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| preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past |
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| all discovered and undiscovered fossils, and also their placement in fossiliferous rock formations |
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| body of physical evidence about cultural behaviors in the historic and prehistoric past |
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| study of primate and human evolution; include fossils, genetics and behavior of living humans and nonhumans also includes contributions from ecology, chemistry, and physics |
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| internationally accepted form of designating past dates; "Present" has been arbitrarily set at 1950 |
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| comparative method of dating the older of two or more fossils/sites, rather than providing a specific date |
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| method of estimating the specific date of fossils; provides an "exact" date for fossils |
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| a relative dating method based on the fact that older remains are found deeper in the earth because of cumulative build up on the earth's surface over time |
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| fossil skull that was supposedly the missing link between ape and man; had a human-like cranium with an ape-like jaw |
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| a dating method based in which age of sites are assigned approximate age based on similarity of animal remains associated with particular time periods |
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| dating method based on the accumulation of fluorine in a bone; comparing fossils tells you if two bones from a site are the same age-more time has passed, more fluorine accumulates |
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| method based on half-life of C-14 that can be applied to organic remains; only useful for fossils up to 50,000 years |
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| method based on the fact that trees in dry climates accumulates one growth ring per year |
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| species identified from the fossil record |
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| scientists preferring to lumping new fossils into preexisting categories; believe range of variation within species is large, anagenesis |
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| scientists preferring to split new fossils into new species |
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differences between males and females (dimorphism, body size, canines, pelvic structure)
age differences (cranial sutures, epiphyseal fusion, dental eruption) |
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| study of what happens to plants and animals after they die |
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| Hypotheses of Primate Origins |
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| Nocturnal Visual Predation Hypothesis; Angiosperm Coevolution; Grasping-Leaping Hypothesis; Narrow Niche Hypothesis |
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| Adapid and Omomyids; stereoscopic vision, post-orbital bar, grasping hands, snout is reduced, teeth are closer together, no diastema |
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| How did primates get to the new world? |
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| convergent evolution? rafting? |
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| discovered Java Man in 1891; studied comparative anatomy and insisted on an intermediate between apes and humans; people did not believe him and died embittered |
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| H. erectus remains discovered in Java in 1891 by Eugene DuBois; not initially accepted |
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| anatomist who did work in China, discovered teeth of Peking Man in Zhoukoudian in 1926, skulls in 1929 |
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| Anatomist and Doctor, refugee from Nazi Germany; succeeded Davidson Black in China; important because he described the Peking Man thoroughly and made excellent casts (original fossils disappeared during WWII); exposed Piltdown |
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| H. erectus teeth and skulls found in Zhoukoudian |
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| Australian; professor of anatomy in S. Africa; discovered the Taung child; discovered many A. africanus fossils-believed they were savage hunters |
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| primate skull, thought to be about 3 years old, full face, teeth, jaws; endocranial cast of the brain (A. africanus); had to compete with Piltdown as intermediate, then overshadowed by Peking Man |
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| insistence on theory of evolution, found first robust australopithecine and Mrs. Ples |
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| A. africanus fossil thought to be an adult woman--probably an adolescent male |
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| grew up in Kenya, conducted excavations in East Africa |
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| discovered the most complete Proconsul (miocene ape) in 1948; married to Louis Leakey, excavated Olduvai Gorge, found "Nutcracker Man", Laetoli footprints |
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| A. boisei; discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959 along with deposits of stone tools; robust skull with huge teeth |
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| H. habilis skull found with tools; primitive face, less projecting than Australopithecines, back teeth smaller, brain size larger |
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| trail of hominid footprints that indicate bipedalism; 3.6 million years old (A. afarensis) |
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| son of Louis and Mary Leakey who became a paleoanthropologist, his team found "Turkana Boy", |
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| nearly complete skeleton of H. erectus boy near Lake Turkana (discovered by Kimoya Kimeu, Richard Leakey) |
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| American Anthropologist who discovered Lucy |
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| A. afarensis; 3.2 Ma; adult female; 40% of skeleton found 1974 Ethiopia; strong evidence of bipedalism |
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| Professor at UC Berkeley, lumper, discovered "Ardi" in Ethiopia |
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| Ardipithecus ramidus, nearly complete fossilized female skeleton, discovered Ethiopia 1992 |
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| Homo floresiensis, discovered 2004 |
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| the process by which natural selection favors smaller body size on an island with limited resources, leading to dwarfed species |
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| bipedal, small canines, big brain, stone tools, hunting, fire, language/art/culture, living in all ecozones |
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| enables geologists to determine the absolute age of volcanic rocks. Radioactive potassium isotopes in volcanic rock decay into argon gas |
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| when uranium decays into lead in obsidian (volcanic glass), it leaves small tracks across the glass which enable one to determine the obsidian's age |
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| study of ancient environments |
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| analysis of the ratio of stable (nonradioactive) isotopes of elements that provide information about diet |
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| 542 Ma-Present: origin and evolution of complex life forms; includes |
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| span of time in the Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon. 88% of geologic time |
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| 65.5 Ma-present; primate and human evolution |
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| Nocturnal Visual Predation Hypothesis |
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| suggests that early primates required both binocular vision and grasping hands/feet to cautiously and quietly approach insects on fine branches at night (because other arboreal species don't have these qualities) |
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| rise of angiosperms led to a vast development and broadening of potential food sources; grasping abilities were adaptations to maneuvering in a fine branch niche and exploiting newly available angiosperm foods |
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| Grasping-Leaping Hypothesis |
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| a primate morphotype can be explained most parsimoniously by having a habitually leaping ancestor, rather than one reliant on slow, cautious locomotion |
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| suggests that primate morphological suite evolved not only from selection pressure for fine branch use, but also from a lack of engagement in other activities |
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| humans and their ancestors since the divergence from the common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos |
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| site 30 miles southwest of Beijing; remains of about 45 individuals, 1000s of stone tools, debris from tool manufacture, 1000s of animal bones |
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