Chapter 4, Lesson 1 – Uncovering Clues to Our Past
What is a paleoanthropologist?
- one who studies fossils of humans
What did Johanson name his skeleton?
- Lucy
What are some features of Lucy?
- 3 million years old, head size of baseball, walk
on 2 feet
Clues From Archaeology
How do archaeologists learn about past cultures?
- learning about artifacts, fossils, and tools
Fossil Finds
How are bones pieced back together?
- like a jigsaw b/c skeletons are incomplete
What did archaeologists discover by looking @
Lucy’s bones?
What did Louis and Mary Leakey discover
in 1961?
- she was 3.5 ft tall, female, 25 when died, brain
1/3 size present humans
- found fossils in same layer as simple stone
tools
What name was given to these people?
- Homo habilis – “handy human”
What do these words mean?
- Homo is part of the genus – lg group species
belongs to
- Habilis is characteristic of species
Earliest Ancestors
What are the australopithecines?
- live 3.75 – 1 million years ago
Who is one of direct ancestors?
- Homo habilis (2.5 – 1.5 million ya)
- larger brains and more human teeth and jaws
What are the Homo erectus features?
- 1.5 million years old
- larger brain than habilis, made more complex
tools, 1st ancestors to leave Africa
Modern Humans
When did erectus die out?
- 200,000 years ago
What are modern human called?
- homo sapiens “wise human”
What are homo sapiens features?
- 150,000 years old
What are Neanderthals?
- 1st sapiens, discovered un Neander Valley (Germany)
- larger brains and more complex tools
What are some features of Neanderthals?
- bony ridge above eyebrow, protruding mouth, small
chin
What are Cro Magnons?
- 1st completely modern looking humans
- found in France, date back 40,000 years
What marks the beginning of the Paleolithic Age? - tool making by erectus (ended about10,000 bc)
The Ice Age
What have geologists learned about Earth?
- glaciers covered large areas of earth
What are glaciers?
- sheets of ice and snow
Who are geologists?
- scientists who study the earth
What is the Ice Age?
- when glaciers advanced and retreated across earth’s
surface
What was the climate and how long did it last?
- periods of warm and intense cold – periods last
thousands of years
How did ancestors adapt to cold?
- erectus made fire, sapiens sewed animals hides for
clothing
What happened to the oceans b/c of glaciers?
- ocean level dropped, land bridges emerged
What is the Bering Strait?
- land bridge connects Asia with Americas