Physical Anthropology Exam 3

Front 1

Other types of fossils (2) w/example

Back 1

Trace fossils
• Animal tracks

Coprolites
• Fossilized feces

Front 2

5 Types of Relative Dating

Back 2

• Lithostratigraphy
• Tephrostratigraphy
• Biostratigraphy
• Chemical signatures within sites
• Geomagnetic polarity

Front 3

3 Types of Chronometric Dating

Back 3

• Dendrochronology
• Radiometric Dating
• Electron Trap Techniques

Front 4

Isotope Dating

Back 4

• Unstable nuclide
• Carbon 12 (stable)
• Carbon 13 (stable)
• Carbon 14 (unstable- radioactive)

Front 5

Lithostratigraphy

Back 5

Comparing/contrasting of layers of Stratigraphy at different sites

Front 6

Tephrostratigraphy

Back 6

Looks at chemical signatures of deposits

Front 7

Biostratigraphy

Back 7

Examines index fossils to deduce an age range
Chemical signatures within sites
Association of fossils
Same age fossils should have the same ratio
Note: only useful for comparisons within a site

Front 8

Geomagnetic polarity

Back 8

• Calibrated relative dating
o Polarity of earth’s magnetic field
o Has alternated through time
o Rocks form under different fields
• Geomagnetic Polarity time scale (GPTS)

Front 9

Radiometric Dating

Back 9

• Unstable isotopes
• Clock-like decay
• Very old samples
• Half-life= time for ½ parent sample to decay into daughter sample

Front 10

Potassium-argon (K-Ar) & argon-argon (40Ar/39Ar)

Back 10

• Decay of 40K to 40Ar
• Half-life= 1.3 billion years
• Age range= 10,000- 4.5billion years
• K-bearing mineral
• Volcanic sediments
• Eruptions resets argon clock
• Fossils found in sediments between sediments

Front 11

Fission-Track Dating

Back 11

• 238U
• Obsidian, mica, zircon crystals
• Geological strata
• Decay process leaves tracks
• Number of tracks proportional to time

Front 12

Radio Carbon Dating (C14 dating)

Back 12

• Organic Materials
• Charcoal, wood, bone, shell
• <40,000 years
• due to short half-life
• Estimates time since death

Front 13

Thermoluminescence

Back 13

Electrons of quartz, feldspar, diamond, calcite crystals are displaced and trapped

Accumulation over 100k-500k years

Heat releases electrons and the Stored energy is emitted in the form of light impulses

Front 14

Electron Spin Resonance (ESR)

Back 14

• Calcium carbonate in limestone, fossil teeth, quartz, flint
• 300,000 years or less
• Sample is not destroyed
• Spin causes a change in the magnetic field of atoms
o Provides a clock
• Used with other methods to corroborate dates

Front 15

Carpolestidae

Back 15

Carpolestes
Paleocene
• Arboreal adaptations
• Nails instead of claws
• Opposable big toes
o Some primate traits—a proto primate

Front 16

Necrolemur

Back 16

• Michrochoerinae
• Late Eocene
• Resemble Tarsiers

o Leaping adaptations similar to tarsiers
• Fused tibia and fibula

Front 17

Darwinius masillae

Back 17

Adapidae; Cercamoniines
Eocene Primate
• Extremely diverse
• Early Eocene to Early Oligocene
• North America, Africa and Asia
• Anchomomys

Sole primate survivor of the Grand Coupre in Europe
o Almost complete, well preserved fossil
o Messel, Germany
o 47 mya

Front 18

New selective pressures in Miocene

Back 18

o Diversification of Old World Monkeys
• Colobines and Cerropithecines
o Ape-Monkey divergence
• Pongid radiation

Front 19

Anatomical traits of a Biped

Back 19

Foramen magnum directly beneath the skull (chimps posteriorly located)
S-Shaped (sigmoid) curve with lumbar lordosis
Bowl shaped pelvis with Short, broad ilium
• Broad sacro-iliac joint
• Anterior iliac spine
Large femoral head
Thick femoral neck
Longer medial condyle
Medially angled femur
Robust calcaneus (heel bone)
Long tarsals (increases power, length)
Non-divergent hallux
Shortened, flat phalanges
Longitudinal arches

Front 20

Pleisadapiforms

Back 20

Archaic Primate?
Purgatoriidae
o Purgatorius
• Early Paleocene (65mya)
• Bug Creek Anthills, Montana
• Possible nails instead of claws
Plesiadapidae
o Pleisiadapis
• Big Horn Basin
• Also in Europe
o Large rodent-like incisors
• No gnawing
• Leaves and fruits
Carpolestidae
o Carpolestes
• Clark Fork Basin, WY
• Arboreal adaptations
• Nails instead of claws
• Opposable big toes
• Vegetation, fruits, nuts
o Some primate traits—a proto primate

Front 21

Cantius

Back 21

• Norharctinae
o Oldest indisputable euprimate
o 2:1:4:3 dental formula

Front 22

Fayum Depression

Back 22

Egypt
Oligocene
• Lushly forested in the Eocene/Oligocene boundary

Front 23

Dental Apes

Back 23

• The earliest apes
o ~27mya
o Y-5 Dentition
o Ape like dentition, but monkey-like skeleton
o Proconsul
• 18-20mya
• Best known dental ape

Front 24

Branisella

Back 24

• Early Platyrrhines
o ~25-30mya
• Bolivia
• Small Frugivores
• May represent the first platyrrhines radiation
o How did they get to the new world?
• Probably arrived in late Eocene
• Arrived via drift across Atlantic

Front 25

The Pliocene

Back 25

• 5-2mya
• Adaptive radiation of Hominids
o Bipedality
o Increased brain size
• Neuronal reorganization
• Behavioral changes
o A mosaic of evolutionary process

Front 26

The Miocene

Back 26

• Miocene (22-5mya)
o Ape Radiation (Homonoids)
o Sivapithecus
o Gigantopithecus
o Proconsul
o Dropithecus

Climate Change
o Warmer, wetter than Oligocene
o New migration routes
Hominoid (Ape) Radiation
o The “Golden Age”- more than today
o Africa, Asia, Europe
Late Miocene
o Divergence of Chimp and Human ancestors

Front 27

Characteristics of Anthropoid Primates

Back 27

• Complete post orbital closure
• Fused frontal bone and mandibular symphisis
• Lacrimal bone located in the eye, not the snout
• Larger body size
• Diurnal

Front 28

Eocene

Back 28

Initial adaptive radiation of primates
Warming period, followed by a cooling period
General extincion of the plesiadapiforms; replaced by euprimates
Strepsirrhini and Haplorrhini split
Superfamiles
• Adapoidia
• Omomyoidea

Front 29

Oligocene

Back 29

Geological Processes
Cooling, drying trend
New selective pressures
Fayum depression of Egypt
Anthropoid/Oligiopithecidae/Parapithecidae/Propliopithecidae/Early Platyrrhines

Front 30

Ape Characteristics

Back 30

• Dorsally placed scapulae
• Broad shallow rib cage/thorax
• Long forelimbs with curved phalanges
o Adaptations for suspensory behavior
• Reduced olecronon process (elbow/humerus)
• 5-Y lower molar pattern

Front 31

Principles of Stratigraphy

Back 31

o Principle of horizontality
o Principle of superposition
o Principle of cross-cutting relationships
o Principle of faunal succession
• Index fossils: fossils that are wide-spread but are clearly extinct in later layers