BECOMING HUMAN: UNEARTHING OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS
PART 1: FIRST STEPS
FILL IN THE BLANK, BELOW.
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Many different species lived
on the planet until one day there was only .
Homo sapiens, the most
, adaptable animal on Earth.
Cataclysmic change forced our ancestors to
.
Millions of years ago in Africa, a momentous event occurred. Apes stood up and walked on
legs.
Eventually this change in
would be followed by a change in their
.
Somehow, overtime they would become us. We know it happened, but we never knew
or
, until now.
A 6 million year old
may old the secret!
We are discovering why all but
species died out. We, homo sapiens, are the first ever,
to be alone. Why did we become human?
Millions of years of history are brought to the Earth’s surface in layers of exposed
.
The fossil bones of animals like
,
, and
are abundant but the fossils of our ancestors are extremely
.
The “find of a lifetime” was a fossil of a face so tiny it had to be a
. But not a
. The skull was embedded in sandstone but clues to the age of the fossil came
from a distinctive feature in the
. White bands of
, 3.4 million years old. The fossil must be younger. The baby’s fossil is called,
“Salam,” the Ethiopian word for, “
.”
1.3 million years ago, the first
that really looked like us hunted on the plains
of
.
African scientists are trying to
the mysteries of Human Origins.
Lucy was discovered in the 1970s, and had different characteristics of
&
.
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Never before had a child’s
been found so ancient and so complete. Her
skeleton would fit in a shoebox, but the skeleton speaks volumes!
We know Salam
at age 3.
Unlike apes, these creatures walked
.
In a chimp,
face
forward. From the waste
, Lucy was like us.
Early primates were at home in
worlds: within trees and on land.
Africa was once a wet tropical environment…where the
of Lucy and
Salam lived. Lakes and rivers began to dry out and the rainforest began to shrink. Africa was very
different from what we see today. As their forest shrank, bipedalism developed (walking on two
legs (bi-ped)).
What are some hypotheses about why bipedalism developed? Reasons included, 1.
2.
3.
4.
.
Our ape ancestors had to walk more and walking on two legs saves
.
Whereas a chimp is an, “energy
.” This may have led to bipedalism which
eventually led to us.
Question What is the molecular clock?
Answer:
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Question: Who was our earliest ancestor?
Answer:
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In 1997, a French Anthropologist, Michel Brunet, decided to look in Northern Chad, a place
where all fossils found were about 6 million years old. Searching the African Desert on their 26th
expedition, a smashed, misshapen skull was found. The skull was about 6 million years old.
Could it be a human ancestor? It was taken to a powerful x-ray scanner where a 3-D image was
prepared of the original skull.
The cast allows Michel Brunet to infer the way the owner of the skulled walked – upright!
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NOTE TAKING – YOUR TURN FOR SKILL BUILDING:
Next, take notes on your own, for the remaining portion of the documentary, “Being Human.”
While listening and viewing the documentary, you must decide what is most interesting,
relevant, or significant? Write down the information you gather in a series of dot-jot notes.
Question: At about 43 minutes into the documentary, we learn about the significance of rock samples.
What do the shells in the rock samples indicate?
Answer:
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At 49 minutes into the documentary, we learn that it is the better problem-solvers who
.
The end of Part One.
PART 2: THE BIRTH OF HUMANITY
ASSIGNMENT:
CREATE A SMALL INFORMATIONAL PRODUCT (PAMPHLET, BROCHURE, INFORMATIONAL SHEET, PREZI
OR POWER POINT), BASED ON THE INFORMATION YOU ACQUIRE WHILE WATCHING AND LISTENING TO
THE DOCUMENTARY, ‘BECOMING HUMAN’. YOUR INFORMATIONAL PRODUCT SHOULD EXPLAIN WHAT
EARLY NON-HUMAN PRIMATES WERE LIKE, AND HOW THEY EVOLVED OVER TIME. DISCUSS
ADAPTATIONS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND HYPOTHESES FOR BI-PEDALISM. EXPLAIN HOW HOMO ERECTUS
AND HOMO SAPIENS CAME TO BE. USE THE DOCUMENTARY PLUS A MINIMUM OF 4 OTHER SOURCES
FOR YOUR RESEARCH (BOOKS, WEBSITES, SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA BASES, ENCYCLOPAEDIA, JOURNAL
ARTICLES, ETC.). INCLUDE WRITTEN INFORMATION, EXPLANATIONS, DIAGRAMS, MAPS, OR
PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. PLEASE INCLUDE AN APA FORMATTED WORKS CITED OR CONSULTED PAGE
AT THE END OF YOUR PRESENTATION OR INFO SHEET/BROCHURE.
EVALUATION:
THIS ASSIGNMENT WILL BE EVALUED FOR KNOWLEDGE AND ACCURACY OF CONTENT, SYNTHESIS OF
INFORMATION, SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND PRESENTATION SKILLS, AND THE ABILITY TO TAKE NOTES
AND GATHER INFORMATION THROUGH RESEARCH PROCESSES TO PRODUCE A FINAL, INFORMATIONAL
PRODUCT, ACCOMPANIED BY AN APA FORMATTED BIBLIOGRAPHY/WORKS CITED.
KNOWLEDGE
THINKING
COMMUNICATION
APPLICATION
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