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Week4HomEvo
Hominin Evolution
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| hominoids | apes and humans, or all primates WITHOUT a tail |
| hominids | traditional classification refers only to modern humans and their ancestors. NEW classification includes humans, chimps, orangutans and gorillas |
| hominins | humans and human ancestors, all primates more closely related to modern humans than chimps or bonobos |
| apes | Gibbons, Siamangs, Orangutans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos, and Gorillas |
| great apes | Orangutans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos, and Gorillas |
| primates | humans, monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises, & tarsiers |
| Sahelanthropus tchadensis | oldest known hominin (6-7 mya), in Chad (central/western Africa) |
| australopithecines | several extinct hominin species found in East and Central Africa 4-2 mya. BIPEDAL. Made oldest stone tools found |
| Lucy | Australopithecus afarensis, biped, over 3 mya, not all agree if Lucy was direct ancestor of modern humans |
| knuckle walking | quadrupedal walking, but with weight supported on front knuckles, not palms |
| brachiation | travel in trees using forelimbs to swing from branch to branch - used by apes |
| arboreal | adapted to living in trees |
| terrestrial | adapted to living on the ground |
| bipedalism | locomotion in which an animal walks on its two hind legs. Contrast to quadrupedal locomotion. |
| foramen magnum | hole at base of skull through which spinal cord passes and indicator of posture - move from back to middle indicates more upright posture |
| savanna | refers to a landscape that consists of open plains with tall grasses and patches of trees |
| Great Rift Valley | East African deep canyon includes Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana in which many early hominin fossils have been found |
| sagittal crest | On top of skull this is the jaw muscle attachment that may be prominent in some hominin fossil species such as Paranthropus (called by some Australopithecus) boisei. |
| sexual dimorphism | Marked difference in size and appearance between male and female of a species. |
| australopithecine anatomy | Late australopithecines (such as A. africanus) similar to modern humans below neck but brain 1/3 size, small (4' tall), prognathous face, more sexual dimorphism than modern humans and similar to that in great apes, bipedal but not efficient bipeds. |
| paranthropoids | Refers to certain early hominins that many classify in genus Australopithecus but that are later (2 mya forward) than other australopithecines and more robust and probably an evolutionary deadend |
| Laetoli footprints | Laetoli in Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania. Site of 59 footprints of bipedal hominins that look like modern human prints and date to 3.5 mya. Probably Australopithecus afarensis |
| Louise Leakey | Granddaughter of Mary and Louis Leakey and the daughter of Meave and Richard Leakey. Kenyan paleoanthropologist who works in East Africa (esp. Lake Turkana) to untangle the story of human evolution. |
| Homo sapiens sapiens | This is us. Louise Leakey describes us as upright-walking, big-brained, super-intelligent ape. Probably at least 16 upright-walking apes in evolutionary history but we are only one today, except for bonobos. |
| Humans and common ancestor | We share ancestor with gorillas, chimps, and bonobos. |
| Multiple species of hominins | Louise Leakey explains that this was the norm for most of evolutionary history. |
| Dmanisi in Republic of Georgia, Java and Island of Flores in Indonesia | Homo erectus sites outside of Africa demonstrating migration beginning at least 1.8 mya. |
| Homo habilis | First in genus Homo. Distinguished from australopithecines in the larger brain case and smaller face. First seen about 2.5 mya in Rift Valley. Transitional species. Meat eaters. |
| Homo erectus | About 2 mya first seen in Africa and moves out of Africa into Middle East, eastern Europe and far corners of Asia. Name tells you this is upright human. CULTURE distinct with tools, use of fire and cooking possible, ritual practice may indicate religion. |
| Homo floresiensis | Found on Flores Island, Indonesia. 18,000 ya and many paleoanthropologists disagree about separate species but a dwarf Homo erectus. Others argue that late date indicates these people were modern humans with microcephaly. |
| Homo heidelbergensis | Begins about 800,000 ya in Europe and Africa as distinct from Homo erectus. Some populations transition to Neandertals and other archaic humans by 300,000 ya |
| Neandertals or Neanderthals | Archaic human known from Europe and SW Asia from at least 130,000 to 28,000 ya. Controversy about whether subspecies of Homo sapiens or distinct species. "Cave man" stereotype. |
| Neandertal genome | Mapping of this allows evolutionary anthropologists to compare to Human genome and see that 1-4% of DNA in modern Europeans and Asians came from Neandertals. Thus modern humans coming out of Africa and Neandertals in SW Asia probably interbred |
| Denisovans | Another archaic human population in Eurasia (along with Neandertals). DNA analysis indicates interbred with early Homo sapiens whose descendants in South Asia and SW Pacific Islands. |
| early Homo sapiens | Perhaps as early as 200,000 ya see in East Africa |
| Replacement model | Modern humans emerge in Africa and migrate out to replace other archaic humans such as Neandertals. "Out of Africa" model. |
| Regional continuity model | Multiple points of emergence of modern humans out of archaic human populations |
| Assimilation model | Brings together elements of other two with first modern humans in Africa then migrate and interbreed with late archaic humans there. |
| anatomically modern humans | modern form of human species Homo sapiens |
| taphonomy | See Becoming Human and refers to study of laws of burial and what we learn from what happened to bones after they are deposited |
| "dawn of consciousness" | See Culture in Becoming Human and prehistoric art that indicates human understanding of abstract concepts as well as self awareness. |
| sample size | A common problem in the study of human evolution. The greater the sample size the more confidence in conclusions drawn from that sample about the species as a whole. |
| Last Common Ancestor | LCA used to refer to the last ancestor that modern humans and apes had in common. Thus humans are not descended from apes but apes and humans share a common ancestor |
| Ardipithecus ramidus | Not LCA but changes our ideas about ape and human evolution. Arboreal but could walk on 2 legs. 4.4 mya. |
| Neandertal genome | Reveals 1-4% overlap with genome of modern humans outside of Africa |
| Genome | An organism's complete set of DNA. In humans that is more than 35,000 genes or 3 billion base pairs. |
| Mitochondrial DNA | mtDNA is the DNA in the mitochondria of a cell which is outside the nucleus. We got mtDNA only from our mothers. mtDNA was first significant part of DNA to be sequenced and is sometimes the only DNA available in fossils. |
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