Most familously know for the 1924 discovery of the first ever Australopithecus africanus. Other wise called the Taung baby" this was located in Sotuh Africa. Becuase his findins were thf rist in Africa his idea of mans origins there were dismissed, eventually his theory as confirmed though.

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Milfred Walpoff

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The lead propent of the multiregional evolution hypothesis. This attmepted to explain the evolution of Homo sapiens was a consequence of evolutionary processes wihtin a single species. This idea directly challenged the "out of africa" theory.

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Chris Stringer

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The lead proponent of the "out of africa" theory. this syas that modern humasn originated in Africa over 100,000 years ago and replaced the worlds archaic humans (H. florensiencsis and neadertals). Though recently due to advancments in genetic testing and data he has proposed a more complex verison of his theory whihc is called "coalescent African origin"

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Java/Trinil

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Trinil is a palaeoanthropological site on the banks of the Bengawan Solo River in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. It was at this site in 1891 that the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois discovered the first early hominid remains to be found outside of Europe: the famous "Java Man" specimen.

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Zhoukoudian cave

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a cave system in Beijing, China. It has yielded many archaeological discoveries, including one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, dubbed Peking Man, and a fine assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris. The Peking Man Site was discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth. These were later identified by Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species and extensive excavations followed.

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Piltdown Man

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The Piltdown Man was a hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. These fragments consisted of parts of a skull and jawbone, said to have been collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England. The Latin name Eoanthropus dawsoni ("Dawson's dawn-man", after the collector Charles Dawson) was given to the specimen. The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan deliberately combined with the skull of a fully developed modern human.

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Spy

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Spy-sur-l'Orneau. This location is in belgium and was one of the first perfect full neandertal skeletons found. Specifically a man and women were found with lots of mousterian type tools in 1886

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Heidleberg

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Heidelberg, Germany was the first ever locating of the H. heidelbergensis by Otto Schoetensack. This ancester had a brain nearly as large as a modern human's. It is suggested that this is likely a direct ancestor of H. sapiens and neandertals in Europe.

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Olduvai Gorge

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Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world and has been instrumental in furthering the understanding of early human evolution. This site was occupied by Homo habilis approximately 1.9 million years ago, Paranthropus boisei 1.8 million years ago, and Homo erectus 1.2 million years ago. Homo sapiens is dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago. Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches through eastern Africa. It is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in Arusha Region, Tanzania and is about 48 km (30 mi) long. It is located 45 km (28 mi) from the Laetoli archaeological site.
This site is significant in showing increased developmental and social complexities in hominins. Evidence of this is shown in the production and use of stone tools, which indicates the increase in cognitive capacities. Evidence also indicates the practices of both scavenging and hunting, which are highlighted by the evidence of gnaw marks predating cut marks, and comparisons on percentages of meat versus plant in the early hominid diet. Furthermore, the collection of tools and animal remains in a central area is evidence of increases in social interaction and communal activity.

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Steinheim

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Steinheim an der Murr is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Murr, 9 km northeast of Ludwigsburg. The Steinheim Skull was found near Steinheim an der Murr.
It is world wide known for a famous skull of an early human, found there in 1933. This human lived around 250.000 years ago. The original skull is kept in the museum of nature in Stuttgart, while in Steinheim, visitors can see two reproductions of the skull in a small museum.

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Neander Valley

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The Neandertal, also called in English the Neander Valley, is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 12 km (7.5 mi) east of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley belongs to the area of the towns Erkrath and Mettmann. In 1856, the area became famous for the discovery of Neanderthal 1, the first specimen of Homo neanderthalensis to be found. The Neandertal was originally a limestone canyon widely known for its rugged scenery, waterfalls and caves. However, industrial mining during the 19th and 20th centuries removed almost all of the limestone and dramatically changed the shape of the valley. It was during such a mining operation that the bones of the original Neanderthal man were found in a cave. Neither the cave nor the cliff in which it was located exists anymore.

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Afar

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Afar is well known as one of the cradles of hominids, containing the Middle Awash, site of many fossil hominid discoveries such as Ardi, (Ardipithecus ramidus); the Gona (Gawis cranium), site of the world's oldest stone tools; and Hadar, site of Lucy, the fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarensis. The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression that is caused by the Afar Triple Junction which is part of the Great Rift Valley. It overlaps Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia. The depression is bordered by the Ethiopian Plateau and escarpment to the west, by the Danakil block to the north-east (between it and the Red Sea), by the Somalian Plateau and escarpment to the south, and by the Ali-Sabieh block (adjoining the Somalian Plateau) to the south-east. The Afar Triangle includes the lowest point in Africa, Lake Asal (155 metres or 509 feet below sea level) in Djibouti. The Awash River is the main waterflow into the area, where it ends in a chain of lakes that increase in salinity. The northern part of the Afar Triangle is also known as the Danakil Depression. Dallol in the Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places year-round anywhere on Earth.

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Omo

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The Omo River is an important river of southern Ethiopia. On the banks of the Omo River archeologists have found fossil fragments of Olduwan hominids from the early Pleistocene era and up to the Pliocene era. An important finding is Australopithecus man, now extinct.

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Sivapithecus

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Sivapithecus, fossil primate genus dating from the Miocene Epoch (23.7 to 5.3 million years ago) and thought to be the direct ancestor of the orangutan. Sivapithecus is closely related to Ramapithecus, and fossils of the two primates have often been recovered from the same deposits in the Siwālik Hills of northern Pakistan. Other Sivapithecus remains have been found at sites in Turkey, Pakistan, China, Greece, and Kenya. Some authorities maintain that Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus are in fact the same species. Though Sivapithecus was slightly larger than Ramapithecus, it was only a small-to-medium-sized ape about the size of a modern chimpanzee. The fossil remains of Sivapithecus reveal that it shared many of the same specialized facial features of the orangutan—i.e., eyes set narrowly apart, a concave face, a smooth nasal floor, large zygomatic bones, and enlarged central incisors.
Sivapithecus’ place in primate evolution was poorly understood until the 1980s. Prior to this, the genus, along with Ramapithecus, was interpreted as having both apelike and humanlike features and thus was presumed to be a possible first step in the evolutionary divergence of humans from the common hominoid stock of the apes. But new Sivapithecus finds and the reinterpretation of existing remains convinced most authorities in the 1980s that Sivapithecus was the ancestor of the modern orangutan and diverged from the common lineage of the African apes (i.e., chimpanzees and gorillas) and humans more than 13 million years ago. The earliest Sivapithecus remains found so far are about 17 million years old, and the most recent are about 8 million years old.

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Kenyapithecus

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The appearance of Kenyapithecus between 15 to 11 million years ago marked the point at which some specialisations began to appear. This hominoid also lived exclusively in the rainforests of the rift valley, and showed modifications in the teeth and limb bones, making them more like those of the living great apes.

Kenyapithecus africanus can be regarded as being part of the combined great ape and human group but cannot be linked directly to any one of the living hominoids.

However, evidence has emerged which strongly suggests that Kenyapithecus is not one genus but two. Kenyapithecus wickeri appears to have migrated out of Africa at the same time as many other species and lain the roots of the later European apes. Kenyapithecus africanus has been rechristened by some scholars as Equatorius africanus, because the Equator is where all its remains have been discovered.

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Ournopithecus

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O. macedoniensis had a large, broad face with a prominent supraorbital torus. It also had square-shaped orbits. O. macedoniensis may have had a relatively large body size. The post cranial evidence is thin, but the dentition of O. macedoniensis suggests extreme sexual dimorphism, a far higher degree than that seen in any extant great ape. The ape was probably a quadruped. It is not possible to postulate on how O. macedoniensis used the trees but it seems likely that it did. O. macedoniensis's molar enamel cover was fairly thick and had low cusps. The male O. macedoniensis had large canine teeth with shearing lower premolars.

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Giantopithecus

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Gigantopithecus's method of locomotion is uncertain, as no pelvic or leg bones have been found. The dominant view is that it walked on all fours like modern gorillas and chimpanzees; however, a minority opinion favors bipedal locomotion, most notably championed by the late Grover Krantz, but this assumption is based only on the very few jawbone remains found, all of which are U-shaped and widen towards the rear. This allows room for the windpipe to be within the jaw, allowing the skull to sit squarely upon a fully erect spine as in modern humans, rather than roughly in front of it, as in the other great apes.
The majority view is that the weight of such a large, heavy animal would put enormous stress on the creature's legs, ankles, and feet if it walked bipedally; while if it walked on all four limbs, like gorillas, its weight would be better distributed over each limb.

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Ardipithecus

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Ardipithecus ramidus was first reported in 1994; in 2009, scientists announced a partial skeleton, nicknamed ‘Ardi’. The foot bones in this skeleton indicate a divergent large toe combined with a rigid foot – it's still unclear what this means concerning bipedal behavior. The pelvis, reconstructed from a crushed specimen, is said to show adaptations that combine tree-climbing and bipedal activity. The discoverers argue that the ‘Ardi’ skeleton reflects a human-African ape common ancestor that was not chimpanzee-like. A good sample of canine teeth of this species indicates very little difference in size between males and females in this species.

Ardi’s fossils were found alongside faunal remains indicating she lived in a wooded environment. This contradicts the open savanna theory for the origin of bipedalism, which states that humans learned to walk upright as climates became drier and environments became more open and grassy.

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Australopithecus afarensis

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Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and best-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals! Found between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago in Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania), this species survived for more than 900,000 years, which is over four times as long as our own species has been around. It is best known from the sites of Hadar, Ethiopia (‘Lucy’, AL 288-1 and the 'First Family', AL 333); Dikika, Ethiopia (Dikika ‘child’ skeleton); and Laetoli (fossils of this species plus the oldest documented bipedal footprint trails).

Similar to chimpanzees, Au. afarensis children grew rapidly after birth and reached adulthood earlier than modern humans. This meant A. afarensis had a shorter period of growing up than modern humans have today, leaving them less time for parental guidance and socialization during childhood.

Au. afarensis had both ape and human characteristics: members of this species had apelike face proportions (a flat nose, a strongly projecting lower jaw) and braincase (with a small brain, usually less than 500 cubic centimeters -- about 1/3 the size of a modern human brain), and long, strong arms with curved fingers adapted for climbing trees. They also had small canine teeth like all other early humans, and a body that stood on two legs and regularly walked upright. Their adaptations for living both in the trees and on the ground helped them survive for almost a million years as climate and environments changed. Lived between about 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago. Lived between about 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago.

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Australopithecus africanus

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Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and best-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals! Found between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago in Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania), this species survived for more than 900,000 years, which is over four times as long as our own species has been around. It is best known from the sites of Hadar, Ethiopia (‘Lucy’, AL 288-1 and the 'First Family', AL 333); Dikika, Ethiopia (Dikika ‘child’ skeleton); and Laetoli (fossils of this species plus the oldest documented bipedal footprint trails).

Similar to chimpanzees, Au. afarensis children grew rapidly after birth and reached adulthood earlier than modern humans. This meant A. afarensis had a shorter period of growing up than modern humans have today, leaving them less time for parental guidance and socialization during childhood.

Au. afarensis had both ape and human characteristics: members of this species had apelike face proportions (a flat nose, a strongly projecting lower jaw) and braincase (with a small brain, usually less than 500 cubic centimeters -- about 1/3 the size of a modern human brain), and long, strong arms with curved fingers adapted for climbing trees. They also had small canine teeth like all other early humans, and a body that stood on two legs and regularly walked upright. Their adaptations for living both in the trees and on the ground helped them survive for almost a million years as climate and environments changed. Lived between about 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago

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Australopithecus ribustus

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Paranthropus robustus is an example of a robust australopithecine; they had huge, broad megadont cheek teeth with thick enamel and focused their chewing in the back of the jaw. Large zygomatic arches allowed the passage of large chewing muscles to the jaw and gave P. robustus individuals their characteristically wide, dish-shaped face. A large sagittal crest provided a large area to anchor these chewing muscles to the skull. These adaptations provided P. robustus with the ability of grinding down tough, fibrous foods. It is now known that ‘robust’ refers solely to tooth and face size, not to the body size of P. robustus. Lived about 1.8 to 1.2 million years ago.

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Australopithecus boisei

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Like other members of the Paranthropus genus, P. boisei is characterized by a specialized skull with adaptations for heavy chewing. A strong sagittal crest on the midline of the top of the skull anchored the large chewing muscles (temporalis muscles) from the top and side of the braincase to the lower jaw, and thus moved the massive jaw up and down. The force was focused on the large back teeth (molars and premolars). Flaring cheekbones gave P. boisei a very wide and dish-shaped face, creating a larger opening for bigger jaw muscles to pass through and support massive cheek teeth four times the size of a modern human’s. This species had even larger cheek teeth than P. robustus, a flatter, bigger-brained skull than P. aethiopicus, and the thickest dental enamel of any known early human. Cranial capacity in this species suggests a slight rise in brain size (about 100 cc in 1 million years) independent of brain enlargement in the genus Homo. Lived about 2.3 to 1.2 million years ago

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Paranthropus aethiopicus

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Paranthropus aethiopicus is still much of a mystery to paleoanthropologists, as very few remains of this speces have been found. The discovery of the 2.5 million year old ’Black Skull’ in 1985 helped define this species as the earliest known robust australopithecine. P. aethiopicus has a strongly protruding face, large megadont teeth, and a powerful jaw, and a well-developed sagittal crest on top of skull indicates huge chewing muscles, with a strong emphasis on the muscles that connected toward the back of the crest and created strong chewing forces on the front teeth.

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Homo habilis

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This species, one of the earliest members of the genus Homo, has a slightly larger braincase and smaller face and teeth than in Australopithecus or older hominin species. But it still retains some ape-like features, including long arms and a moderately-prognathic face.

Its name, which means ‘handy man’, was given in 1964 because this species was thought to represent the first stone-tool maker. Currently, the oldest stone tools are dated slightly older than the oldest evidence of the genus Homo. Lived between 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago.

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Homo erectus

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Early African Homo erectus fossils (sometimes called Homo ergaster) are the oldest known early humans to have possessed modern human-like body proportions with relatively elongated legs and shorter arms compared to the size of the torso. These features are considered adaptations to a life lived on the ground, indicating the loss of earlier tree-climbing adaptations, with the ability to walk and possibly run long distances. Compared with earlier fossil humans, note the expanded braincase relative to the size of the face. The most complete fossil individual of this species is known as the ‘Turkana Boy’ – a well-preserved skeleton (though minus almost all the hand and foot bones), dated around 1.6 million years old. Microscopic study of the teeth indicates that he grew up at a growth rate similar to that of a great ape. There is fossil evidence that this species cared for old and weak individuals. The appearance of Homo erectus in the fossil record is often associated with the earliest handaxes, the first major innovation in stone tool technology.

Early fossil discoveries from Java (beginning in the 1890s) and China (‘Peking Man’, beginning in the 1920s) comprise the classic examples of this species. Generally considered to have been the first species to have expanded beyond Africa, Homo erectus is considered a highly variable species, spread over two continents (it's not certain whether it reached Europe), and possibly the longest lived early human species - about nine times as long as our own species, Homo sapiens, has been around! Lived between about 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago

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Homo heidlebergensis

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This early human species had a very large brow ridge, a larger braincase and flatter face than older early human species. It was first early human species to live in colder climates, their ­­­short, wide bodies were likely an adaptation to conserving heat. It lived at the time of the oldest definite control of fire and use of wooden spears, and it was the first early human species to routinely hunt large animals. This early human also broke new ground; it was the first species to build shelters—creating simple dwellings out of wood and rock. Lived about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago

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Homo sapiens neaderthalensis

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Neanderthals (Neander-thal, the ‘th’ pronounced as ‘t’) are our closest extinct human relative. Some defining features of their skulls include the large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. Their bodies were shorter and stockier than ours, another adaptation to living in cold environments. But their brains were just as large as ours and often larger - proportional to their brawnier bodies.

Neanderthals made and used a diverse set of sophisticated tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, were skilled hunters of large animals and also ate plant foods, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects. There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior. Lived about 200,000 - 28,000 years ago

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Homo sapiens sapiens

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Anatomically, modern humans can generally be characterized by the lighter build of their skeletons compared to earlier humans. Modern humans have very large brains, which vary in size from population to population and between males and females, but the average size is approximately 1300 cubic centimeters. Housing this big brain involved the reorganization of the skull into what is thought of as "modern" -- a thin-walled, high vaulted skull with a flat and near vertical forehead. Modern human faces also show much less (if any) of the heavy brow ridges and prognathism of other early humans. Our jaws are also less heavily developed, with smaller teeth.