ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Milford H. Wolpoff, Rising Star Cave, Homo Erectus
5 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Paleoanthropology: the study of fossil humans, multidisciplinary. When and where did the first humans appear: physical sciences (ex. geology, biological sciences, social sciences, hominid humans and their direct ancestors, organic material (ex. bones) is replaced by minerals from surrounding soil . Where are the earliest fossils found: africa. Ardipithecus ramidus (~4. 4 mya: looks like a money but walks on two feet. What does a hominid look like: small front teeth and large molars, bipedalism and associated anatomical adaptions. Increased manual dexterity: smaller than a modern female. Australopithecus afarensis (~4-3 mya: example: lucy the (cid:498)monkey(cid:499) Why bipedalism: man as hunter, 2-parent family and sexual division of labor, food-sharing and carrying, carrying offspring, enhanced heat loss, communication. The australopithecines (~4-2mya: many different species recognized, genus australopithecus, found exclusively in east and south africa (so far , anamensis, afarensis, africanus, garhi, etc. Features of australopithecines: clearly bipedal, relatively small brains, large teeth (esp. molars, mosaic evolution, characteristic of hominid history.
