1. Evolution of Primates
Chapter 6, Section 3

2. Primates
Group of mammals including humans, monkeys, and apes.

3. Characteristics of Primates
Opposable Thumb
Allows grasping
Binocular Vision
Allows depth perception
Flexible shoulders and rotating forelimbs

4. 2 Major Groups of Primates
Prosimians
Includes lemurs and tarsiers
Anthropoids
Includes monkeys, apes, and humans

5. Hominids
Humanlike primates
Appeared between 4 and 6 million years ago

6. Characteristics of Hominids
Ate both meat and plants
Walked upright on two legs
Shared characteristics with gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees
Had a larger brain than apes

7. Early Hominids Early 1920’s
a skull with a small brain case but humanlike jaws and teeth was found in South Africa
named Australopithecus
One of the oldest hominids discovered

8. Early Hominids
1974
an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton was found in northern Africa
named Lucy
Indicated that Lucy walked upright

9. Early Humans Homo habilis Found in Africa in the 1960’s
Even more similar to modern humans
Also found simple tools
Estimated to be 1.5 to 2 million years old
Thought to be an early human ancestor

10. Early Humans Homo erectus Thought to be a descendant of homo habilis
Thought to live 1.6 million years ago
Had a larger brain than homo habilis
Thought to have traveled from Africa to Southeast Asia, China, and possibly Europe

11. Humans
Homo sapiens
Evolved about 400,000 years ago

12. Humans Neanderthals Lived about 125,000 years ago
Physical characteristics:
short, thick bones, small chins, heavy browridges
Lived in family groups in caves and hunted large animals with stone tools.
Disappeared from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago.
May have been a side branch on the human evolution tree

13. Humans Co-Magnon Humans
Lived from about 10,000 to about 40,000 years ago.
Lived in Europe, Asia, and Australia
Physically resembled modern humans
Lived in caves, made stone carvings and cave drawings, and buried their dead
Thought to be the direct ancestor of early humans, Homo sapiens.

14. Humans
Modern species:
Homo sapiens sapiens