Human Evolution

• Taxonomy & Characteristics

• History

  • Hominid (Anthropoid) Genera
    
  • 5 Key Traits

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Phylogeny (Taxonomy+Time)

Primates Hominidae Homo

Hominidae Traits Dimorphic

Key adaptations (arboreal):

1. grasping hands
2. color binocular vision
3. large brain

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4. upright walking (bipedalism) +


• Early Great Apes Dryopithecus Kenyapithecus
• Left the trees ca. 20 million years ago
• Miocene global cooling and drying
  • isolated islands of woodlands in a sea of grasslands
  • climate and habitat change led to selective pressure and new species
  Bipedalism by at least 6 Ma

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• First Humans 6-8 Ma Split
  Orangutan, Gorillas, Chimps <–> Humans
  • Oldest Fossils
  • Australopithecus
    Africa, 4.2-2.5 Ma, 400-450 cc
  • Paranthropus
    Africa, 2.6-1.5 Ma, 450-530 cc
  • Homo
    Africa, 2.5 Ma - , 620 cc
    5. Culture
    
    

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TOOLS first stone ca. 2.5 Ma
• Homo habilis 500-800 cc, 2.0 Ma
• Homo rudolphensis 750 cc, 2.5 Ma
• Homo ergaster 850 cc, 2.0 Ma
  better tools
  bigger brain (620 cc) and body
  
• FIRE? first used 1 - 2 Ma

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Key events in evolution of Homo

• Homo erectus 1.5 - 0.2 Ma
  • Brain Size reached modern
  • Sophisticated tools, fire, cloths
    boats? no adolescence [.]
  • Mobile: out of Africa 1.8 Ma H. e. georgicus
• Homo sapiens heidelbergensis L 1.0 - 0.5 Ma
  a.k.a. archaic Homo sapiens
  First Europeans? Tools
  • Huts

    ---

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Who are the Humans?

• Dead end for Homo erectus ?
• Homo sapiens
  1. Evolves in Africa 60-140,000 years ago‡
     "Out of Africa"
  2. blend of Homo erectus regional stocks
     "Multiregionalism"
  ‡ McDougall, I., Brown, F.H., and Fleagle, J.G. 2005. Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethopia. Nature 43: 733-736.

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Who were the Neanderthals?

Traits
230-30 Ka, brain 1350 - 1500 cc
overlaped with H. erectus and H. sapiens
• First Evidence of Religion (Life after death)
  Are they
  • Homo sapiens neandertalensis or
  • Homo neandertalensis
    • DNA
    • Growth 1 2 3 4
    • competition or cold?

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