NEUR 2600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Australopithecus
Document Summary
Evolution of the modern human brain: savannah. We developed skills to catch animals for food on the open savannah before other predators. Our ancestors may have been more scavengers than hunters/gatherers. We needed to develop tools: water babies. There were huge rivers and lakes, and babies who lived there learned to swim. Hardy said humans were the only primate to go in the water. Brain no bigger than the modern chimp. Travelers: left africa and went all over. 2 theories of evolution: out of africa. One group traveled out of africa and went all over the world. Evidence is mdna that lends existence to eve about 200 000 years ago. Y chromosome dna lends existence to adam about the same time: co-evolution. Homo erectus went all over and different groups began evolving separately. Separate evolution because different skills per group were passed to offspring, leading to different evolution. Lived at the same time as homo sapiens.
