Characteristics of Primates

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Characteristics of Primates

• Shortened snout- relay more on sense of sight
  then sound.
• Reduced number of teeth

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Related to eyes and ears

• natural selection acted to position the eyes best
  for taking in the most visual stimuli.
  Stereoscopic vision

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Related to arms and legsbrachiation

• Clavicles (collarbones)
• Why? Primates have very extensive shoulder motion
  because the clavicle provides the only bony link
  between the upper limb and the trunk.
• Two separate bones in the forearm and lower leg
• Why? Having two bones allows for better limb
  motion and more precise movements

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Related to fingers and toes

• Nails instead of claws
• Why? Nails allow primates to manipulate objects
  more easily.
• Increased use of thumbs. Opposable thumb.

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Primate Evolutionary Trends

• Trend toward more vertical posture
• Why? Primates tend to move with a more vertical
  posture, even if they are rarely upright.

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Trend toward longer lives with long infancy,
childhood and adulthood

• born with brains that still need to develop
• a lot of time learning skills and strategies for
  food gathering and survival from their mothers
  and others in their social groups.

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Bipedalism Why?

• Bipedalism Why?
• 1. Provisioning behavior with the upper limbs
  used to transport food
• factor for bipedality by directly improving
  offspring survivorship and increasing
  reproductive rate.
• 2. reduction in heat gain and facilitation of
  heat dissipation

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Advantages of Bipedalism

• With its radically different anatomy, bipedalism
  clearly was an adaptation to terrestrial living,
  but was it an advantage over quadrapedalism?
• Not necessarily faster, but likely sustainable
  over long distances
• Protection from predators?
• Latest evidence for earliest hominids puts them
  in forested environment, not open habitat
• Did free hands for tool-using, but what tools
  or possibly food transport?

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• Teachers' Domain Walking Tall
• Evolution Library Topic Page ( scroll to Laetoli
  footprints )

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Comparisons
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Go to study guide 129 . You need to know about 7
of your ancestors

• Becoming Human Paleoanthropology, Evolution and
  Human Origins

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Evolution timeline/ Australopithecus afarensis
(4-2.5 mya)
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A. africanis 3-2.5 mya

• Becoming Human Paleoanthropology, Evolution and
  Human Origins ( go to A africanus )

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A robustus (2-1 mya)

• Human evolution - A look at human origins through
  species profiles and hominid imagery

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To be of the genus Homo

• (1) prolonged maturation of infants, including an
  extended period during which they required
  intensive care from their parents
• (2) special bonds of sharing and exclusive
  mating between particular males and females,
  called pair-bonding and
• (3) the focus of social activity at a home base,
  a safe refuge in a special location known to
  family or group members.

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Now here we come the Homo

• Earliest homo is H hablis
• 2.2 to 1.6 million years ago in east Africa.
• H. habilis brains are about 30 larger than those
  of A. africanus
• Sexual dimorphism
• lived--open bush and savannah country in east
  Africa.

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Sexual Dimorphism

• Male skull male/female comparison

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Handy man can use tools

• bones found are still apelike
• could manipulate objects with precision. Stone
  artifacts include tools , Oldowan industry, and
  though they are crude they do indicate that H.
  habilis could shape stone.

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Homo erectus

• Human evolution - A look at human origins through
  species profiles and hominid imagery

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Characteristics of H erectus 1.7-1.8 mya
leaving Africa

• lived from approximately 2 million to around
  400,000 years ago.
• large brained species from 900 to 1200 cc.
  fifty-percent increase in brain size over the
  older Homo habilis.
• falls within the range of modern humans
• Controlled fire

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• much more developed lithic industries, the
  controlled use of fire, regular meat-eating,
  hunting, etc.
• recognize these pattern of anatomy and behavior
  as human. The material culture
• Achuelian stone tools (see Paleolithic), a
  variety of tools fashioned from wood
• use of fire
• seasonally occupied, oval-shaped huts

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Homo erectus was a widespread early human
species.

• Two theories regarding movement out of Africa

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Two hypothesis on leaving Africa

• Multiregional hypothesis
• Out of Africa hypothesis
• Rediscovering Biology - Unit 9 Human Evolution
  Animations and Images (go to human migration
  patterns)
• Atlas of the Human Journey - The Genographic
  Project

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• Origins of Modern Humans Multiregional or Out of
  Africa by Donald Johanson, Ph.D. Read this
  article.

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The multiregional hypothesis

• "Multiregional" hypothesis
• diversity resulted from the evolution of
  distinctive traits (through adaptation and
  genetic drift) in different geographical regions
• became established in early populations of Homo
  erectus and persisted through the modern people.
  This persistence is known as regional continuity.

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Out of Africa Theory / Eve theory

• Rediscovering Biology - Unit 9 Human Evolution
  Animations and Images

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Homo Neanderthals 500,000years ago

• http//www.geocities.com/palaeoanthropology/OutofA
  frica.html

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• Neanderthal man, or Homo neanderthalensis
• jutting nose set in a large face with massive
  brow ridges and no chin.
• 190,000 years ago, they lived across Europe and
  the southwest of Asia, from Britain in the West
  to Iraq in the East.

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• short stocky body - ideal shape for conserving
  heat.
• extremely muscular - Ice Age lifestyle. This
  physique developed early in childhood

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Meat-eating hunters

• The Neanderthals were committed carnivores, and
  in order to obtain enough animal meat to survive,
  they needed to be skilled hunters. Neanderthals
  hunted bison, auroch (an ancestor of living
  cattle), deer, reindeer and musk ox, to name but
  a few.

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• Social relations were important to the
  Neanderthals, and these were maintained through
  language. The Neanderthal hyoid bone, which holds
  the voice box in place, shows they were capable
  of complex speech. But their sentences were
  probably basic.

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• Evidence of care for sick, old, injured
  individuals
• Neanderthal burials include some individuals with
  incapacitating injuries, who nevertheless lived a
  long time after them
• thus presumably cared for by others
• La Chapelle-aux-Saints
• old male (45) with incapacitating arthritis of
  jaw, back, hip, and almost no teeth

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• Ritual, art, etc.
• almost none
• no cave art, no figurines, no carvings
• none of that until modern H. sapiens appears
• Did bury their dead

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• But the appearance of modern humans in Europe
  40,000 years ago placed Neanderthals in direct
  competition with our ancestors for resources. It
  was a competition the Neanderthals would lose.
  Around 28,000 years ago, the last Neanderthals
  died out.

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Compare skulls of Neanderthals and sapiens

• NOVA Online Neanderthals on Trial Casts of
  Characters

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Homo sapiens 140,000 70,000years ago

• a brain size between 1350-1400cc and are the
  closest species to modern humans, emerging
  100,000 years ago. The brain-to-body ratio is
  high and the forebrain, the seat of reason, is
  exceptionally large. They were the first known
  verbal communicators, having speech abilities,
  and were the first artists.

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• Around 120,000 emerged as a new species,
• central East Africa, migrated into the Middle
  East, south Africa, Europe, central Asia, and
  finally into the New World.

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• There is good evidence that oceangoing boats were
  constructed by humans by 60,000 years ago. We
  tend to think of early humans as hillside "cave
  dwellers" and in inland areas they often were
  but they were also early voyagers and harvesters
  on the waves.

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Homo sapiens art and culture

• a classic example of the Cro-Magnons exceptional
  artistic ablility. In this painting we see a
  horse found in a cave at Niaux, France. (Wicander
  and Monroe 1993)

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• Culture can affect the direction of human
  evolution by creating non-biological solutions to
  environmental challenges.  This potentially
  reduces the need to evolve genetic responses to
  the challenges.

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If you need further review look here

• Becoming Human Paleoanthropology, Evolution and
  Human Origins
• A Science Odyssey You Try It Human Evolution
  Text Version
• Human evolution - A look at human origins through
  species profiles and hominid imagery

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• Culture can affect the direction of human
  evolution by creating non-biological solutions to
  environmental challenges.  This potentially
  reduces the need to evolve genetic responses to
  the challenges.

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Symbolic Thought, Language, Art, and Religion

• The evolution of cultural behavior relates
  directly to the development of the human brain,
  and particularly the cerebral cortex, the part of
  the brain that allows abstract thought, beliefs,
  and expression through language.
• Humans have evolved a form of communication
  language -- that involves the use of symbols

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Taxonomy of human

• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Primate
• Family Hominidae
• Genus Homo
• Species sapien
• Subspecies sapien

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• Evolution Library Birth of a Language
• Evolution Library Susan Blackmore Memetic
  Evolution