The Human Story

1. The Human Story Where We Came From & How We Evolved

2. There is no straight line in the greater than four million-year-old journey of the family called HOMINIDAE.

3. From Ape to Hominid • Proto-Hominids (Opportunistic bipeds) • Sahelanthropus tchandensis / Orrorin tugeninsis • Transitional Opportunistic-into-Habitual Bipeds • Ardipithecus ramidus / Australopithecus anamensis • First True Habitual Upright Bipeds • Australopithecus afarensis / A. africanus / A. garhi • Australopithecus robustus / A. boisei

4. Identifying the first hominids • In L.C.A., look for anatomical features shared by humans and living great apes • Starting from there, 1st hominids must have evolved at least one feature that we see only in modern humans • Scientists focus on • Anatomy related to bipedalism Large brain size, hard evidence for culture, language, etc., come much later.

5. Evidence of Bipedalism • Placement of foramen magnum • Shape of spine • Shape of pelvic girdle • Bicondylar angle (knock-kneed) • Parallel toes (no divergent big toe) • Two fixed arches in foot • Side to side / front to back

6. ORIGINS OF BIPEDALISM Or WHYWE WALK ON TWO LEGS Download and read these articles: The Origins of Habitual Upright Bipedalism The Origins of Obligate Bipedalism in Hominins The Whats and Whys of Habitual Upright Bipedalism

7. If you asked a roomful of anthropologists why we walk on two legs - not get the same answer from any two of them.Specialists cite everything fromchanginglandscapesto needing tokeep cool to heightening sexual attraction- generally agreeing only on one point: that everyone else's hypothesis is wrong. Let’s take a look at some of these hypotheses.

8. Six Major Hypotheses Grabbing A Bite Hauling Food A New World Keeping Cool Attracting Mates Weapons and Tools ALL these models may have played a role in the emergence of habitual upright bipedalism

9. From Ape to Hominid • Proto-Hominids (Opportunistic bipeds) • Sahelanthropus techandensis / Orrorin tugeninsis • Transitional Opportunistic-into-Habitual Bipeds • Ardipithecus ramidus / Australopithecus anamensis • First True Habitual Bipeds • Australopithecus afarensis / A. africanus / A. garhi • Australopithecus robustus / A. boisei

10. Proto-Hominids • Molecular biology strongly suggests: • Last common ancestor of chimps & humans lived 5-8 m.y.a. • Two recent finds warrant our attention: • Sahelanthropus tchadensis • Orrorin tugenensis

11. Sahelanthropus tchadensis • 6 - 7 m.y.a. • Brain size: 1/4th of ours • No post-cranial bones • Don’t know if habitual biped • Lived in variety of habitats • Likely ate mainly fruit, with smaller amounts of other foods. Download and read: The Earliest Possible Hominids

12. Orrorin tugenensis • 6 m.y.a. • Remains fragmentary • Canines / premolars extremely ape-like BUT with thick tooth enamel (like hominids) • Maybe bipedal • Inferior side of femoral neck (#1 on picture) is thick (like hominids)

13. Ardipithecus ramidus Transitional Opportunistic-into-Habitual Biped • 5.8 - 4.4 m.y.a. • Possibly bipedal (but not like us) • Small bodied (64-100 lbs); small brained (300-350 cc) • Combo of hominid-like & chimp-like traits • Diet: unknown (relatively thin tooth enamel) • Well-watered, forested environment • Discovery Channel Website About "Ardi"

14. Australopithecus anamensis • 4.2 - 3.9 m.y.a. • Fragmentary remains • Teeth and jaws similar to fossil apes • May be earliest incontrovertible evidence of bipedalism • Strongly resembles Austr. afarensis • Streamside forests

15. Australopithecus afarensis Small-brained, bipedal human ancestors. The benchmark by which anatomy of all other early hominids is interpreted. • 4 - 3 mya • East Africa • Fully bipedal • Mix of human-like & ape-like traits • Forests, open woodlands • Sexually dimorphic

16. Lucy: 1st afarensis foundHer discovery revolutionized ways of thinking about early hominids. • Hadar, Ethiopia • About 3’8” tall; 55 lbs • Long arms / short legs • Mid-20s when died • Teeth: small & unspecialized, indicating a mixed, omnivorous diet of mostly soft foods (fruits) Left to right: Lucy’s bones, reconstructed Lucy, modern human

17. A. afarensis skull morphology Male Female (Lucy) • Cranial capacity: 350 -500 cc (2/3rds - 1 water bottle • Small sagittal crest in males • Slightly projecting upper canine teeth in males • Parallel rows of cheek teeth (like apes)

18. afarensis body morphologyGround or tree-dweller? • Slightly curved hand & foot bones • Relatively long and powerful arms • Bowl-shaped pelvis • Knock-kneed (knee joint angled inward) • Heel bone heavily built (like ours) • Foot may have had high, fixed arches (Laetoli?)

19. A. afarensis footprints • Laetoli, Tanzania: home to a footprint trail 3.5 m.y. old • Probably a trackway of A. afarensis

20. Selam: 3 yr oldbaby girl Au.afarensis • Ethiopia (Hadar) • Lived 3.3 m.y.ago • Ape-like scapula • Human-like knees • Finger bones partially curved • Heel bone well-developed • Endocast shows delayed brain growth (like us) • Chimp-like hyoid bone

21. Australopithecus africanus • 3.5 - 2.0 m.y.a. • Mainly S. Africa • Mixture of habitats • Fruit, salads, insects, small easily captured prey • Brain size: 1/3rd ours • Relationship to other hominids? Unknown This species slightly different from A. afarensis: slightly taller, less facial prognathism, slightly larger brain. Also lived in drier habitats (especially dry scrublands and perhaps open grasslands), and thus may have exploited different resources.

22. Australopithecine Foraging Behavior Foraging (the systematic search for food and other provisions) was THE lifeway of all hominids from the earliest australopithecines until about 10,000 years ago (the start of agricultural modes of subsistence. Foraging by australopithecines and early species of Homo most likely consisted of collecting roots, berries, seeds, nuts, salad greens, insects, etc. Around 2 m.y.a meat, obtained by scavenging, became part of the foraging way of life. Eventually fish and shellfish would be added.

23. The Robust AustralopithecinesDietary specialists? • One of most fascinating branches of human family tree • Reveal radically different way of being hominid • About 2.5 m.y.a they diverged from our own lineage - existed down to about 1 m.y.a. • Came to be defined by an adaptation to eating hard foods like nuts, seeds, and roots

24. Robust Austraopithecine Morphology • 2.5 - 1 m.y.a. • South and East Africa • 3 species - united by suite of features related to eating tough foods: • Extremely large molars / premolars • Dished face • Extremely large chewing muscles • Wide-flaring cheekbones • Pronounced pinching-in behind the eye orbits • Prominent sagittal crest

25. Robust australopithecine behavior Digging sticks used by modern chimpanzees. While such tools have not been found with robust australopithecine fossils, it is possible they used such tools • Omnivores, but relied on hard to chew foods (nuts, roots, seeds) • Probably used tools (bones/horns showing polishing, maybe used for digging up roots) • Lived in (open) woodlands and savannas • Evolutionary dead end

26. Major adaptive shifts in hominid evolution ca. 2 m.y.a. • Australopithecine lineage • Gracile lines become extinct • Robust lines see an intensification of adaptation to hard object feeding • Emergence of Homo lineage • Several new species appear on African landscape • Physically / behaviorally different from earlier & contemporary australopithecines • Flatter faces • Brain reorganized (lateralization & language regions) • Unquestioned manufacture/use of stone tools (bone/horn/wood?) • Added meat to diet (scavenging) • Some species have brains as large as 750 cc

27. Earliest Homo species • Contentiousness regarding who belongs to early Homo • At least 3 (perhaps more) Homo species • Homo habilis = 2 - 1.5 m.y.a • Homo rudolfensis = 2 - 1.8 m.y.a • Homo erectus (aka H. ergaster) = 1.8 - 1.0 m.y.a.

28. Early Homo Behavior • Stone tools 1st appear ca. 2.5 mya • Most often attributed to H. habilis ( maybe A. garhi) • Earliest tools (Oldowan tradition) • Flakes (cutting/scraping) • Chopper / chopping tools (“smashers / bashers”) • Hammerstones • Some bone/horn w/scratches (digging?) • Meat eating takes on increasing importance after 2.5 m.y.a. • Several types of sites: quarries, food processing locations

29. Making / Using Oldowan Tools Hominids often traveled up to 10 km to acquire right kind of stone from which to make tools.

30. Early Homo Scavenging Behavior Can a hominid eat meat obtained like this and not get sick? Perhaps if one gets there within a few hours of a predator’s kill.

31. Homo erectusOut of Africa • Earliest in Africa = 1.8 (H. ergaster) • Island SE Asia = 1.7 m.y.a. • Continental Asia = 1.4 m.y.a • Rep. of Georgia = 1.7 m.y.a. (H. georgicus?) • Spain = 800,000 y.a. (H. antecessor?) • Flores = 90,000 y.a. (H. floresiensis?)

32. Homo erectus(Prometheus Unbound) • First hominids to make tools to a predetermined shape • Cognitive mapping of raw material (recognize potential flaws) • Invented new tool: handaxe • Larger tools, required more prep than H. habilis choppers • First hominids to make task-specific tools • Some tools used for butchering animal carcasses; others for working with wood; still others for use with veggies • First hominids to hunt small to medium size game • Probably the first hominids to use, perhaps even control, fire • Hints of use at South African site between 1.5 - 1.0 m.y.a. • Fire allows cooking foods (makes meat & veggie consumption easier; lengthen day into the night; keeps predators away; warmth

33. Homo erectus Morphology • Body Size and Shape • Basically modern, but more muscled and robust • Some individuals very tall (boy from Lake Turkana) = 6 feet tall when an adult • Large brain: 800 - 1200 cc (overlaps moderns at upper end) • Long, low with receding forehead & large browridges • Midfacial pronathism / powerfully built jaw

34. Boy from NariokotomeVery tall hominid at 1.5 mya • About 8 years old when he died • 5’ tall (6 feet @ maturity) • Legs relatively long in proportion to body as compared to earlier hominids • Well adapted to staying cool in hot, dry climates • Face, molar teeth, chewing muscles smaller than earlier hominids (softer, high-quality - perhaps cooked - foods) • Skull-to-pelvis proportions of females: give birth to relatively immature infants • Implications: long infancy-childhood dependency period: good for learning

35. Homo georgicus?? 1st Hominid to Leave Africa ?? • Dmanisi, Georgia (Caucasus Mtns) • 1.7 - 1.8 m.y.a. • Late H. habilis or early H. erectus • Brain size: 600-750 cc • Stature: 1.5 m • Oldowan tool technology

36. THE RISE OF MODERN HUMANS From Homo erectus To Homo sapiens Via Homo heidelbergensis

37. The Invasion of Europe • Earliest occupation poorly understood • Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain • 1 million years ago • Primitive stone tools • Animal bones with cut marks • Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain • 800,000 yrs ago • 6 hominids: share many physical similarities with Homo erectus • May represent link between H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis • Often given the name Homo antecessor • All hominid remainsexhibit evidence of butchering (cutmarks, dismembering, skinning defleshing) • Oldest evidence of human cannibalism

38. Homo heidelbergensisAncestor to Neanderthals and Us • 500,000 to 300,000 years ago • Africa, Europe (none in Asia) • Brain larger than erectus • Skull more rounded, less robust but still with large brow ridges, receding foreheads & no chins H. heidelbergensis H. erectus

39. Homo heidelbergensisFirst BIG GAME hunters • By 500 k.y.a. = wooden spears used to hunt large game (rhinos, horses, hippos, giant elk) • Cut marks lie UNDERNEATH toothmarks • Ground minerals to produce pigments (body painting?): 350-400 kya NOTE: While heidelbergensis lived in Africa, other hominid species lived elsewhere: H. erectus continued successfully in eastern and southeastern Asia

40. La Sima de los Huesos (The Pit of Bones)A most important H. heidelbergensis site • 400,000 y.a. • 32 individuals • Bodybuilder physiques • Pronounced muscle markings • Thick layers of hard bone around central marrow cavities • Not a living site • Burial? / Washed in? “One handaxe does not a ritual make.” - crsmith

41. Homo neanderthalensisEuropean descendants of H. heidelbergensis Female Eye, skin & hair color speculative Dark haired male Red-headed male Young boy

42. N E A N D E R T A L W O R L D

43. Neanderthals: Ancestors Or Dead Ends? • Europe, southwest Asia, central Asia between 200,000 - 30,000 years ago • Much controversy over • their fate • relationship to anatomically modern humans (H. sapiens) No other aspect of human evolution has generated as much public interest for so long a time as the story of the Neanderthals.

44. Neanderthals: Earlier Views Until very recently, Neanderthals were most often depicted as brutish, dimwitted, “half man . . . half beast.”

45. Neanderthals: Recent Views

46. NeanderthalCranialMorphology • Cranial cap: 1400 cc • Large midface / large nasal appeture / very big nose that projects forward • Large gap behind 3rd molar • Large protruding occipital bone • Marked neck muscle attachments on skull • Very large incisor teeth • No chin • Double-arched brow ridge

47. A Comparison: Side by Side With A Relative • Brain case: low vs. high • Nasal opening: large vs. narrow • Collarbone: long vs. shorter • Rib cage: conical vs. cylindrical • Limb bones: thick-walled vs. thin-walled • Hand bones: robust vs. slender • Trunk: short vs. long • Hips: flaring vs. narrow • Joint surfaces: large vs. smaller • Lower leg: shorter vs. longer • Bowed limbs vs. straight limbs

48. Explanation for Neanderthal Morphology • Cold weather & harsh climate adaptations • Strenuous hunting

49. Neanderthal culture

50. Neanderthal Culture: Stone tools • Mousterian toolkit • Effective but simple • Changed little over 100,000 yrs. • Trimmed flint nodules • Strike-off lots of flakes • predetermined form - retouched) • Tool specialization • Skin & meat preparation • Hunting • Woodworking • Hafting • Some wooden tools (including thrusting spears) tipped with stone points