Middle Homo Sapians Anthropology

Exam 1 is next Wednesday…
What?!?!
Evolutionary summary:
setting the stage for human origins
mammals monkeys apes
primates
Searching for Hominin Ancestors
Identifying our fossil ancestors also

relies on finding derived skeletal
traits associated with the transition
to bipedalism
Bipedalism: A unique form of

locomotion on two feet found in
humans and their ancestors
What are those traits?
The Anatomy of Bipedalism:
The Skull
QUADRAPEDS BIPEDS
• Foramen Magnum enters at  FM enters at BASE of skull,
BACK of skull so they can centered for looking forward
look forward when on all when standing upright on two
four legs legs
The Spine, different centers of gravity
QUADRAPEDS BIPEDS
• Spine has less curvature  Spine has S-shaped (curves) to
because weight is balance the weight of the top
distributed to the 4 limbs half of the body
The Pelvis
QUADRAPEDS BIPEDS
 Elongated & narrow,  Pelvis is wider & bowl
following the arch of the shaped to provide structural
spine support for body weight
The Limbs and Feet
QUADRAPEDS BIPEDS
 Thigh bone is angled  Thigh bone is angled inward,
straight from the hip under the center of gravity
 Opposable 1st toe for  Knees can lock, allowing
grasping branches minimal energy effort when
standing
 Large non-opposable 1st toe
provides balance, not needed
for grasping any more
Ardipithecus ramidus (4.4 - 5.8 mya)
Another transitional Lived in forests
species candidate? Foramen is under the
skull – like bipeds
Opposable 1st toe – still
grasping branches
The Australopithecines
4-5 mya
First 100% fully bipedal genus
Inhabited savannah habitats (grasses not trees)
Evolved into multiple species, which we will
discuss in more detail shortly…
...But first, why did bipedalism evolve?
Australiopithecine Evolution
Robust
australopithecines
Sediba were an
evolutionary dead
Gracile end
australopithecines
were ancestral to
the genus Homo?
 Larger brain relative to body size
 Smaller teeth & face size
 More modern body proportions

› longer legs and shorter arms
 Increase in body size
 Decrease in sexual dimorphism

 East African site
 Excavated by the
Leakeys
 Earliest indentified stone
tools
 Homo habilis – 1st species

in genus Homo
› 2.5mya.
› The Handy Man – stone
tools
 Increase in brain size
 In Homo because of
association with stone tools
 Fossils in East & South Africa
Australopithecus africanus Homo habilis

 Oldowan tools: 1st stone tool industry,
~2.5mya
 Made by percussion method
› Striking one stone with another stone to obtain
sharp flakes
› Flakes used for cutting & scraping
 Led to new food possibilities (more meat--

marrow!)
YUM!
OOPS!
 Bones associated with H. habilis have both
animal tooth marks & tool marks
› Who ate first?
 H. habilis probably ate after other

animals—tertiary scavengers
› They were scavengers not hunters
 Stone tools allowed access to marrow

inside the meat-free bones
 Tool marks on top of animal
marks
 Scavengers not hunters

› Marrow in meat-free bones
H. Habilis became widespread in
Africa and a new species arose….
 Origins in Africa
 1.9 mya
 1st hominin to move
out
› China
› Eurasia
› Indonesia
› Western Europe (?)
 Regional variation
 Within
modern
human stature range
 Big increase in brain

size
› long narrow braincase
 Large browridges
 Thick bones
1. Larger body size
2. Limb proportions
are humanlike
A. robustus H. habilis H. erectus H. sapiens

•1.6 MYA W. Lake Turkana
•Anatomically human from
neck down
•5’8” teenaged boy
•Probably would have been
minimum 6 ft. tall adult
AFRICA CHINA
Nariokotome Boy:
Lake Turkana, Kenya
 Acheulean tradition:
tradition tool industry of
Homo erectus that used hand-axes in
Africa, Europe and S.W. Asia
› Swiss army knife of Paleolithic
› Not found in China
 Complex Acheulean tradition
 Behavioral flexibility to survive different
environments
 Cooperative hunting of larger game
 Likely the 1st hominin to utilize fire
› Earliest in Asia & South Africa
 Did not manufacture, used natural fires
 Would allow living in colder climates,
and possibly cooking
- permanent shelters in caves & huts
Reconstruction
of oval huts
based on
archaeological
evidence from
Terra Amata site
Nice, France
 Complex social skills
 Right handedness in
stone tools
› Associated with
language abilities
 Large hypoglossal
canal
› Opening in skull for
tongue nerve-
important for speaking
 Brain endocasts show organization of
brain = language ability
 BUT vocal tract not fully developed yet

Tools
Meat Brain
 Brain consumes a lot of energy!
 Higher consumption of meat protein
needed to support a bigger brain
 Meat eating means eating less often
› Need/have more complex tools for
successful hunting
“The Muddle in the Middle”
 (400-200kya)
 We have “Transitional fossils” of genus

Homo
 But how many species are present?
 How are they related to each other?
 Found in Africa, Europe, Asia

“Homo heidelbergensis” “Homo antecessor”
Classification attempts
 Lumpers: Late H. erectus or early H.

sapiens
or “Archaic Homo sapiens”
 Splitters: “Homo heidelbergensis”

Or other Homo (species) names
Regardless….
“H. heidelbergensis
heidelbergensis””
• Morphologically intermediate b/t H. erectus
& H. sapiens, but is NOT a Neanderthal
• Versus H. erectus:
• Smaller Face
• Larger brain
• Braincase shape is intermediate
H. erectus

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Exam 1 is next Wednesday…

mammals monkeys apes

Identifying our fossil ancestors also

Bipedalism: A unique form of

 Smaller teeth & face size

 More modern body proportions

 Increase in body size

 Decrease in sexual dimorphism

 Homo habilis – 1st species

 Fossils in East & South Africa

Australopithecus africanus Homo habilis

 Led to new food possibilities (more meat--

 H. habilis probably ate after other

 Stone tools allowed access to marrow

 Scavengers not hunters

 Big increase in brain

A. robustus H. habilis H. erectus H. sapiens

 BUT vocal tract not fully developed yet

 We have “Transitional fossils” of genus

 Found in Africa, Europe, Asia

 Lumpers: Late H. erectus or early H.

 Splitters: “Homo heidelbergensis”

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