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Chapter 14 Human Evolution: The Early Years

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1 Chapter 14 Human Evolution: The Early Years

2 Primates have grasping hands, a method of navigation referred to as brachiation. Primates have nails, not claws or hooves. Primates have stereoscopic vision, wherein the two eyes scan an overlapping part of the visual field before them. This improves the precision of depth perception. When a monkey moves from branch to branch; reliable depth perception is crucial, to judge the distance and safely reach the next branch. Primates have relatively large brains.

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所屬網頁 primates evolved about 65 million years ago, just as the last of the dinosaurs were flickering out. About 40 million years ago, these early primates split into two surviving groups-the prosimians and anthropoids. The prosimians (basal primates) large eyes serve them well in their mostly nocturnal lifestyles.

4 Primates are divided into two subgroups.
The Prosimii (prosimians), probably resemble early arboreal primates and include the lemurs of Madagascar and the lorises, pottos, and tarsiers of tropical Africa and southern Asia. The Anthropoidea (anthropoids) include moneys, apes, and humans. Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

5 The anthropoids; platyrrhines -- about 30 million years ago, some early anthropoids made it to South America ( how is still not known). Another group of anthropoids, the catarrhines, is African in origin.

6 Table 14.1 Classification of Primates
prehensile tails and Nostrils open to the side

7 FIGURE 14.5 Primate Relationships
Primates divide traditionally into two major groups. The prosimians tend to be small and nocturnal, including bush babies of Africa, the lemurs of Madagascar, and lorises and tarsiers of Southeast Asia. The anthropoids are more derived, including monkeys plus gibbons, apes, and hominids.

8 In addition to monkeys, the anthropoid suborder also includes four genera of apes: Hylobates (gibbons), Pongo (orangutans, Gorilla (gorillas), and Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos)--Modern apes are confined exclusively to the tropical regions of the Old World. Fig Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

9 The Course of Hominid Evolution
Fossils, together with molecular structures, pointed to a hominid divergence from chimpanzees at around 7 million years ago. These oldest hominids date to between 6 and 7 MYA. Sahelanthropus tchadensis from a nearly complete skull; Orrorin tugenensis consists of pieces of arm, thigh, and jawbones, several teeth 人類從黑星星演變來

10 人類從黑星星演變來 The Course of Hominid Evolution
S. tchadensis has a relatively small brain (chimp-like) but brow ridges and small canine teeth (hominid-like). The mixture of features, fits expectations of being close to the common ancestor of Chip. and Hum. from a nearly complete skull; O. tugenensis 人類從黑星星演變來 Advocates promote one or both of these fossils as common ancestors to chimps and hominids.

11 The Course of Hominid Evolution
Ardipithecus ramidus lived almost 4.5 million years ago, in Africa. Australopithecus anamensis soon followed, 4.2 to 3.9 million years ago. The robust hominid line, the gracile hominid line

12 Hominid relationships
Hominids generally evolved in two directions. One, a “robust” line that became extinct about 1 million years ago. The other, is the “gracile” line continuing down to modern Homo sapiens.

13 Hominid Features Long arms; notice that your hands hang at or below your hips. In primates, the collarbone (clavicle), together with the flat shoulder blade (scapula) on the back, is large to stabilize the shoulder joint and prevent dislocation of the joint during arm swings Grasping hands; fingers hook a branch; the thumb opposes for a secure grip.

14 Locomotion we walk upright, comfortably on two limbs-a posture and mode of locomotion termed bipedal. Bipedal posture has its advantages. With its important sensory receptors-nose (small), ears (hearing), eyes (vision). This provides for better surveillance of opportunities or dangers otherwise The job shifts to the two hindlimbs exclusively, and the forearms are available for other roles, such as carrying food or infants, Other features: Large brains; a hair coat; reduced; complex sentence

15 Ape and hominid skeletons
Respectively, the backbone joins the back of the skull or bottom. The backbone is arched or S-shaped. The arms are long in both, but shorter than hindlimbs in the ape compared to the hominid. The hips are long or bowl-shaped and the femur (upper leg bone) is angled out or in.

16 Bipedalism Walking comfortably on two hindlegs, bipedalism, evolved early in hominids. Many of the changes in body design and eventually in social systems derive in part from this fundamental change in posture. Some of the major branches in hominid evolution are shown.

17 Bipedal adaptations I In hominids, the upright, bipedal posture is derived from primates that are dependent upon a four-footed, quadrupedal posture. Such upright carriage of the body poses special problems in engineering. To accommodate this posture and stabilize it, the hominid gluteus muscles are large (balance leg swing), hips are wide (broad support), the spine curved (centers body weight, shock absorbing), and the position of the spine is beneath the skull (accommodate erect stance). (see also Bipedal adaptations II)

18 Bipedal adaptations II
Further adaptations (see also Bipedal adaptations II) to bipedalism include a change of the big toe (hallux) from grasping in apes to striding in hominids, repositioning of the hominid knee more under the pelvis, and shortening of the hips to a broader base of support of the upper body.

19 Hominid Evolution—On Becoming Human
Although named for Germany's Neander Valley, the first Neanderthal remains were found in Gibraltar. Human fossils had been found in Germany (1856) in the Neander Valley, from which they took their common name, Neandertals. half-human and half-ape From such a beginning, some scientists of the day predicted that upright and bipedal posture would follow. 圖片所屬網頁

20 Australopithecus africanus
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21 Taung skull –a child’s story In the 1920s, paleontologist Raymond Dart was working not in Europe, but at the southern tip of Africa, Nearby workmen excavating for lime blasted open a small cave at a location termed Taung. The teeth were milk teeth –those of a child; “Taung child,” The child had died at about 3 or 4 years of age. Formally, the fossil was named Australopithecus africanus, roughly translated as “southern ape of Africa.” A. africanus fossils fall to 2.8 to 2.4 million years ago.

22 Cleveland Museum of Natural History and currently affiliated with Arizona State University. But in 1973, Johanson was on expedition in eastern Africa in search of early hominid fossils. Beatles’ song “ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” filled the evenings and inspired the common name for this fossil under 4 million years. She was an adult about 3½ to 4 feet tall, walked bipedally, a female.

23 Lucy’s bones included the left hip bone
Lucy’s bones included the left hip bone. A mirror image of this bone completes the hips, and together the hip bones define the birth canal between them.

24 FIGURE Birth Canal Hips of the human male (a) and the human female (b). In humans, the birth of a baby with a relatively large head requires a relatively large birth canal. Note that the inner rims of the hips of a female define a larger birth canal than do those of a male.

25 In Lucy’s hip, the lever arm for the gluteus maximus muscle was almost twice the length of the lever arm in modern humans.

26 Vegetarians — A Dead End
In 1938, Robert Broom purchased from a collector; Paranthropus robustus In 1959, Mary Leakey discovered in Africa; Zinjanthropus boisei Today both fossil finds belong to th same genuks, Australopithecus. Broom’s is A. robustus and Leakey’s is A. boisei The jaws were heavy and angular; the teeth broad and thick with tough enamel. These were teeth and jaws suited for grinding the coarse fiber of plant tissue. This robust branch of hominid evolution became extinct about a million years ago, leaving no descendants.

27 Australopithecus anamensis, predates Lucy, at about 4
Australopithecus anamensis, predates Lucy, at about 4.1 million years ago. Ardipithecus ramidus, from about 4.4 million The oldest Hominids

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30 Australopithecus africanus
A. afarensis Homo habilis Homo erectus 圖片所屬網頁


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