Becoming Human
(www.becominghuman.org)
Objective: To understand the process that is used to collect fossils and determine relationships our ancestors while
observing the evolution of the hominid species.
Prologue – Documentary
Watch the prologue to the documentary (approx. 2 minutes).
Evidence – Documentary
(approximately 6 minutes)
** Stop video at night time fire
1. Where is Hadar and why is it significant?
2. What is the scientific name of the 3.2 million year old hominid fossil nicknamed “Lucy”?
3. What was the significance of the “Lucy” fossil find?
4. What was the environment of Hadar like 3 MYA?
Evidence – Related Exhibits
5. Finding fossils can be difficult, point to the red dots on the map to name 4 locations on the earth where
significant hominid fossil finds occur.
6. Explore a dig site at Hadar and name 3 of the professions (jobs) described at the site.
7. When a fossil is found, profiling fossils can be done to answer questions about the organism. How do
scientists determine:
age –
Anatomy – Documentary
sex –
health –
(approximately 8 minutes)
8. What is a common ancestor?
9. What happened to the habitat of East Africa 6 million years ago?
10. What does being bipedal allow for?
11. What are two differences between Homo sapiens and early hominids?
12. What is the relationship between the diet of Homo erectus and their movement out of Africa?
Anatomy – Related Links
13. What does the cerebral cortex in our big brains provide us with?
14. By sizing up the species, which hominid species is the smallest and which is the tallest?
Lineages – Documentary
(approximately 7 minutes)
15. Where are most Neanderthal fossils found?
16. How did the face of the Neanderthal differ from modern humans?
17. Are humans and Neanderthals related?
18. Suggest one reason why Neanderthals became extinct.
Lineages – Related Links
19. Using the human family tree, compare the three scientists family tree theories and determine which
species represents the common ancestor before all of the branches split?
20. Why is missing link (half-human / half-ape) not an accurate term for hominid evolution?
21. How modern humans populated the globe is a question among paleoanthropologists. Briefly describe
the two theories “Out of Africa Theory” and the “Multiregional Theory”.
Culture – Related Links
22. According to the origin of language, what is the difference between a closed communication system
and an open communication system?
23. What risk of survival do humans face due to the position of the larynx and the origin of language?
24. According to clothes make the human, which hominid species was probably the first to lose body hair?
25. Clothes make the human today, but why did our ancestors lose their body hair?
26. Many scientists are concerned about humans’ place on nature. Name two scientists who are featured
in this section and explain their main focus on this topic.