Anthropology 573
Spring 2012
Paleoclimate and Human Evolution
W 11-1:50, C249
Instructor:
Dr. Mica Glantz
Office: B227 Clark
Office hours: M 9:30-11
Email: Mica.Glantz@colostate.edu
Recommended text:
Cartmill, M., Smith, F., 2009. The Human Lineage. Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, N.J.
This is an expensive book. However, those students without sufficient background in
human evolutionary studies will be richly rewarded for reviewing it. I will tell you to
review topics in this text if I feel your knowledge is somehow deficient.
Other primary reading will be added to RamCT.
Requirements:
Course requirements include two non-cumulative essay exams (each exam is worth 20%
of final grade), other homework assignments – including participation- (20%), and one
final paper (12-15 pages) (30%). Finally, a presentation of your final paper will be worth
10% of your grade. Papers are the date of the last day of class, May 2 by 5 pm.
Presentations will be held during final exam time on May 7.
Course description:
This course is designed to provide the student with knowledge of the methods and
specific challenges concerned with reconstructing past environments and the impact of
those environments on the major trends of human evolution. Students will master the
timeline of human evolution and understand the interconnectedness of evolution,
adaptation, and the environment.
Weekly reading:
You will work in groups of 2 or 3. For your designated week, you will meet with your
group and discuss readings (obviously read them), provide the rest of the class with 3 or 4
directed questions by Monday of the week the readings are to be discussed. Your group
will also direct discussion and can talk to me about providing some background and what
it should look like. You will be doing this about 3 times during the semester.
18 Jan
25 Jan
Week 1
Pick up syllabus and discuss assignments.
Review trends of human evolution and the timeline; What are the data of human
evolution?
Week 2
Biogeography and phylogenetics. Global climate change that we know impacted
biodiversity. Can we avoid environmental determinism in human evolutionary
studies?
Readings:
Gould, S. J. and R. C. Lewontin (1978) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian
paradigm: a critique of the adaptionist programme.
Lieberman, B. (2003) Paleobiogeography: the relevance of fossils to biogeography. Annu. Rev.
Ecol. Evol. Syst. 34:51-69.
Kunzig, R. (2011) World without Ice. National Geographic 220 (4): 90-109.
1 Feb
Week 3
Paleoecological perspectives and human paleontology. How is climate change
studied? How do we reconstruct geologic deep time?
Readings:
Anderson et al., 2007. Chapters 1 and 2
Allmon and Bottjer, 2001. Evolutionary paleoecology: the maturation of a discipline.
Evolutionary Paleoecology: the Ecological Context of Macroevolutionary Change.
W. Miller. 2001. What’s in a Name? Ecologic Entities and the Marine Paleoecologic Record.
Evolutionary Paleoecology: the Ecological Context of Macroevolutionary Change.
Week 4
8 Feb
Primate evolution and the Miocene-Pliocene transition. Apes are us.
Readings:
Hartwig, W. 2011. Primate Evolution. Primates in Perspective.
Andrews P, Kelley J. 2007. Middle Miocene Dispersals of Apes. Folia Primatol 78:328-343
Benefit and McCrossin. 1995. Miocene Hominoids and Hominid Origins. Annual Review of
Anthropology 24.
Kunimatsu, et al., 2007. A new late Miocene great ape from Kenya. Nature
Suwa, et al., 2007. A new species of great ape from the late Miocene epoch of Ethiopia. Nature.
15 Feb
Week 5
Bipedalism in the trees; How Ardipithecus ramidus changed the way we think
about the origins bipedalism.
Readings:
Elton. 2008. The environmental context of human evolutionary history in Eurasia and Africa.
Journal of Anatomy.
Gibbons. 2009. Science
WoldeGabriel. 2009. Science
Louchart. 2009. Science
Lovejoy. 2009. Science
Week 6
22 Feb
Refining bipedalism, australopithecine paleoecology
Take Home passed out
Week 7
29 Feb
Turnover pulse theory, the origins of the genus Homo, and the demise of the
robust australopithecines
Take Home due on March 2 by 3 pm.
7 Mar
Week 8
Milankovitch cycling and defining the Pleistocene; variability selection
Preliminary data collection for map exercises
14 Mar
spring break
21 Mar
Week 10
Savannastan; how are the early migrations of Homo out of Africa modeled?
Week 9
Map exercise I due
28 Mar
Week 11
Big game hunting, the expanding steppe, and theoretical hominin reproductive
barriers.
11 Apr
Week 12
Arctic habitats and the Neandertals, how cold was it?
Map exercise II
Week 13
Big brains and novel resources, Toba and modern human origins
18 Apr
Week 14
No Classes Paleos and SAAs in Memphis
4 Apr
25 Apr
2 May
Week 15
Island biology: the case of Homo floresiensis
Map Exercise II due
Take Home passed out
Week 16
The broad spectrum revolution
Take home due May 4 by 3 pm.
Class presentations: May 7, 7:30 – 9:30 AM (we will have to come up with a different time.)