ANTHROP 3300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Olduvai Gorge, Taung Child, Fluorine
31 Aug 2016
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Taung child: australopithecus africanus (south africa 1925, not accepted because not what people wanted to hear, proposed death by carrying off of large predatory bird, bipedal, brain that was large for size, small canines (about 3. 5 mya) Fossils: dug from the earth , remains/traces of ancient organisms, context in important. Minerals in groundwater infiltrate tiny spaces in bone. Soft parts tend not to fossilize because decay before mineralization. Water in limestone breaks down calcium carbonate which. In limestone caves fills bone with minerals: olduvai gorge faulting/erosion reveal 2 million-year old geological sequence from ancient lake. Fossils in sedimentary layers: east african rift valley. F. 1. tectonic plates pushing apart, land in between sinks. F. 2. as movement, breaks up and reveals layers of rock; erosion. F. 1. thought intelligence came from hunting and using bones as tools. We were hunted by leopards; trees near entrances of caves; skeletons fell into caves. Leopard refuse, hyena den, porcupine collection: understand preservational bias.
