Human Origins Exam 3

Front 1

Lucy

Back 1

Australopithecus Afarensis

Nearly full skeleton

Front 2

Black Skull

Back 2

Australopithecus Bosei (super bosei)

Extremely dished-in face

Front 3

KNM-ER-1470

Back 3

Homo Habilis

Front 4

Lumpers vs. Splitters

Back 4

When looking at the same findings, lumpers emphasize similarities and come up with a smaller amount of categories, while splitters emphasize differences and come up with more categories.

Front 5

Stratigraphy

Back 5

A relative dating technique

The visual of stratigraphic profile of layers of settled soil. The highest layers are the youngest and the lowest layers are the oldest. But everything is not nice and neat, things get complicated. This method also requires cross dating because it can only determine younger or older.

Front 6

Potassium-Argon Dating

Back 6

Absolute dating technique.

Radioactive substances decay into n-RA

n-RA has a half-life of 1.3 billion years.

This method only works with radioactive rocks, such as lava rocks.

This method stops being effective 250K years ago to now.

Front 7

C14 Radiocarbon Dating

Back 7

Absolute dating technique.

Living things contain/consume radio carbon, when they die they have a certain amount, and it begins to decay after their death.

This method only goes back 40,000 years ago.

This method only dates things once alive, but not fossils because they have become stone.

Front 8

Dendrochronology

Back 8

Absolute dating technique.

Tree ring dating.

Good year for the tree= thick growth layer

Bad year for tree= thin growth layer

1 ring=1 year

Only works under certain regional conditions, dry and preservation of wood.

Front 9

Typology

Back 9

A relative dating technique

Dating by style.

Matching styles of artifacts with styles of time periods.

Only gives time period

Cross dating is necessary.

Front 10

Features of Bipedalism

Back 10

Architecture of skeleton is like a tower.

Foramen Magnum at the base (bottom) of skull.

S-Curved spine, "spring" for support

Pelvis is bowl or basket shaped

Has long angled femurs, walks straight

Arched feet (act as a shock absorber), with flexible platform.

Front 11

Orrorin Tugenesis

Back 11

7-6 million years ago

Front 12

Ardipithecus Ramidus

Back 12

Site: Aramis, Ethiopia

Mix of traits: Last common ancestor and later hominids.

Was in a Forested environment

Ancestral- large projecting canine teeth

FM at the base of skull

Front 13

Australopithecus

Back 13

Genus

Several different species spanning 3 million years

Found in:

Rift Valley- East Africa- many sites here

Olduvai Gorge (famous site here)

South Africa- Sterkfontein, limestone caves, good preservation.

Very sexually dimorphic-- Polygynous

Cranial Capacity of 500 cc (less than half of ours)

Brow ridge- thickening of the bone above eyes

Flaring zygomatics

Prognathism (jutting of the jaw past the front of the face)

Lacks a chin

Large molars and pre molars

Opposable thumbs

There are both Robust and Gracile

Front 14

Robust vs. Gracile

Back 14

Appearance of skeletal material in reference to muscles.

Gracile: Lightly built animals, low muscle mass

Robust: massive animals, huge muscles. Have sagittal crests because of their diet they needed a lot of muscles on their heads

Front 15

Australopithecus Anamensis

Back 15

Gracile

Oldest australopithecine

Older than 4 million years

Rectangular shaped jaw- ape like

Definitely Bipedal

About 100 lbs.

Not only the date but its region speak to it being the oldest

Front 16

Australopithecus Afarensis

Back 16

Gracile

E.g. Lucy

3.5 to 3 million years ago roughly

Well understood bc there are bits and pieces from over 100 individuals

Definitely bipedal but still has characteristics of her arboreal ancestors;

Curved fingers and toes

Short legs

Cranial capacity of 400-500 cc

Associated with Laeotoli Footprints (independent evidence of bipedalism)

Front 17

Australopithecus Garhi

Back 17

One fossil, hard to fit into the evolutionary tree

Splitter perspective

Front 18

Australopithecus Africanus

Back 18

Last gracile Australopithecus, likely evolved into Homo habilis

(Was the first australopithecus found)

3-2.3 million years ago

Tons of fossils 400 or more individuals represented

Cranial capacity 450 cc avg.

Front 19

Australopithecus Robustus

Back 19

Robust

South Africa

Size of Australopithecus Africanus

2.5-1 million years ago

Over 100 individuals represented

Avg. cranial capacity of a little over 500 cc

Big, heavy teeth

Foragers (nuts, seeds, and roots

Front 20

Australopithecus Bosei

Back 20

Robust

Olduvai Gorge

2.5-1.5 million years ago

Cranial capacity of 550 cc

More extreme than Australopithecus Robustus;

Exaggerated flaring zygomatics, brow ridges, and sagittal crests

Dished-in face

Front 21

Genus Homo

Back 21

Larger cranial capacity than all apes and the Australopithecines

More smooth and round cranium;

No sagittal crest

No flaring zygomatics

Smaller face

Smaller teeth and jaw

No dished-in face

Had parabolic (round) dental formula

Front 22

Homo Habilis

Back 22

South Africa and Rift Valley

2.5-1.75 million years ago

Long arms like apes still

Felt more like modern humans and were bipedal

550-770 cc cranial capacity

They started culture and were the first tool users

Front 23

Homo Erectus

Back 23

Smaller teeth, jaw and face than ever before

Sagittal Keel: Depression on either side of the center point of the head

700-1250 cc cranial capacity than females

Brow ridge- very prominent

No more flaring zygomatics or dished-in face

Occipital torus: Thickening of bone on the back of head for neck muscles to attach to

Wide based skulls

Nasal bones project out and away from the face

They lived to be about 50 years old

Modern height and limbs

Front 24

Oldowan Tools

Back 24

Simple stone tools

Required basic thought processes to create

Earliest and simplest hard hammer percussion artifacts

These tools permitted meat eating

Front 25

Hammer stone

Back 25

Hard heavy stone

Front 26

Core stone

Back 26

Breakable, able to turn sharp

Front 27

Flakes

Back 27

What breaks off the core stone

Front 28

Acheulean Tools

Back 28

More advanced stone tools

Hand ax:

Tear drop shaped

More and smaller flakes taken off

Soft hammer production used

Bifacial- Both sides are worked on

Look the same at different sites this points to standardization- there was a preconceived idea among the Homo Erectus to make these is this way

Front 29

Dubois

Back 29

Eugene Dubois wanted to find a fossil to support Darwin in the early 1800s. So he went to S.E. Asia (Java) to find one, and he found exactly what he wanted

Pithecanthropus Erectus (the ape man that walks erect)

Didn't want to share his find

His site turned out to be a hot spot, remains of over 200 different individuals have been recovered.

Front 30

Turkana Boy

Back 30

Homo Erectus (Homo ergaster)

A nearly complete skeleton

Kenya

1.6 million years ago

Predicted to have potentially grown to about 6 ft.

Front 31

Homo Heidelbergensis

Back 31

Africa into Europe-- Splitter view

Still homo Erectus, but splitters made them their own category.

Front 32

Archaeology vs. Paleoanthropology

Back 32

Archaeologist focus on understanding the peoples and cultures of the past

Paleoanthropologist focus on the origins and bicultural development of human beings.

Front 33

Sites

Back 33

Archeological sites are any geographic location that humans have interacted with and left an impact

Front 34

Artifacts

Back 34

Portable archaeological finds

Front 35

Features

Back 35

Are parts of the archaeological record that are not portable

Front 36

Context

Back 36

Spacial Patterns

Front 37

Matrix

Back 37

Soil, sediment, stone deposit in which material is embedded in

Tell about preservation

Soil science

Front 38

Provenience

Back 38

3-D coordination of everything at a site. Useful for reconstruction of spacial patterns.

Front 39

Association

Back 39

Things close together probably go together, things far apart probably don't go together.

Front 40

Preservation

Back 40

Special conditions for preservation include:

Ice, Deep under water (cold, low oxygen content), Dry (no moisture=no bacteria), burned (no moisture= no bacteria)

Front 41

Cultural Transformation Processes

Back 41

Things humans do to alter/impact the Archaeological Record

Front 42

Natural Transformation Processes

Back 42

Things that occur naturally that alter/impact the Archaeological Record. Microorganisms are the biggest problem when it comes to remains or one alive material

Front 43

Research Design

Back 43

Question guides research

Without a strict plan (that must be approved), Archaeologists would ruin the things they are studying.

Front 44

Survey

Back 44

Technique for finding sites in large ares

Grids

Front 45

Test Pits

Back 45

Small but deep hole

Made to see the matrix of a potential site

Gives hints about the site

Front 46

Trenches

Back 46

A long linear line hole, to see things in profile

Front 47

Open Area Excavation

Back 47

Horizontal

Large area

Looking down at area to see things

Front 48

Cross Dating

Back 48

Using more than one dating technique to get a more precise idea of the age of a find.

Front 49

Paleocene

Back 49

65-55 million years ago

Common ancestors to all prosimians

Fossils are few and difficult to distinguish because all mammals are small and rodent like at this time.

Front 50

Eocene

Back 50

55-34 million years ago

Primates look like prosimians

Primates made the move to Madagascar at this time

Adapoidea and Omomyoidea

Front 51

Adapoidea

Back 51

Eocene

Look very lemur like, rounded brain case, post orbital bar, eyes rotated forward, opposable toes

Front 52

Omomyoidea

Back 52

More generic body (so maybe an ancestor to us)

Many fossils

North America, Europe, Asia

Less like prosimians

Site: Fayum Depression in Egypt (used to be lush, lots of fossils)

New World monkeys also made the move to South America during this time

Front 53

Oligocene

Back 53

34-23 million years ago

Time of the monkeys

Proplithecus, Aegyptopithecus, and Apidium

Front 54

Proplithecus

Back 54

Oligocene

Cat size

Fruit eaters

2-1-2-3 Dental Formula

Front 55

Aegyptopithecus

Back 55

Oligocene

Monkey-like

"Missing link" between eocene prosimians and miocene apes

Bigger than Propliopithecus - size of a small dog

Increased visual center in brain, decreased emphasis on smell

2-1-2-3 Dental Formula

Sexual Dimorphism

Quadruped

Short limbed, heavy muscle

Front 56

Apidium

Back 56

Oligocene

200 Fossils

Squirrel size

Fruit eaters

2-1-3-3 Dental Formula (remnants of ancestors)

Their extinction brought the end of the 2-1-3-3 Dental formula among old world monkeys.

Front 57

Micone

Back 57

23-5 million years ago

Ape-like

Many fossils- 1,000 individuals

Old world

Taxonomy is complicated

Proconsul, Dryopithecus, and Sivapithecus

Front 58

Proconsul

Back 58

Genus

Africa

Species vary from 8-150 lbs.

Best known African form

Rainforest or open woodland

Y-5 molar and 2-1-2-3 Dental Formula

Fruit eaters

Very sexually dimorphic canine teeth

Polygyny

Brains more like today's monkeys than today's apes

Front 59

Dryopithecus

Back 59

Miocene

Apes in Europe

Little known about them because there are not many fossils

Front 60

Sivapithecus

Back 60

Miocene

Asia

100-150 lbs.

Skull similar to an orangutan, especially by profile

Body all its own

Asian apes split early

Massive arms

Arboreal quadruped

A lot of types, but now only five types

Front 61

Fire

Back 61

Homo erectus had fire

We aren't sure how they created or controlled it though

Using fire to cook food reduces pathogens, so it lowers the risk of death or illness or producing poor offspring

Shifting to cooked food made less need for big jaws and heavy head muscle

Fire used for light for more time

Fire used for protection against predators