Prehistoric Cultures Class Slides Set # 09 Selected Major Discoveries / Events Tim Roufs’ section

Prehistoric Cultures Selected Major Discoveries / Events ca – Present Web Version

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Neanderthals Neander Valley, Germany Homo sapiens neanderthalensis a separate species ? 300,000 / 100, ,000 b.p. 1856

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Neanderthals significance: 1.first widely known non-modern human or part-non-modern human fossil “discovered” 2.only major fossil upon the publication of The Origin of Species 1856

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Cro - Magnon village of Cro-Magnon, France (near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne region) Homo sapiens sapiens ("moderns")Homo sapiens sapiens 34,000 b.p. 1868

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Homo erectus aka Pithecanthropus erectus aka "Java Man" Trinil, Java mya 1891

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “Piltdown Man“Piltdown Man Piltdown, England discredited in early 1950's by chemical tests which showed jaw and skull completely unrelated 1912

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Peking Man" Choukoutien, China (now Zhoukoudian) Homo erectus mya 1920s

Major Sites Zhoukoudian = Choukoutien ( Chou-kou-tien )

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “Taung Child” Taung, South Africa Australopithecus africanus mya Raymond Dart 1924

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Ramapithecus aka Kenyapithecus aka SivapithecusSivapithecus Siwalik Hills, India mya 1934 /1969

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, Ca Present Australopithecus africanus Sterkfontein, South Africa (in the “Transvaal” Region) mya 1936

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Australopithecus robustus aka Paranthropus robustusParanthropus robustus Kromdraai, South Africa (Transvaal) mya 1938

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present and Richard and Meave Leakey 1950s to present Many finds of Mary and Louis LeakeyMaryLouis Leakey

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “Zinj” Zinj Zinjanthropus aka Australopithecus boiseiAustralopithecus boisei Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania / mya (+/- 200,000 years) e.g., 1959

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Homo habilis Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania 700 cc brain tool manufacture mya e.g., 1961

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Homo habilis Lake Turkana, East Africa “1470” (and “1590”) 2.0 mya e.g., 1972

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "1470" (and "1590") Lake Turkana, East Africa Homo habilis 2 mya e.g., 1972

Major Sites KNM – ER

Fossil Naming Conventions

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Lucy" and "The First Family"Lucy Hadar, Ethiopia (locality 333 on the Awash River in the Afar Triangle) Australopithecus afarensis mya

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Footprints Laetoli, Tanzania 3.7 mya 1976

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "The Black Skull" Australopithecus aethiopicus (KNM – WT )Australopithecus aethiopicus Lake Turkana, East Africa 2.5 mya 1985

Major Sites KNM – WT

Fossil Naming Conventions

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Mitochondrial Eve” Rebecca Cann Berkeley, CA 200, ,000 b.p. 1987

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “Qafzeh Boy” Qafzeh Cave, Israel Homo sapiens sapiens (Prehistoric “Early Modern")Homo sapiens sapiens 92,000+ b.p. 1988

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Ötzi: The Iceman"Ötzi: The Iceman Italian / Austrian border Homo sapiens sapiens (Contemporary "Modern”)Homo sapiens sapiens 5,300 b.p. 1991

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Australopithecus ramidus (aka Ardipithecus ramidus) Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley 4.4 mya 1994

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Chauvet Cave Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France 20,000 b.p. June 1999: 25, , 000 b.p. footprints Cave Paintings 1995

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Cave Paintings Best Known: France / Spain Upper Paleolithic –10, ,000 b.p. (at least) 20 th Century

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “Dragon Bone'' Cave Longguppo, China ("Dragon Bone” Cave = Zhoukoudian) Homo erectus (with similarities to Homo habilis = Pre-erectus ?)Homo erectusHomo habilis mya 1995

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Pope Vindicates Darwin 1996 Pope John Paul II

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Stone Tools Gona, Ethiopia (Hadar Region)Gona, Ethiopia mya 1997

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Little Foot"Little Foot Sterkfontein, South Africa world's first-ever find of an entire "ape-man" skull - and its skeleton 3.5 mya 1998

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “ape man” Awash Valley, Ethiopia Homo habilis or Australopithecus ?Homo habilisAustralopithecus 5 mya 1999

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present “tool factory” (2000+ pieces)tool factory "Hand Axe Hill," Kenya Homo habilis or Australopithecus ?Homo habilisAustralopithecus 2.34 mya 1999

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Equatorius africanus Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley earliest ape to descent from trees ? a new genus of hominoids ? ca. 15 mya 1999

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Madeleine"Madeleine Sambungmacan, Central Java shows features of both Homo sapiens and Homo erectus, and "probably had a capacity for language close to that of modern humans” 1 mya ? or 100, ,000 bp ? 1999

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Eurydice"Eurydice Drimolen, South Africa Australopithecus robustus "the most complete ape-man skull ever excavated" the "best opportunity to compare the differences between [P. robustus] males and females” mya 2000

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present "Millennium Man" [sic.]Millennium Man Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley TBA (? tugenensis) “Not only is this find older than any else previously known, it is also in a more advanced stage of evolution” “at least 6 million years old” 04 December 2000

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Kenyathropus platyops “Flat-faced Man of Kenya” KNM-WT Lomekwi, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya “... most likely a completely new genus and species of early human ancestor” “The find suggests... at least two species of hominin, predecessors of modern humans” 3.5 – 3.2 mya 22 March 2001

Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca Present Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba Middle Awash River Valley of Ethiopia "A team of scientists... has discovered the fossilized remains of what they believe is humanity's earliest known ancestor, a creature that walked the wooded highlands of East Africa nearly 6 million years ago.” 5.8 mya (5.2+) 11 July 2001

Special Skills Used to Study Early Humans In the Field Continue on to Set # 10ASet # 10A