COLLAB 2M03 Lecture Notes - Coprolite, Homo Erectus, Taenia Saginata
Document Summary
Paleoenvironment during the pliocene +5 degrees celsius & water 25m higher than current conditions. A variety of disease causing microbes existed: contact with water borne & soil borne microbes (giardia & schistomiasis, contact with vector borne microbes (mosquitoes & tsetse flies, contact with animals & their microbes (botulism & worms) Drinking from snail infested fresh water sources. Schistosoma worm would have affected early hominids. Schistosoma transoni this worm probably diverged from its ancestors around the time of early hominids & became a regular problem with the invention of agriculture. Morbidity: 200 million people worldwide (2010: contact with vectors. Given the environment of the pliocene africa: a number of organisms would have been present. Trypanosomiasis evolved 500 million years ago (african sleeping sickness) Tsetse fly evolved around 150 million years ago. Early hominids during the pliocene & pleistocene would have been affected: diet. Meat appears to have become a regular part of our diet around 2. 5 million years ago.