ANTH 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Orrorin, Foramen Magnum, Sahelanthropus
26 Mar 2020
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Document Summary
Miocene: age of the apes, earliest human ancestors. All of the earliest fossil evidence for hominin evolution comes from africa. Habitual upright walking, characteristics of dentition, elaboration of material culture, significant increase in brain size, long developmental period and long lifespan. Adaptive explanations for the origin of bipedalism. Social factors: ability to provision for the family in the context of the evolution of monogamous systems. Useful for carrying food, supplies, and infants. Ecological factors: moving across forested patches with higher energetic efficiency. More vertical face and higher skull vault than chimps. Smaller canines, no c-p3 honing complex (all apes have that) Biped possibly because of position of foramen magnum. But primitive in other respects (brain size, u-shaped dental arcade) Femoral morphology is indicative of bipedal locomotion. Ardipithecus ramidus and kadabba, ethiopia, 5. 8-4. 4 million. Kadabba: reduced canine honing, little fossil evidence, intermediate canine size, 5. 2-5. 8 million. Ramidus: nearly complete skeleton eventually found, originally just had a tooth,
