Name ____________________________________________________________
Date ___________________
Activity: Digging for Differences
Goals:
1. To organize, catalog, and identify a collection of
pictures of bones – some human and some chimpanzee.
2. To compare and contrast human and chimpanzee bones.
3. To classify a collection of mystery bones as human,
chimpanzee, or both.
Background Information: There is a close relationship that exists between
chimpanzees and humans. Biologists have found that the DNA from human and
chimpanzee cells is almost 99% the same. This same kind of close relationship exists
between horses and zebras, as well as between grizzly bears and polar bears.
No one would ever mistake a chimpanzee for a human because their external
appearances are so different, but what about their bones? How different are they?
In order to understand our early hominid ancestors we need to be able to compare
human and chimpanzee skeletons. Why do you think this is important?
Materials for each team of two:
Part 1. a set of illustrations of human and chimpanzee bones, bone description sheets,
sheet of chart or construction paper per team, glue or paste, markers, scissors,
Part 2. a set of mystery bones
Procedure:
Part 1: Human and Chimpanzee Bones
1. What I Know: What do you think may be some similarities or differences in the
body structures of chimpanzees and humans?
2. Work in pairs for this activity. Read the descriptions of human and chimpanzee
bones. These descriptions will help to determine which bone illustrations belong
to a human and which belong to a chimpanzee.
3. Set up a piece of chart paper with two columns. One column will be labeled
HUMAN; the other will be labeled CHIMPANZEE. (See the diagram below.)
Human
Chimpanzee
4. Working with your teammate, cut out the unidentified human and chimpanzee
bone illustrations.
5. Classify the bones on the chart below.
6. Check with your teacher to see if your selections are correct before moving on to
the next step of this activity.
Bone Identification Chart
Directions: Use the following table to record which bones would belong to
a chimpanzee and which ones would belong to a modern human. List
each bone by its number.
Chimpanzee
Bone Type
Skull – side view
Skull- bottom view
Teeth
Jaw
Trunk/Rib Cage
Finger
Hand
Pelvis & Femur
Foot
Modern Human
7. Paste or glue the bone illustrations in the appropriate columns of your chart or
construction paper. Human bones should be pasted in the HUMAN column;
chimpanzee bones in the CHIMPANZEE column.
Part 2: Mystery Bones
1. Obtain a sheet of mystery bone illustrations and cut them out.
2. Read the following problem statement.
Pretend you are members of a team of paleoanthropologists searching for
clues to human origins in the Afar region of Ethiopia. You have just
discovered a new set of primate bones. They appear to be hominoid
bones – those of either a great ape (chimpanzee) or human. But are they
hominid bones – those of a human or early human-like ancestor?
You and your teammates examine the bones carefully. They seem to be
the right size to be chimpanzee, but someone has noticed that the bones
show some human characteristics. How will you classify these
unidentified bones?
3. Review the descriptions of human and chimpanzee bones on the sheet provided
and study your team’s completed human and chimpanzee bones chart.
4. Glue the mystery bones in the columns they seem to fit in the best. You may
want to glue bones that fit into neither column directly on the fold or line between
the two columns!
5. What I Did: Write a short description of the procedure you used in this activity.
6. What I Learned: Write a summary paragraph describing what you learned from
completing this activity.
7. What I Wonder: Pose a “how” or “why” question you may still have related to the
topic for this activity.
8. Questions: Answer the following questions in complete statements.
a. Were the mystery bones more like human bones or chimpanzee bones?
Explain.
b. How was this simulation activity like a real expedition to find fossils of
human ancestors? How was it different than a real expedition?
c. Below, draw a cartoon showing how you might look as you discover an
important hominid fossil.
9. Technology (Extra Credit)
Your mystery bones are very famous. They belong to a very important fossil find
discovered by a team led by Donald Johanson in 1974. Log onto
http://iho.asu.edu/lucy. Answer the first 10 questions on the back of this sheet for
an extra 5 points.