Human Evolution

Bioanthropology

Main

Pre-Australopithecines

7,000,000 bc - 4,000,000 bc

-Earliest known hominids (bipedal and non-honing)
-Gap b/w Miocene apes and hominids
-few fragmented fossils, but critically important information
-primitive characteristics-more ape like than human like?

Sahelanthropus Tchadensis

7,000,000 bc - 6,000,000 bc

-Chand (central Africa): 2500 mi from rift valley:
-"Toumai"
-350cc : like apes
-massive brow ridge/non-honing
-likely bipedal (based on position of foramen magnum)
-close to divergence?
-lived near forests or lakes (based on bones of other animals)

Orrorin Tugenensis

6,000,000 bc - 5,000,000 bc

-East Africa (Kenya-western side of Lake Turkana)
-Among 20 remains-partial femur-bipedal?-length of femur neck (Obsturater externus)-Wolff's law: thicker if bipedal?
-5 individuals
-curved phalanges-arboreal
-wear on canines and non-honing
-Forrest (based on bones of other animals)

Ardipithecus Kaddaba/Ramidus

5,800,000 bc - 4,400,000 bc

KADDABA
- 5.8-5.5 mya
- mainly teeth-wear, honing on sides? lower 3rd premolars
RAMIDUS
- 4.4 mya
- "Ardi"
- 35 individuals, deposited with 10,000 yrs.
- ecological data-forest (extensive data)
-primitive, but with modern mouth, short non projecting

canines, wear on tips, tooth enamel b/w humans and apes
-bipedal-big toe still opposable but rigid foot like humans,

also foramen magnum
- "factualtive bipedalism
- curved phalanges: trees and ground
-moved on palms and feet NOT knucklewalkers
- Lovejoy and dimorphism debate-disagreement and
controversy
BOTH
-East Africa : Aramis, Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia,

Australopithecines

4,000,000 bc - 1,000,000 bc

Australopithecus Anamensis

4,000,000 bc - 3500,000 bc

sites around Lake Turkana and Ethiopia (East Africa)
oldest Australopithecines -broadly similar to Ardipithecus?-ancestor descent relationship? -woodland environment
primitive : large canines/upper parallel teeth/lower 3rd
premolar smaller inner and larger outer cusps

Early Gracile Australpithecines

4,000,000 bc - 3,000,000 bc

-ape like but with human characteristics
- compared to us, smaller overall,
-more robust/strong
-some arboreal characteristics : longer arms/curved phalanges/
-superiorly oriented glenoid fossa
-450-500 cc
-East and Central Africa

Australopithecine Afarensis

3,600,000 bc - 3,000,000 bc

-4 main sites: Laetoli: footprints, Tanzania
Hadar, Korsi Dora, Dikkia: Ethiopia (East Africa)
-"Lucy (Ethiopia, most spectacular fossils)
- (also an adult male and 3yr old child)
- 3.5 ft short legs, remarkably complete, modern walking
-phalanges same length but curved
-430cc w/ hyoids like apes
-ancestor descent b/w anamensis-afarensis
-smaller canines, parabolic, cusps of 3rd premolar equal

Australpithecus Platyops

3,500,000 bc - 3,400,000 bc

-same time as afarensis
-western side of lake Turkana Kenya
- mainly woodlands
-face unusually flat
-now complicated, two contemporary australopithecines
-one human lineage, one descents of afarensis

Australopithecus Africanus

3,000,000 bc - 2,000,000 bc

-contemporary with Ghari
-Ms. Ples and Taung Child
-larger teeth
-450cc
-phalanges not curved, arm and leg proportions different
-also found at Sterkfontein and Makapansgat (South and East Africa)

Later Gracile Australopithecines

3,000,000 bc - 2,000,000 bc

Australopithecus Aethiopicus

2,500,000 bc - 2,400,000 bc

-East Africa, Lake Turkana
- 410cc
- increasingly focused on food that required more chewing

muscles- ultimate grinders
-smaller front teeth, larger back teeth
-larger face

Australopithecus Garhi

2,500,000 bc - 2,400,000 bc

-450cc
-East Africa
-bones, teeth, partial skeleton, skull, larger than earlier, equal

cusps
-projecting face, leg and arms more proportional, longer femur,
less arboreal
-ancestral to homo?
-lake shore
-first tool maker?
-cut animal bone/stone tools

Homo Habilis

2,500,000 bc - 1,800,000 bc

-Leaky's discovered in 1930s-Olduvai Gorge (East Africa)
-"Twiggy"
-less ape like face and head, smaller chewing complex and
larger brain
-face more delicate (less prognathic)
- first anatomical changes (3-2.5 mya)
-compared to us, robust
-smaller than us, precision grip?, tools growing importance
-tool making=wider ranges
-650cc
-rudolfensis: 750 cc

Oldowan Technology

2,500,000 bc - 2,000,000 bc

-stone tools, flakes not found with hominids remains, who made
-oldest known tools, 2.6 mya, primitive but effective
-Middle Awash, Gona River, Ethiopia
-earlier tools if not made of stone

Robust Australopithecines

2,500,000 bc - 1,000,000 bc

-South and East Africa
-larger overall: jaw/teeth/chewing muscles/ zygomatic arch
-410-530
-4-5.3 ft tall (males 100lbs, females 75lbs)
-direct off shoot from human line?

Australopithecus Boisei

2,300,000 bc - 1,200,000 bc

-Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana (East Africa)
- "Zinj"
-530cc

Australopithecus Robustus

2,000,000 bc - 1,500,000 bc

-South Africa, like in east extinct by 1 mya
-large premolars and faces, saggital crest, heavy chewing
-thicker enamel, harder foods (fruits and seeds)
-narrower range? extinction?
-Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Drimolen

Australopithecus Sediba

2,000,000 bc - 1,800,000 bc

-Malapa Cave (2008)- South Africa
-partial skeleton of boy and adult female
-face, jaws, teeth relatively small-smaller cheekbones
-420cc brain
-homo ancestry?

Homo Erectus

1,800,000 bc - 300,000 bc

-descendent of h. habilis
-larger brow ridges, long and low skull, bigger brain
-Europe, Asia, and Africa: first to leave Africa

in Africa (1.8-.3mya)
-80% skeleton from Lake Turkana: Nariokatome Boy: relatively short arms and long legs, modern stride
-body size increase
-900cc
-some robust, others gracile, footprints
-canabolism from Ethiopia?

In Asia (1.8-.3 mya)
-4 skulls, many other bones, stone tools
-smaller face jaws, browridges, compared with African erectus
-long legs compared to arms
-650cc
-Turkey (500,000 ya) massive brow and keel, TB?
-Java: rapid eastward by 1.8 mya
-China and Zhoukoudian: fire

in Europe (1.2-.4 mya)
-Sierra de Atapuerco Spain
-Gran Dolina- canabolism?
-other specimens in England, Germany, Italy

Acheulian Technology

1,500,000 bc - 130,000 bc

-more sophisticated wider variety of raw material greater range of tool types
-dominant tool=hand axe
-kill rather than butcher?-Ethiopian hippos
-biology before culture
-did not abandon Oldowan

Early Archaic Humans

500,000 bc - 130,000 bc

-larger brain 1200cc
- larger body and brain relative to body size
- sloping forehead: low skull, but higher than homo erectus
-face large and prognathic
-no chin

Mousterian Technology

300,000 bc - 30,000 bc

-tools made on flakes
-more efficient and precise tools (scrapers, points, knives)
- Lavallois Technique: ways to manufacture large thin flakes
-earliest sites w/ only Achuelian technology
-spears, hafted and wooden

Modern Humans

200,000 bc - 2013 bce

Late Archaics

130,000 bc - 28,000 bc

-homo neanderthalensis
-cold climate-glaciation and adapted to cold
-large nose
-prognathic (lower faces jut out)
-lower forehead and brow ridges
-occipital bun
-large front teeth
-1500cc
-short and stocky limbs
-language? prob not like modern but kebara hyoid and gene

-canabolism or compassion?

Homo Floresiensis

95,000 bc - 18,000 bc

little hobbit in Java -small brain but tools? -"island dwarfism" -before erectus? -not human with mycrocephaly -417cc

Upper Paleolithic

90,000 bc