Hominid Evolution Part 2

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Hominid EvolutionPart 2
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Australopithecus boisei

• First specimen was the OH 5 skull (Zinj) found
  at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) in 1959 by Mary
  Leakey and named Zinjanthropus boisei
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/oh5.h
  tml

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Australopithecus boisei example of
Zinjanthropus (1959) (in this picture)

• 2.2-1.3 mya
• East Africa
• First specimen at Olduvai Gorge named
  Zinjanthropus boisei by Mary Leakey
• Cranial capacity 500-530 cc

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Australopithecus boisei

• Skull known as KNM ER 406
• Adult male
• Cranial capacity of 510 cc
• Dates to 1.7 mya
• Found by Richard Leaky at Koobi Fora, Kenya in
  1969
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/er406
  .html

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Australopithecus boisei example of KNM-ER 406
(1969) (in this picture)

• Large molars and premolars
• Sagittal crest
• Prominent brow ridges
• Heavy bones, lager than A robustus
• Lots of veggies in diet but some meat as well
• Co-existed with H habilis
• Evolutionary dead-end

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Australopithecus robustus

• 2-1.5 mya ((1.8 to 1 mya in your text Ember et
  al.)
• Found beginning in the 1930s in South African
  caves
• Kromdraai
• Swartkrans
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/rob.h
  tm

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Australopithecus robustusEurydice discovered
in 1994

• 2-1.5 mya
• South Africa
• Similar to A africanus in size but robust bones
• Sagittal crest
• Cranial capacity 490-530cc
• Possibly descended from A africanus but not an
  ancestor of modern humans (evolutionary dead end)

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Australopithecus robustus

• Like Australopithecus boisei, this hominid is
  also sometimes called Paranthropus.
• This is because it is thought to be a different
  genus than the gracile Australopithecines

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Australopithecus robustus

• Skeletal features
• Similar to A. africanus in size but thick bones
  with markings where strong muscles were attached.
• Body would have been bigger and more muscular
  than that of A africanus
• Skull
• Sagittal crest running from front to back along
  top to hold jaw muscles needed for eating
• Efficient chewing machine

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Australopithecus robustus

• Cranial capacity 490-530 cc
• Weight 32-40 kg.
• Dentition
• Larger molars and premolars but smaller incisors
  than A. africanus
• Geneaology
• May have been descended from A. africanus
• NOT an ancestor of modern humans. Evolutionary
  dead end

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Comparison of A. boisei, A. robustus and other
Australopithecines

• A boisei had larger molars, expanded pre-molars,
  thicker jaw and cheekbones and a larger sagittal
  crest than A robustus.
• This is probably evidence of great chewing
  capability

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Comparison of A. boisei, A. robustus and other
Australopithecines

• Robust forms were of similar body size to gracile
  forms, but skulls were more robust
• Was robust form a vegetarian while gracile forms
  were omniverous? Recent evidence makes us
  question this assumption.
• Both A robustus and A boisei died out about 1.2
  to 1 mya so could not have been our ancestors

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Early Homo species habilis and rudolfensis

• 2.5-1.5 mya
• Mostly in east Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) but
  have also been found in southern Africa
• Some anthropologists place both in the same
  species, H habilis
• Homo habilis is thought to be in direct ancestral
  line to modern humans
• Lived in the same places and at the same time as
  the robust australopithecines (A robustus and A
  boisei)

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Homo habilis

• Earlier than A rudolfensis beginning 2.3 mya
• OH 7 was the first fossil evidence of Homo
  habilis at Olduvai Gorge
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/oh7.h
  tml
• OH 24 Twiggy was the oldest H habilis fossil
  skull found at Olduvai Gorge
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/oh24.
  html

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Homo habilis

• Larger brain than australopithecies at 630-640 cc
• Reduced molars and premolars
• Body similar to australopithecines
• Long arms may indicate that they were still
  partly arboreal

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Homo rudolfensis

• Contemporary with H habilis
• Many anthropologists place them in the same
  species (H habilis)
• Brain the same size as H habilis and larger than
  the australopithecines
• Modern limb proportions
• Cheek teeth thickly enamelled
• Flat, Broad face
• KNM ER 1470
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/er147
  0.html

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Homo habilis, the first tool maker?

• Stone tools first found at Olduvai Gorge in the
  1930s with no associated fossil bones
• Stone tools found from sites in East Africa date
  to 2.5 mya and on, about the same time as H
  habilis
• Assumption has been made that H habilis was the
  first tool maker
• Tools found at Olduvai Gorge and from other sites
  date from 2.5 to 1.5 mya and are referred to as
  Oldowan.

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Homo humorous, 1950-?
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Oldowan Tools

• Flakes and cobble or core tools
• Percussion flaking
• Choppers at Olduvai Gorge were core tools that
  had been partially flaked and may have been used
  for chopping
• Scrapers are core tools flaked on one side
• Most Oldowan tools were unifacial rather than
  bifacial

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Homo habilis (KMN-ER 1470)

• 2.5-1.5 mya
• East and southern Africa
• Smaller molars and premolars than
  Australopithecines
• Cranial capacity 630-640 cc
• Associated with Oldowan tools, mostly small
  flakes and choppers
• May have been a scavenger?

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Homo habilis

• Oldowan tool tradition, 2.6 mya hominines used
  the percussion flaking technique
• H habilis as hunter or scavenger?
• Homo habilis as a woman made to run?

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Oldowan tools

• After 2 mya hominids were cutting up animal
  carcasses
• They were probably scavengers rather than hunters
• These hominids were mobile, with the Olduvai
  Gorge site used only in the dry season
• Hominids used many kinds of animalsfrom wild
  pigs to elephants

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Homo habilis

• Homo habilis had culture
• Culture is learned and shared
• Culture is adaptive
• Culture is always changing
• Home bases?
• Sharing food
• Making tools
• H habilis was a social being with culture
• Language?

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Other views of the human family tree?

• The Smithsonian Museum http//www.mnh.si.edu/anth
  ro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html
• See Ember et al. Figure 8-5 on page 174

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Homo erectus

• First hominid found and was found in Asia (Java
  and China) before it was found in Africa
• Africa, Asia and later in Europe
• 1.6 mya until 400,000 before present (BP)
• Assumption was always made that H erectus evolved
  in Africa and then moved out to Asia and Europe.
  Recent early dated finds (1.7 mya) in Republic of
  Georgia suggests H habilis or transitional forms
  of H habilis to H erectus may have moved out of
  Africa

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Homo erectus

• Smaller teeth than H habilis
• Cranial capacity 895-1040
• Long low skull with thick walls, flat frontal
  area and prominent brow ridges
• Sagittal keel and occipital or transverse torus
  added to the length of the skull
• Body similar to modern humans

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How many species?

• Homo erectus-for some paleoanthropologists all
  specimens are in this category
• Homo ergasterfor some paleoanthropologists those
  specimens from Africa which have larger brains
  and smaller facial bones can be called H ergaster
  with Asian forms called H erectus and European
  forms called H heidelbergensis
• Some paleoanthropologists think that some finds
  labelled H erectus in Europe are actually archaic
  H sapiens
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/sulcu
  s.html

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Homo erectus (ergaster)

• Specimen KNM-ER 3733
• From Koobi Fora in Kenya in 1975
• Dated to 1.7 mya
• Cranial capacity 850 cc
• In same stratum as A boisei specimen (ER406)

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Homo erectus (ergaster), Turkana Boy, 1.6 mya,
Kenya
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Homo erectus

• Pithecanthropus erectus1891Eugene Dubois
• This specimen, Sangiran 17, is from Java
• First date was 800,000 BP but new date may be 1.7
  mya?
• Cranial capacity 1000cc

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Homo erectus Peking Man

• 500,000-300,000 BP
• Cranial capacity 1000 cc
• First discovered in China in 1929 by Canadian
  Davidson Black who called it Sinanthropus
  pekinensis

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Peking man

• Specimens of craniums, teeth, jaws and body bones
  found
• Original specimens disappeared during shipping
  out of China to US in 1941

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Homo erectus (ergaster) cultural features

• Associated with Acheulian stone tool tradition
  which included bifaces
• Controlled fire and probably hunted
• Shelter?
• Found in many parts of the world but not in the
  Americas, Oceania or Australia

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Homo erectus

• Choppers and flakes used at Zhoukoudian, China
• Lack of more sophisticated stone tools made by H
  erectus in east Asia may be due to use of bamboo
  and wood.

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H erectus Acheulian hand axes

• Bifacial rather than unifacial
• Acheulian tradition found in Southwest Asia (not
  in east Asia), Europe and Africa.
• Earliest examples in Africa at 1.4 mya where they
  developed out of the Oldowan tradition as shown
  at Olduvai, Bed II

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More about Acheulian hand axes

• Formed by definite, planned strikes to form a
  standard pear shape.
• Flake tools made from the by-products of hand ax
  manufacture, i.e., scrapers
• Stone used for hand axes began to be chosen
  specifically for its knapping properties, that
  is, it was more fine grained than that used for
  the Oldowan tradition tools
• During the later Acheulian time the baton method
  and striking platform method were used

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Pressure flaking technique
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Acheulian tradition small tools
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Homo erectus and Fire

• Use of fire at the 700,000 BP in the Kao Poh Nam
  rock shelter in Thailand
• Evidence of fire in southern Africa as early as 1
  to 1.3 mya
• Fire allowed H erectus to scare away animals,
  move into colder areas and possibly begin to cook
  food.
• Cooking food would have allowed the size of the
  teeth to diminish. We see this in the fossil
  record.
• Fire would also have resulted in changes in the
  environment through controlled burns

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Homo erectus

• With Homo erectus we see the beginning of
  symbolic thought as shown in this simple
  engraving on a piece of bone.

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Homo erectus Conclusion

• 1.8 mya to 500,000 BP in Africa, Asia and Europe
• H erectus shows interplay of cultural, physical
  and environmental factors
• Social organization and technology developed
• Brain size and complexity increased. The Cranial
  capacity of late H erectus is 31 larger than
  early H erectus
• Increased use of technology and fire allowed H
  erectus to use the environment in new ways and
  move into new areas

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Sources

• Ember, Carol, Melvin Ember, Peter Peregrine and
  Robert Hoppa (2006) Physical Anthropology and
  Archaeology, 2nd Canadian Edition. Toronto
  Pearson/Prentice Hall.
• Haviland, William A. (1997) Anthropology, 8th
  edition. Fort Worth Harcourt Brace.
• http//www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/
• http//www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/ances
  _start.html