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Study of prehistoric life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments.
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Mammals that belong to the same overall biological classification as humans and, therefore, share similar physical characteristics and a close evolutionary relationship with us. Share characteristics such as large brains, keen vision, dexterous hands, and a generalized skeleton that allows for great physical agility. |
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| Material products of former societies, provide clues to the past. |
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| A testable proposition concerning the relationship between particular sets of variables in the collected data. |
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| Statements that explain hypothesis or observations about natural or social phenomena. |
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| A system of logic used to evaluate data derived from systematic observation |
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| Project that outlines the objectives for the project and the strategy for recovering the relevant date that has been outlined. Must take into account the types of data that will be collected and how the data relates to existing anthropological knowledge. |
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The fragment remains of bones and living materials preserved from earlier periods
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| Places where fossils are found. Spots where a predator dropped an animal they killed, places where creatures were naturally covered by sediments, or sites where early humans lived. |
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| Places of past human activity that are preserved in ground |
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| Nonmovable artifacts, such as an ancient fire hearth, a pit dug in the ground, or a wall. |
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| Non-artifactual organic and environmental remains. |
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| Its specific location in the ground and associated artifactual materials. |
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| scientists measure the decay of a radioisotope of potassium, know as potassium 40, into an inert gas, Argon. |
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| used to determine the age of geological samples between 300,000 and 4.5 billion years old. Can provide independent confirmation on the age of strata using potassium argon dating. |
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| a unique type of numerical dating based on the annual growth rings found in some species of trees. |
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| "Animal succession", discovered by William Smith. Allowed Smith to arrange rock samples from different areas in correct order based on the fossils they contained. |
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| Process of a species genetic change over time. |
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| The science of classification, gives scientists a convenient way of referring to, and comparing, living and extinct organisms. |
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| group of organisms that have similar physical characteristics, can potentially interbreed with one another to produce fertile offspring, and who are reproductively isolated from other populations. |
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| The action or process of digging out a hollow or hollows in (the earth, etc.); an instance of the same; the result or extent of the process. |
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| the earliest of the three major divisions of the Stone Age (followed successively by the Mesolithic and Neolithic), when primitive stone implements were used, and now regarded as lasting at least 2.5 million years and ending at about the same time as the Pleistocene |
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| Designating or belonging to a Lower Palaeolithic culture of Africa dated to about 2.6 to 1.0 million years ago, characterized by crude stone tools associated chiefly with Homo habilis |
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| Of human form; man-like (rather than ape-like) |
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| Using two feet for movement |
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| Designating the latter part of the Pliocene epoch or designating the earliest epoch of the Quaternary period, between about 1,640,000 and 10,000 years ago. |
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| designating the latest epoch of the Tertiary period, between about 5.2 million and 1.64 million years ago, which followed the Miocene and (in modern classification) preceded the Pleistocene. |
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| designating the fourth epoch of the Tertiary period or sub-era, which occurred between about 24 million and 5 million years ago, following the Oligocene and preceding the Pliocene |
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| The branch of geology that is concerned with the order and relative position of the strata of the earth's crust |
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| Cross-dating is a technique used to take advantage of consistencies in stratigraphy between parts of a site or different sites, and objects or strata with a known relative chronology |
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| The Piltdown hoax is perhaps the most famous paleontological hoax in history. It has been prominent for two reasons: the attention paid to the issue of human evolution, and the length of time (more than 40 years) that elapsed from its discovery to its full exposure as a forgery. |
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| A radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 (14C) to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. |
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| a form of luminescence that is exhibited by certain crystalline materials, such as some minerals, when previously absorbed energy from electromagnetic radiation or other ionizing radiation is re-emitted as light upon heating of the material |
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| Chronometric/Absolute Dating |
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| the process of determining a specific date for an archaeological or palaeontological site or artifact |
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| Dating methods that determine whether one particular fossil, artifact, fossil locality, or site dates before or after another. |
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| States that in any succession of rock layers, the lowest rocks have been there the longest and the upper rocks have been in place for progressively shorter periods. |
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| Compared living animals to fossils and helped prove that extinction was a fact. |
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| The law of superposition, principal of original horizontality, principal of lateral continuity |
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| The principal of faunal succession, searched to determine if the relationships between strata and their characteristics were consistent throughout the country. |
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| Mary, Louis, and Richard made up the most dominant family in anthropology. |
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| The Lost World by Conan Doyle |
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| 1912 novel by Conan Doyle that tells the story of an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin where prehistoric animals still survive. |
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| Literally means "short person" but is in fact a short, bipedal monkey that lives in indonesia. |
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| Also called "Yeti" it is a mythical ape like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region. |
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| Any living species that appears to be the same in the present day as its fossils. |
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| Refers to two forms of extinct hominoids. Australopithecus "gracile australopithecus" and Paranthropus "robust australopithecus". |
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| Spans from 65 millions years ago to the present, from the extinction of non avian dinosaurs to the present. Sometimes called the age of mammals. |
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| Study of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts using basic scientific techniques. |
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| inorganic, non metal solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Earliest examples made from clay. |
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| Hominoid ape cryptid said to inhabit portions of the southeastern united states. Named for its appearance and unpleasant odor that accompanies it. |
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| Controversial large primate allegedly encountered by Francois De loys in South America. The primate resembles a large spider monkey. |
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| Hominoid cryptid found in parts of Central Asia that are more similar to humans than apes. |
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| Tall humanoid cryptid that inhabits the northwest united states. Also called Sasquatch, the existence of the ape like creature is still considered myth. |
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| Is a common name given to an order of fish that includes the oldest living lineage of gnathostomata (groups of vertebrates with jaws) know to date. |
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| Also called non-site archaeology, settlement pattern studies involve investigations which examine regions or areas, rather than focusing on individual sites. Settlement patterns are probably most associated with the understanding of how a particular society used the available resources in its region |
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| Ways in which societies transform the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter. |
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