Chapter 2 Notes:
Stone Age Terms:
Paleolithic: Old Stone Age
Mesolithic: Middle Stone Age
Neolithic: New Stone Age
Types of hominids:
Homo Habilis: Skillful human
Homo Erectus: Upright human
Homo Sapien: Thinking human
Paranthropus Boisei: Nutcracker man
Homo Ergaster: Working human
Other terms:
Land Bridge: Land that appears when sea levels fall creates a way to travel across an area that was once under
water.
Creationism: The religious belief that God created humans.
Evolution: The scientific view that humans descended from a common ancestor.
Indigenous: Native to” or “belonging to a certain area.
Homo: The genus that contains the modern human species.
Hominid: The group of humans and our close ancestors and related species.
Timeline:
A timeline is a chronological outline of certain historical events and experiences.
In addition, the information in a timeline gives you, perspective about the relationships between events and people.
Chronology:
Chronology is the science of measuring time in fixed periods, dating events and periods, and placing them in order.
Chronos – means time. Chronos – is Greek.
Religious term (old way):
Culturally accepting (new way):
Before Christ (B.C)
Before Common Era (B.C.E)
Anno Domini (A.D)
Common Era (C.E.)
Continental Drift:
Movement of the continents over the Earth's surface.
(http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/geodiversity/englands/glossary/default.aspx)
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A scientific theory first put forth by Alfred Wegener in 1915.
(http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/Social_Studies/resources/geoglossary.htm)
Pangaea Theory:
Is one that states that all present continents were once together and collectively known as a 'supercontinent' called
Pangaea. The word 'Pangaea' means 'all lands' in Greek.
Supportive evidence of the Pangaea Theory:
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Continental Coastlines Appearing To Fit Together
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Rock Strata
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Coal Distribution
(http://library.thinkquest.org/17701/high/pangaea/)
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Fossil Distribution:
 Glossopteris: a fern found on the southern continents
 Cynognathus: a land reptile found in South America and Africa
 Lystrosaurus:a land reptile found in Africa, Antarctica, and India
 Mesosaurus: a freshwater swimming reptile found in Africa and South America
(http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/continentaldrift/)
Paleozoic Era: The Paleozoic takes its name from the Greek word for ancient life.
Major interval of geologic time that began 570 million years ago with the Cambrian explosion, an extraordinary
diversification of marine animals, and ended 250 million years ago with the end-Permian extinction, the greatest
extinction event in Earth history. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439604/Paleozoic-Era
The Paleozoic broke into 6 periods:
1. The Cambrian period begins 570 million years ago to 492 million years ago. It is the earliest period of the Paleozoic
era.
2. The Ordovician period begins 492 million years ago to 435 million years ago.
3. The Silurian period begins 435 million years ago to 412 million years ago.
4. The Devonian period begins 412 million years ago to 354 million years ago.
5. The Carboniferous period begins 354 million years to 286 million years ago. It is the longest period during the
Paleozoic era.
6. The Permian period begins 286 million years ago to 250 million years ago. During this period occurred the greatest
extinction event in Earth history known as the Permian Extinction.
Results from the extinction:
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95% of all marine life on earth was killed.
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70% of all land families became extinct.
Some suggested theories as why it happened:
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Volcano eruptions
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Great Climate Change
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Meteors impacting the Earth
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Glaciations
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Pangaea
Mesozoic Era:
Dating from 245-65mya, the Mesozoic (Middle Animals) Era, the age of the dinosaurs, mark the beginning of land
animals and plants.
The dinosaurs evolved, flourished in every habitat on land, and then re-invaded the oceans. One theory suggests that
the Mesozoic era ended as after a meteor struck the Earth, changing the environment and the dominant dinosaurs died.
During this Era, gymnosperms first evolved, invading deep into new territory away from shores where water was
plentiful. As these new plants moved inland, animals soon followed. The first mammals and birds appeared during the
Mesozoic Era, surviving in specialized niches as the dinosaur continued its control on most of the available niches.
(http://www.starsandseas.com/SAS%20Evolution/SAS%20geoltime/geotime_mesozoic.htm)
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Characteristics of stories of origins:
There is always a God
The world usually starts from nothing
There are many different versions of the same story.
Human beings have a connection to the world of the
Gods.
Often humans are considered to be responsible to the
Gods.
How stories of origins and scientific theories of origins are the
same:
 They both try to explan how human life began.
 They are both based on belief.
 They both try to explain the story of humans.
Characteristics of scientific theories of origins:
 They use a combination of physical evidence and
hypotheses.
 There is no God as a part of the explanation.
 Human beings have evolved through adaptation.
 Humans did not begin from nothing but evolved
from previous forms.
 Scientists present a timeline for each stage of
development.
How stories of origins and scientific theories of origins are
the different:
 Origin stories believe in God whereas scientific
theories do not.
 Origin stories believe that we started from nothing,
whereas scientific theories believe that we evolved
from something else.
 Origin stories are related to a nonphysical world
whereas scientific theories are related to physical
evidence.
Charles Darwin and Evolution:
Natural selection: a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms’ best adapted to the environment.
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
For the development of the evolution theory Darwin's attendance on the Galapagos Islands played an important role.
(http://www.merke.ch/biografien/biologen_en/darwin.php)
To summarize Darwin's Theory of Evolution;
1. Variation: There is Variation in Every Population.
2. Competition: Organisms Compete for limited resources.
3. Offspring: Organisms produce more Offspring than can survive.
4. Genetics: Organisms pass Genetic traits on to their offspring.
5. Natural Selection: Those organisms with the Most Beneficial Traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.
(http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Charles-Darwin-Theory-Evolution.htm)
Our Study of Early Peoples Notes:
 Scientists believe the earth is approx. 4.5 billion years old.
 Scientists have determined that the first humans originated in East Africa over 2.5 million years ago.
Scientists have determined that these first humans were:
o Small in size
o Lived in small groups
o Were relatively defenseless to their environment.
Scientists suggest that their habitat included:
 A dry climate
 Grassy and sparsely treed plains
 Lived with animals like elephants, antelopes and baboons.
 Early humans survived by continuous adaptations to their environment.
3 critical adaptations determined by scientists were:
An upright posture:
 This gave the early humans the ability to walk on two legs.
 This gave the early humans the ability to use their hands.
 This also contributed to an increase in their brain size.
Hands that could grasp objects:
 This gave the early humans the ability to make tools
 This gave the early humans the ability to make weapons
 This also contributed to their growth in brain size.
Larger Brain:
 This gave the early humans the ability to make better tools
 This gave the early humans the ability to make better weapons
 This contributed to their development of language in order to communicate.
Notes on the Ice Ages:
 From 2 million to 12, 000 years ago huge sheets of ice called glaciers covered the northern areas of:
o Asia
o Europe
o North America
 Scientists believe that earth experienced at least 4 different ice ages during this period.
 One of the major factors was a change in the earth’s orbit around the sun, where the earth was further away.
 The glaciers size depended on the earth’s climate.
 The land’s vegetation south of the glaciers was tundra.
 The land’s climate south of the glaciers was extremely cold winters and very short summers.
 The ocean levels were much lower due to the fact that most of the earth’s water was frozen. Land areas that are
under water today, were actually dry during the Ice Age.
 As the climate got warmer – glaciers receded – resulting in animals and early humans moving further north into
these new environments.
Stone Age notes:
 The Stone Age’s time period: approx. 2.5 million years ago to 5500 years ago.
 This age gets its name; because stone was the primary material to make tools and weapons.
 This age is broken up into three distinct periods:
o Paleolithic Period ( oldest – 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago)
o Mesolithic Period (middle – 12, 000 years to 10,000 years ago)
o Neolithic Period ( youngest – 10,000 years to 5500 years ago)
Paleolithic Period:
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Early humans were hunters and gathers
Their diet consisted of meat, berries, nuts, plant roots etc.
They often ate the remains of animals that were left behind.
They developed simple tools such as pointed sticks for digging roots and sharpened rocks to cut meat and scrape
animal skins.
At the end of the period, more sophisticated tools were developed such as arrows, spears, knives and spoons.
Lastly, the first attempts at creating fire occurred in which they learned that striking flint against iron ore
produced fire.
Mesolithic Period:
Middle – 12, 000 years to 10,000 years ago.
During this time period, most of Asia, Europe and North America were free of ice. As the ice melted, oceans rose
and more islands were created which isolated people. Furthermore, Britain was cut off from Europe and the
land bridge between North America and Asia disappeared.
During this time period, early humans began to farm in which they learned how to harvest wild wheat and
barley (most notably in the Middle East).
This new development created several important changes:
Instead of following animals for food, the wild wheat and barley provided Early humans with a reliable food
source and were able to stay in one spot for a longer period of time.
Populations were increased.
Life expectancy increased.
New tools were built, such as the scythe, sickles and grinders for grain.
New transportation was used, as Early humans dug out trees to build canoes and were now able to travel by
water.
Early humans hunting habits also changed, as they now became more focused on small animals found in the
forests along with fishing.
Neolithic Period:
Youngest period – 10,000 years to 5500 years ago
Early humans continued to change over the world from hunters and gathers to food producers/farmers.
Along with growing crops, early humans also tended to livestock such as sheep, goats, cattle and pigs.
Furthermore, early humans continued to build new tools and developed pots for storing food and looms for
weaving cloth.
Development of language:
Language allowed humans to:
Develop new ideas.
Express new ideas.
Develop working relationships.
Teach others of what they have learned.
Made it easier for practical knowledge to be passed on.
Ideas transformed into legends, religion(s) and art.
Special note:
There will also be videos and their questions, along with other
assignments and other handouts for this chapter. This collection of
notes, however is the majority of the notes for the chapter.