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Anthro Midterm 2
Question | Answer |
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Adaptive Radiation | An evolutionary event, where a lineage rapidly diversifies with the newly formed lineages evolving different adaptions. A large number of new species form, evolving different adaptations. An example is apes during the Miocene |
Carpolestes Simpsoni | A potential primate ancestor from the Paleocene era. It had grasping hands and feet with a nail on the big toe, but eyes on its side; it had no binocular vision. Was a frugivore |
Adapids | Not a specific species but instead a family, they dwelled in North America and Europe, had boney ridge orbits, and lemur-like ears; however, they had no tooth comb. They are believed to be the ancestor of strepsirrhines |
Proconsul | An East African ape of the early Miocene era. It had a narrow thorax, a flexible, extended long lumbar area, and an intermembral index of .83. They were monkeys with several ape characteristics Between old world monkeys and apes on a clade |
Sivapithecus | Possible Miocene ancestor to the Orangutan |
Choroapithecus | Possible ancestor to gorillas |
Morotopithecus | An early Miocene ape of East Africa. Had a stuff lumbar spine, and a orthograde post-cranial complex. Would be with other apes on a clade |
Probable Hominids | A hominin is a bipedal ape; called ‘probable’ because they are believed, not known, to be bipedal |
Sahelanthropis Tchadensis | Lived between Sahara and rainforests in mid-Africa. Earliest biped; fossils from roughly 7 mya, still late Miocene. Earliest probably hominin |
Orrorin | Southeast Africa (Tungen Hills, Kenya). ‘Original man’ in Tugen language. Had wide and broad femur, ball joints, valgus angle for neck |
Ardipithecus: | Lived in East Africa. Two species: A. kadabba (5.8–5.2 mya) and a. ramidus (4.4–4.2 mya). Probably hominin; had honing canine–premolar complex, but its toe bone looks bipedal. Smaller canines and teeth, thick enamel |
Ardipithecus Ramidus | Cranial capacity 300–350 cc. Short broad pelvis; primitive foot with some bipedal features; abductable big toe, but used as a stabilizer in bipedal locomotion. Its intermembral index is close to 1.0, making its inclusion in this category problematic. |
Ape Traits | - Suspensory adaptations of their shoulders, and arms longer than their legs - Lack of tails Flexible wrists - Short, stiff lumbar region - Broad thorax, which allows them to maintain a more upright posture |
Bipedal Traits | - Vertebra must increase in size from neck to pelvis, and became ‘s’-shaped, - The pelvis must shorten, broaden, and became bowl-shaped - Broad femoro-tibial (knee) joint - The ankles need to become restricted to flexion extension - Double-arched fee |
Continental Drift | The occurrence in which the terrestrial plates that make up continents of Earth drift away due to seismic changes |
Deep Sea Sediments | Deep-sea sediments occur when microscopic shells of Foraminifera settle in sediment. They incorporate oxygen from the sea water to make their calcareous shells |
Cenozoic Era | Began 65.5 mya with the extinction of the dinosaurs and ascendancy of primates. |
Paleogene Epoch | Ran from 65.5 mya to 23 mya |
Paleocene Epoch | Started at 65.5 mya and ended at 55.8 mya. Its warm environment allowed for an abundance of flowers, insects, and fruits |
Eocene Epoch | Ran from 55.8 mya to 33.9 mya. Primates with modern features would begin to appear in this era. There were roughly 200 species of the prosimian grade during this epoch; they had grasping hands and feet with nails, opposable big toes, shorter snouts |
Oligocene | Ran from 34 mya to 23 mya, it was marked by a global cooling, and distinct seasonal weather. Primates gained monkey-like traits, such as fused mandibles and post-orbital closure. Some groups of haplorrhines evolved from strepsirrhines during this period |
Neogene Era | Ran from 23 mya to the present |
Miocene | Ran 23 mya to 5 mya. It was characterized by warm, wet forests until the end of the era. There were over a 100 species of ape spread across Asia, Africa, and Europe; by the end, most were extinct and monkeys were more abundant |
Dental Adaptations For Herbivores | - Procumbent incisors - High-cusped molars - Prognathic (forward) faces |
Fossil | bone whose organic components have been replaced by minerals, preserving them for potentially millions of years. They must be buried in sediment to be preserved |
Hominoidea | A ‘superfamily’ of apes; it consists of the Hylobates (gibbon), pongo (orangutan), gorilla, pan troglodytes (chimpanzee), pan paniscs (bonobos), and homo sapiens (humans) |
Hominids/Hominins | Word used for split between last common ancestor of pan and homo. Hominoids share anatomical traits that have evolved since the split with the old world monkeys |
Milankovitch Cycles | Describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements upon its climates. The greater the tilting of the Earth, the greater the seasonality will be |
Mosaic Evolution | The term used to describe the fact that different traits evolve at different times in creatures |
Principles of Stratigraphy | - Sediment gets laid down horizontally - Younger layers are laid down on top of older layers - A layer that cuts across another is younger than the layer it cuts through |
Savanna Hypothesis | Hypothesis of why apes became bipedal. A changing environment with fewer trees would make bipedalism more useful ; without trees, no need to climb, lack of food. May be bunk: All probable hominids found close to bodies of water |
Taphony | Study of fossil, from its ‘origins’ as a living thing to its mineralized state |
Hominini | A branch of Hominoidea that branched off at 7 mya. They were • Forest frugivores • Could probably use tools • Might have had fission-fusion societies (permanent, cohesive social groups) • Group hunters • Coalitionary killing |