Pioneers of Human Culture
Earliest Hominines
Pioneers of Human Culture
Earliest Hominines
Early Bipedalism
Michel Brunet ….2002, northern Chad, skull, 6 -7 MBP.
Toumaï Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Tim White…. 1994, Awash area, N. Ethiopia, ca. 4.4 to 4.5 MBP
Ardipithicus ramidus ("ground man-root”)
Don Johanson… 1974, Hadar, Afar Depression, N. Ethiopia, ca. 3.2
MBP… Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis
Zeresenay Alemseged …..2000, Afar Depression, N. Ethiopia ,
3.2 MBP, Most of an infant. Dikika baby, A. afarensis
Mary Leakey, Tim White…. 1979, Laetoli, N. Tanzania, ca. 3.5 MBP
Footprints.
Early Bipedalism
Physical characteristics of Australopithecus:
Relatively long legs, short arms
(Dikika baby indicates longer arms than previously thought.)
Relatively wide, shallow pelvis
Foramen magnum well under skull
Prominent facial prognathism, supraorbital torus
africanus, robustus, distinct forms
robustus more robust, archaic
Early Bipedalism
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
“Toumai”
Sahelanthropus has hominid traits that include smaller canines, thicker
tooth enamel than apes, and the point at the back of skull where neck
muscles attach suggests that Toumaï walked upright.
Early Bipedalism
Ardipithicus ramidus
Ardipithecus ramidus is, perhaps, another early hominid. Ardipithecus
ramidus translates literally as "ground man-root" and is thought
to be 4.4 to 4.5 million years old. Originally it was named as a
member of the Australopithecine family, but it was later reclassified.
Fragments of 17 different specimens were found including part of a
child's mandible, some isolated teeth, a fragment of basi-cranium,
and three bones of a left arm of a single individual.
Early Bipedalism
Australopithecus afarensis
(Lucy)
Discovered by Donald Johanson at Hadar in
Ethiopia. Its age is about 3.2 million years. Lucy
was an adult female of about 25 years. About 40%
of her skeleton was found, and her pelvis, femur
(the upper leg bone) and tibia show her to have
been bipedal. She was about 107 cm (3'6") tall
(small for her species) and about 28 kg (62 lbs) in
weight.
Early Bipedalism
Australopithecus afarensis
(Dikika baby)
Dikika baby, a 3.3 millionyear-old infant discovered by
Ethiopian paleoanthropologist
Zeresenay Alemseged in 2000.
The find is the most complete
ancient infant and arguably the
best fossil of its species,
Australopithecus afarensis,
ever found.
Early Bipedalism
Laetoli Footprints (ca. 3.6 MBP).
In 1978, fossil footprints of an extinct
human ancestor were discovered by Mary
Leakey and Tim White. The Laetoli
footprints are the most unique evidence of
early hominid bipedalism. The prints were
impressed in volcanic ash in that location 3.6
million years ago, in sight of the Sadiman
volcano 20 kilometers away, whose
subsequent ash falls buried them under 30
meters of deposit.
Raymond Dart Australopithecus africanus
Raymond Dart Australopithecus
13 January 2006
The world's oldest murder mystery has been solved:
In 2-million-year-old
1924 Raymond Dart
identified
fossil
remains
the
Taung
child was
killed
by an
from the Taungeagle,
limestone
not a works
big cat.in Bechuanaland
(now the Republic of Botswana) as
Australopithecus africanus.
Professor Lee Berger
of Wits University
Mary and Louis Leakey…Olduvai Gorge
Zinjanthropus boisei (Australopithecus robustus)
Raymond Dart Australopithecus
"Nutcracker Man", Australopithecus boisei
Discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959 at Site FLK
in Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania.
Early
Culture?
Scavengers?
(C.K. Brain, Leopard Studies)
Oldowan Culture
Oldowan Tool Traditionor
(2.0-2.6 MBP)
Pebble Tools…..
http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/anth3/courseware/LithicTech/6_Lower_Paleolithic_Tool.html
Lithic Technologies
Evidence of Culture?
Earliest Evidence of Culture
Core
Flake
Blade
By 1,000,000 Years Ago ... An adaptive radiation had occurred.
HOMO ERECTUS
(PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS)
Skull capacity:
Range:
Average:
750cc
900cc
- 1100cc
Associated Culture:
(Note: Australopithecus average
Skull capacity 600cc)
Hand Axe Culture
Early use of fire
Hand Axes
Base camps
Representative Sites:
Choukoutein, China
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Trinil, Java
Tripoli
Mauer, Germany
HOMO ERECTUS
(PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS)
Homo floresiensis, announced October,
2004....on the island of Flores....a variation
of Homo erectus…?
HOMO ERECTUS
(PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS)
Reid Ferring of NTSU, working at Dmanisi,
near T’bilisi in Georgia….Important site for
over a decade, reported a 1.77 million-yearold specimen who was completely toothless
and well over 40; a grand old age at the
time.
The “Old Man”
From
Dmanisi
Neanderthal: Pioneers of
Modern Human Culture?
By 100,000 Years Ago ...
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Discovered by Johann Fuhlrott in 1856 in a small cave at Feldhofer in
the Neander Valley in Germany. The find consisted of a skullcap, thigh bones,
part of a pelvis, some ribs, and some arm and shoulder bones. The lower
left arm had been broken in life, and as a result the bones of the left arm were
smaller than those of the right.
There were actually two earlier Neandertal finds. A partial cranium of a
2.5 year old child found in 1829 in Belgium was not recognized until
1936. An adult cranium found on Gibraltar in 1848 gathered dust in a
museum until it was recognized as a Neandertal in 1864.
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Mainly confined to SW Europe
1550cc skull capacity
Very robust skeleton
Comparison of top view of Chimpanzee, Homo erectus, and Neandertal skulls.
Middle Paleolithic (Middle Old Stone Age)
Many different cultures in Old World
Blombos Cave
Mousterian Culture
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Mousterian Culture
Flake tool technology… Levallois flakes
Earlier cultures had core tool lithic
technologies, Mousterian is
characterized by flake tools.
First hominid known to have buried the dead.
consciousness…
aesthetics….
religion
This male Neanderthal individual from
Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq shows
evidence of a suite of injuries suffered
prior to death. His right arm was severely
atrophied (withered), a condition that he
dealt with for most of his life, possibly
since birth. He also had a crippled and
withered right leg. As if this weren't
enough, he also suffered a crushing
injury to the left eye that may have
deprived him of sight for some time.
Evidence of the eye injury is visible in
the top photograph. Look carefully at the
left orbit (on the right side of the
photograph). The bones of the skull are
decidedly asymmetrical around this eye
socket. All of these injuries show signs of
healing, and so none resulted in the
individual's death.
What Happened to Neanderthal?
The old idea, The Human Revolution Theory, remained
a the most
Among
credible explanation until 1999 when anthropologist
Chris
remarkable
finds from the 75
Henshilwood made an intriguing discovery000
at ayear
dig old
site levels
in
at BBC
Blombos, on the east coast of South Africa.are
Hetwo
hadengraved
been
ochre
excavating a prehistoric cave for over a decade.
TheChunks
cave of ochre
plaques.
contained beautifully made artifacts, bone were
points
and spear
selected
and carefully
points that dated back 70,000 years, well before
thebyHuman
ground
rubbing to
Revolution was supposed to have taken place.
But there
produce
a flatwas
surface and
still no concrete proof that the objects Henshilwood
his designs
deliberateand
abstract
team had found were made by a 'thinking were
people'.
then engraved on these
surfaces using a sharp stone
tool.
One of many sources on Blombos Cave:
http://www.svf.uib.no/sfu/blombos/The_Site.html
What Happened to Neanderthal?
A: The position of the polar
timberline in present-day
Europe
B: The position of the
timberline at the most
severe stage of the Würm
Ice Age.
C: The limits of glacial
debris deposited during the
Würm Ice Age.
D: The limits of glacial
debris deposited during the
Riss and Mindel Ice Age.