ARCH 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Melanin, Paleontology, Xiaochangliang
20 Mar 2018
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Why did hominins begin eating meat and possibly hunting? (cid:498)expensive tissue(cid:499) (ypothesis: meat-eating and encephalization: an organism"s body produces only a finite amount of energy to run all its. It has to be able to provide some sort of benefit or the energy it provides. Hominins had to switch to a higher quality diet: These are hard to break down, not a lot of net return. The cooking hypothesis: richard wrangham primatologist began a long time ago) 9. 1 homo erectus traits and important fossils. Hominin lineage: homo erectus and homo ergaster. Homo erectus: 1. 8-1. 9 is oldest fossil, appeared in africa ~2 million years ago, bodies are perfectly modern, heavy concentrations of melanin = african (they were dark-skinned) Debate is mainly over similarity between african and asian h. erectus fossils: Either: all the fossils can be lumped into a single, widespread species with some notable regional variability. Or: they should be split into two species: african and asian.
