Becoming Human Webquest
Evidence
2. Where is Hadar and why is it significant?
Ethiopia, Africa; place of pilgrimage for those
who wish to study where humans came from
3. What is a hominid? A creature that walks upright
4. Why was the 3.2 milion year old hominid fossil found in
Hadar called "Lucy"? Because a song with the
name Lucy was playing over & over again in the
lab and the fossil was a female
Evidence
5. What does the word Australopithecus mean?
Southern Ape
6. What is a paleoecologist? A scientist that
reconstructs the environment in which
ancestors lived
Evidence—Related Exhibits
7. The scientific method begins with an
observation, information drawn from these
observations rests on the principles of scientific
thinking. What are the 3 principles of scientific
thinking?
a. A real universe exists
b. The universe behaves according to
predictable laws without outside
influence
c. These laws are knowable because they
can be observed and tested
8. Finding fossils can be difficult, name 4 locations on the
earth where significant hominid fossil finds occur.
Answers vary
9. When a fossil is found, profiling can be done to answer
questions about the organism. How do scientists
determine:
The species – anatomical features of the teeth, skull,
& skeleton
The age – looking at teeth & bones
The sex – sexual dimorphism (robustness & the
pelvis)
The health – by examining the skeleton for
degenerative diseases or infections
Anatomy
10 What is the closest living relative to the
human? How closely are we related?
African chimpanzee; 98%
11. What is a common ancestor? African Ape
12. How does the human foot compare to the
foot of a chimpanzee?
Our big toe is line with the other toes
whereas theirs is not (bipedialism)
13. How does the skull of homo erectus compare to the
skull of homo sapiens?
They are built like our own (larger and their
brain size was similar)
14. Humans are like other primates in many ways.
Name two similarities between humans and other
primates.
1) opposable thumbs & 2) complex
brains/communication ability
15. Bipedalism requires anatomical changes in bone
structure to allow walking upright. Name one
difference between the skeleton of a chimpanzee and
a human that aids humans in walking upright.
Lineages
16. Where are most Neanderthal fossils found?
Europe & Western Asia
17. How did the face of Neanderthals differ from
modern humans?
it was bigger and it protruded in the front
of the skull more than ours
18. Suggest one reason why Neanderthals became
extinct.
because Homo sapiens came on the scene
Lineage—Related Links
19. What is the Missing Link and why is it not an
accurate term for hominid evolution?
A half-ape/half-human intermediate of
modern day humans and apes
20. How humans populated the globe is a question
among paleoanthroplogists. Compare the "Out of
Africa Theory" to the "Multiregional Theory.“
OAT: we evolved from a local pop. of archaic
humans in Africa 100, 000-200, 000 years ago
MT: archaic human populations slowly evolved
from different regions
21. How does evolution explain the diversity of
people throughout the world, like types of skin
color?
Areas with more sun had people with
more melanin to protect from UV rays