ANT 301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Piltdown Man, Bipedalism, Ape
Document Summary
The last common ancestor of chimps and humans lived sometime between 6 - 8 ma. Molecular and anatomical data support a sister group relationship between humans and chimpanzees. Hominins: humans (branch from the tree of life) Discovered in 1912 in sussex england"s piltdown quarry. The reason people believed it for so long is because it presented what people anticipated the ancestor to look like (brain and primitive jaw) The earliest hominins have ape-sized brains; are related to humans because of bipedalism and their dental structure. Thick enamel, greater enamel volume (change in dental structure; eat a lot of fruit and leaves) Reduced canines (smaller canines as opposed to other african apes; males were bigger than females; upper canine slopes over lower p3, and the back edge of the canine stays sharp) Gluteus medius and minimus muscles: the muscle is developed when we started walking on two legs; and it stretches as we walk.
