Homo erectus and
Contemporaries
1
ANTH131 LECTURE 9
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register at the front of the
room!
Lecture 09
Early Pleistocene Epoch
2
1.8MYA to 850KYA
Pleistocene as a whole is
known as “The Ice Age”
Lecture 09
Early Pleistocene Hominins
3
Homo erectus: roughly 2MYA to 500KYA
All hominin fossils outside of Africa belong to genus
Homo.
Which Homo left Africa first, and how many times
did populations leave Africa?
Answer: Homo erectus, and only a few significant migrations
Lecture 09
Lumpers vs. Splitters
4
Lumpers: School of thought that prefers to use fewer
paleospecies names and accepts greater intraspecific
variation
The Lumper interpretation of the Early Pleistocene:
all early Pleistocene hominins (that are not the last Homo
habilis or Paranthropus) are called Homo erectus
Lecture 09
Lumpers vs. Splitters
5
Splitters: School of thought that prefers to use more
paleospecies names and requires less intraspecific
variation
The Splitter interpretation of the Early Pleistocene:
Homo ergaster: African fossils
Homo erectus: Asian fossils
Homo antecessor: some European fossils
Lecture 09
Lumpers vs. Splitters
6
Meanwhile, what about Dmanisi?
Since we don’t know what else to do with them, call
them Homo erectus.
Lecture 09
Homo erectus characteristics
7
Adults weigh over 100lbs
Average adult height
around 5’6”
Limb proportions more
or less similar to modern
humans
Lecture 09
Homo erectus characteristics
8
High degree of sexual
dimorphism
Skull shape and anatomy
much more robust than
modern humans
Cranial capacity 700cm3
to 1250cm3
Average 900cm3
65-70% of modern
humans
Lecture 09
H. erectus Evolution
9
Earliest East African
fossils about 1.7MYA
Evolved from H. habilis
about 2.0-1.8MYA, but
why isn’t known
Lecture 09
The Africa-to-Asia Migration
10
Earliest African populations must be at least 1.8MYA
Earliest Asian fossils are 1.6MYA
That seems like a really fast migration!
BUT…
Lecture 09
The Migration
11
Lecture 09
The Africa-to-Asia Migration
12
200,000 years to go from Turkana in East Africa to
Java in Indonesia
That’s about 8500 miles
8500/200,000= less than a football field per year
Lecture 09
The Fossils & Sites
13
Lecture 09
Nariokotome Boy
14
Almost complete H.
erectus skeleton
Found near Lake
Turkana (East Africa) in
1984
1.6MYA
8 years old, 5’3”
~6’ tall in adulthood?
Lecture 09
Outside of Africa
15
Oldest erectus fossils are
1.8MYA, older than
oldest African fossils!
Found at Dmanisi,
Georgia, Europe
Lecture 09
The Old Man of Dmanisi
16
Died with only one tooth
Must have been
supported by his
community
Lecture 09
“Java Man”
17
First Asian fossils
discovered are also the
oldest
1.6MYA
Discovered 1891, near
Trinil, Java, by Eugene
Dubois
Lecture 09
Indonesian H. erectus
18
Sometimes still called “Java Man” after Dubois’
discovery
All date to 1.6MYA to 1MYA
But at Ngandong, ~500-150KYA—hundreds of
thousands of years after other erectus populations
had disappeared!
Lecture 09
Zhoukoudian
19
Cave outside Beijing, China
Discovered in 1920’s &
1930’s
Sometimes called “Peking
Man”
Lecture 09
About 780KYA
More common than
Indonesian fossils
Associated with stone tools
Zhoukoudian Interpretations
20
Old Ideas
New Ideas
Excellent hunters
Associated with stone
tools
Most animal bones
Controlled fire
Hearths filled with ash
So-called “hearths” are
Lecture 09
either scavenged, or
deposited by hyenas
natural depressions
with no ash
When was fire first used?
21
Perhaps at Wonderwerk
Cave, South Africa,
~1MYA
Lecture 09
Atapuerca, Spain
22
Earliest erectus-like fossils in Western Europe
1.2MYA
Suggested name Homo antecessor by Spanish
scholars
Lecture 09
Oldowan Industry
23
Oldest widespread stone
tool industry,
characterized by
unifacial tools
Found first in East Africa
about 2.5MYA
Found outside Africa at
Dmanisi, Zhoukoudian,
and elsewhere
Lecture 09
Unifacial Flaking
24
Uniface: a stone tool with flakes removed from only
one side of the core.
Lecture 09
Acheulian Industry
25
Stone tool industry from
the Early and Middle
Pleistocene and
characterized by a large
proportion of bifacial
tools
Presumably created by
H. erectus
Lecture 09
Bifacial Flaking
26
Biface: a stone tool with flakes removed from both
sides of the core.
Lecture 09
The Acheulian Biface
27
Commonly called a
handaxe, because it was
held in the hand and was
not hafted to a handle
Lecture 09
Acheulian Tools
28
Usually symmetrical
Curated: made now, then
kept for future use
Oldowan tools were not
curated—they were made,
used, discarded
More kinds of tools than
Oldowan Industry
Lecture 09
Significance of the Achuelian Industry
29
Cognitive evolution: it requires more sophisticated
ways of thinking!
Contact: its spread shows that Homo erectus
populations must have maintained some level of
contact with others.
Lecture 09
Please initial the attendance
register at the front of the room!
ANTH131 Lecture 10
Lecture 10
1
Middle Pleistocene: 780KYA to 125KYA
▪ Period when “pre-modern” humans evolve from
H. erectus
Late Pleistocene: 125KYA to 10KYA
▪ Time when Neandertals and modern humans are
the most well-known forms
Lecture 10
2
Lower Paleolithic: Oldowan and Acheulian
Industries
▪ Corresponds to the Late Pliocene through Middle
Pleistocene
Middle Paleolithic: tool industries of Neandertals
and related groups
▪ Corresponds to the Late Pleistocene
Upper Paleolithic: tool industries of modern
humans
▪ Also Late Pleistocene
Lecture 10
3
Traditional label for transitional fossils
between H. erectus and anatomically modern
humans
Used when most scholars believed erectus
evolved in place to Homo sapiens, without
significant population movement
Lecture 10
4
New label for fossils
transitional between
Homo erectus and
Homo sapiens
Roughly 850KYA to
200KYA in Africa and
Southern Europe
Larger brains, thinner
crania
Lecture 10
5
About 600KYA in
Africa
Shows cut marks
▪ Defleshed after death!
Lecture 10
6
SPANISH SCHOLARS
Sima del Elefante and Gran
Dolina: Homo antecessor
Sima del Elefante
Lecture 10
OTHERS
Sima del Elefante: Homo
erectus
Gran Dolina: earliest Homo
heidelbergensis
Gran Dolina
7
“The Pit of Bones”
500-400KYA
Suggested as first
evidence of special
disposal of dead
▪ But not burial per se
Lecture 10
8
DNA can be recovered from not-fullyfossilized bones
Sima de los Huesos has yielded the oldest
hominin DNA to date
Shows that these hominins were ancestral to
later Neandertals
Lecture 10
9
Much more complicated than Africa and
Europe
H. erectus remains a recognizable species
until possibly ~150KYA at Ngandong, Java
Chinese scholars argue erectus evolved into
sapiens in place, without influx of foreign
DNA
Lecture 10
10
Lecture 10
In Europe,
Heidelbergensis
evolves into
Neandertals
In Africa,
Heidelbergensis
evolves into Homo
sapiens
11
Lecture 10
12
A technique for
making stone tools
that involves specially
preparing the core so
that the shape of the
final flake is known
beforehand
Lecture 10
13
380KYA
Oldest known prepared structures
Lecture 10
14
Lecture 10
15
Appear in Europe by
about 130KYA
Adapted to the
extreme cold of the
European Ice Age
First discovered in
Germany’s Neander
River Valley in 1856
Lecture 10
16
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: Neandertals
classified as a subspecies of Homo sapiens
▪ Preferred until the 1980’s
Homo neanderthalensis: Neandertals as a
distinct species
▪ Became popular in the 1990’s
Lecture 10
17
Neandertals and modern humans are 99.84%
genetically identical
Modern non-African populations derive 1.52.1% of their DNA from Neandertals
So there was interbreeding, and they are a
subspecies: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Lecture 10
18
Stockier and more
robust than modern
humans
Bigger noses
Bigger teeth
Larger brain!
▪ Average about 1520cm3
▪ Compared to sapiens
average 1300-1400cm3
Lecture 10
19
Lecture 10
20
Image dates to 1908
Marcellin Boule’s
(mis-)interpretation of
La Chapelle-auxSaints, France
Lecture 10
21
El Sidrón, Spain: evidence of cannibalism &
patrilocal residence (men stay in their birth
groups, women move out to mate)
St. Cesaire, France, and Vindija, Croatia:
evidence of Neandertals living alongside
Homo sapiens
Lecture 10
22
Shanidar Cave, Iraq
▪ Neandertal burials
One burial is old man
(30-40 years) with
severe disabilities
Definite evidence of
provisioning and care
Lecture 10
23
Neandertal-like population found in Siberia
during the Late Pleistocene
Known from DNA analysis of only a couple
small bones
Lecture 10
24
The stone tool
technology associated
with Neandertals
Further develop
Levallois technique
Hafted stone tools
Very little use of bone
Lecture 10
25
Compared Neandertal
injuries to modern
humans
Most similar to rodeo
cowboys!
Lecture 10
26
For our purposes,
essentially a synonym
for “art”
Neandertals may not
have made any!
Lecture 10
27
Suggests Neandertals
were not capable of
symbolic thought in
the same was as
modern humans
Two computers with
similar hardware, but
different software
Lecture 10
28
Neandertal burials
▪ La Chapelle, France
▪ Tabun, Israel
▪ Shanidar, Iraq
▪ Many others
Purpose-dug graves
Standard, flexed
position
Occasionally, burial
goods
Lecture 10
29
Suggests belief in afterlife, therefore some
symbolic thinking
As old as 90KYA at Tabun, Israel
Lecture 10
30
Early Hominin
Evolution
Lecture 10
31
Later Hominin
Evolution
Lecture 10
32
Please initial the attendance
register at the front of the
room!
Lecture 11
1
Earliest fossils from
East Africa
Ca. 195KYA
Evolved out of
African Homo
heidelbergensis
Lecture 11
2
Lumpers consider H. sapiens to have
evolved from H. erectus
› They reject the designation Homo
heidelbergensis
Splitters accept Homo heidelbergensis,
and consider it directly ancestral to
Homo sapiens (of all subspecies)
Lecture 11
3
H. erectus
populations evolved
into H. sapiens in
place, throughout
their range
Primarily associated
with Milford Wolpoff
Significant gene flow
between regions.
Lecture 11
4
Europe
Asia
Lecture 11
5
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, then
migrated outward, completely replacing
earlier populations
Proposed in 1988 by Christopher Stringer
and Peter Andrews
Called “Out of Africa” model
Lecture 11
6
Uses DNA research to argue that all
modern humans descend from one
African Woman who lived about 200KYA
ago.
Rate of Mitochondrial DNA mutation is
known.
All known variation in mtDNA can
accumulate in 200,000 years
Lecture 11
7
A common ancestor of
all modern humans, who
donated the mtDNA line
that eventually mutated
into modern mtDNA
Not the only woman
alive, not all humans’ last
common ancestor
In fact, her real
significance is too
complex to worry with
here
Lecture 11
8
A male common ancestor of all living
human males. Donated the Y
chromosome that eventually diverged to
all modern Y chromosomes
Lived in Africa about 100KYA
A male analogue to Mitochondial Eve.
Lecture 11
9
Found in Portugal in
1998
Dates to 24.5KYA
Hybrid of Homo
sapiens sapiens and
Homo sapiens
neanderthalensis?
If so, then probably no
biological speciation
event!
Lecture 11
10
Lecture 11
DNA can be
recovered from
(some) Neandertal
bones
Most non-African
populations have
inherited 1.5-2.1% of
their DNA from
Neandertal
ancestors
11
Homo sapiens sapiens evolved in Africa
about 200KYA, then migrated out. They
mostly replaced earlier populations
(some of which were also Homo
sapiens), but with some limited
interbreeding.
Compromise between Regional
Continuity and Complete Replacement
Lecture 11
12
Cranial capacity 13001400cm3
Reduced brow ridges
Less projecting faces
Chin
All due to smaller teeth
Lecture 11
13
Omo Kibish, Ethiopia
› 195KYA
Klasies River Mouth,
South Africa
› 100KYA
Lecture 11
14
160-154KYA
One of the largest
collections of early
H. sapiens
Called Homo
sapiens idaltu
Lecture 11
15
As early as 130KYA in
modern Israel
Near contemporary
Neandertal sites
Tabun (Neandertal)
and Skuhl (Sapiens)
are only 3 miles
apart!
Lecture 11
16
Reaches Asia by about 40KYA
Important sites
› Zhoukoudian, China
› Tianyuan, China
› Ordos, Mongolia
In Australia at Lake Mungo ca. 30KYA
› but archaeology and modern DNA (no fossils)
suggest settlement from 55KYA
Lecture 11
17
Slow spread due to competition with
Neandertals?
Established in Europe by 35KYA
Lecture 11
18
Term for earliest
population of Homo
sapiens in Europe,
named after first site
at which early fossils
were found
Cro-Magnon site
found in 1868, dates
to 28KYA
Lecture 11
19
Very small-bodied
hominin species,
fossils of which were
first discovered in
Indonesia in 2004
Now redated to
~65KYA
› Still very recent!
Insular dwarfing?
Lecture 11
20
21
Lecture 11
Cultural period (esp. in Europe)
beginning about 40KYA associated with
Homo sapiens sapiens
Lecture 11
22
2.
3.
4.
5.
Aurignacian
Chattelperronian
Gravettian
Solutrean
Magdalenian
Timeline
Industries
1.
Lecture 11
23
Introduces bone, ivory, and antler as common
tool materials
Lecture 11
24
Lecture 11
Made by the last
Neandertals
Some innovative
ideas adopted from
Aurignacian and
added to Mousterian
25
Lecture 11
Nothing of particular
interest to nonexperts
26
Introduces pressure flaking!
Lecture 11
27
Flint-knapping by
directly striking the
stone core with a
hard object—usually
a hammerstone
Lecture 11
28
Removing a flake
with steady pressure
from a pointed
implement.
Invented by
Solutrean flintknappers.
Lecture 11
29
Lecture 11
Lots of innovation!
30
A hooked handle used to throw a spear with
much more power and precision than handthrowing. Invented in Magdalenian period.
Lecture 11
31
Possibly invented in
late Magdalenian
period.
Lecture 11
32
Removing flakes by
hitting a punch
rather than hitting
the core directly.
Invented in the
Magdalenian and
allows creation of
blades.
A.k.a. “Punch Blade
Technique”
Lecture 11
33
Long, narrow flakes with straight, parallel sides.
Lecture 11
34
Lecture 11
35
Lecture 08
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register at the front of the room!
ANTH131 Lecture 8
EARLY HOMININS
1
Lecture 08
THE HUMAN EVOLUTION JIGSAW PUZZLE
You don’t know:
1.
2.
3.
What the final picture will look like
Whether you have all the pieces
Whether you’ve mixed up the pieces from several
puzzles
And you have to hunt down all the pieces
before you can even begin putting them
together
2
Lecture 08
ANTHROPOIDS
Monkeys and apes (and humans, since we are
apes)
All primates more closely related to humans
than are tarsiers
3
Lecture 08
EARLY PRIMATE SPECIES
Darwinius
Aegyptopithecus
Proconsul
Know this info
for the exam!
4
Lecture 08
ALSO KNOW FOR THE EXAM!
Dating methods discussed in the textbook
Oldowan Industry
5
Lecture 08
HOMININS
6
Lecture 08
HOMININ
The taxonomic term referring to all bipedal
hominoids back to the divergence with African
Great Apes. That is, it’s all species more
closely related to humans than are chimps and
bonobos
7
Lecture 08
MOSAIC EVOLUTION
A pattern of evolution in
which the rate of
evolution in one
functional system varies
from that in other
systems
8
Lecture 08
SO HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE A HOMININ?
Bipedalism: Walking on
two feet
Hominins are not the
only bipedal animals!
Birds
Some dinosaurs
Kangaroos
But Hominins are the
only bipedal primates
9
Lecture 08
THE “NEW” TAXONOMY
Hominids: Great Apes and
humans
Hominins: Human ancestors
since split with Chimps and
Bonobos
THE “TRADITIONAL” TAXONOMY
Pongids: Great Apes
Hominids: Human ancestors
since split with Chimps and
Bonobos
HOMININ VS. HOMINID
10
Lecture 08
THE GREAT APES
Traditional Taxonomy
Pongids
Hominids
New Taxonomy
Hominids
Hominins
11
Lecture 08
BIPEDALISM
“Serial Monopedalism”
Most
of the time, only one foot is on the ground
Habitual bipedalism: bipedal locomotion as the
form of locomotion shown by hominins most of
the time
Obligatory bipedalism: bipedalism as the only
(efficient) form of hominin locomotion
12
Lecture 08
THESE ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
ALTERNATIVES!!!!!!!
Do you have any other options?
Bipedalism
Yes
No
A lot
Habitual, but not Obligatory
Example: Ardipithecus
ramidus
Both Habitual and Obligatory
Example: Most hominins,
including us
Seldom
Neither Habitual nor
Obligatory
Example: Chimps
Logically impossible. Such an
animal
wouldn't move at all.
How often
do you do
it?
13
Lecture 08
REASONS FOR BIPEDALISM?
Carrying tools: bipedalism frees the hands to
hold tools
Taller: bipeds are taller than quadrupeds, so
can see farther
Whatever reason, had evolved by 4.4MYA
14
Lecture 08
BIPEDAL ADAPTATIONS
Pelvis is shorter
Pelvis forms a sort of
bowl below abdomen
15
Lecture 08
BIPEDAL ADAPTATIONS
Legs are longer
Femurs angle in slightly
16
Lecture 08
BIPEDAL ADAPTATIONS
Big toes does not diverge, is not opposable
17
Lecture 08
BIPEDAL ADAPTATIONS
Foramen magnum moved
forward
18
Lecture 08
EARLY HOMININ EVOLUTION
19
Lecture 08
PRE-AUSTRALOPITHS
6-4.4MYA
End of the Miocene epoch (25-5MYA) and
beginning of the Pliocene epoch (5-1.8MYA)
Most poorly understood phase
20
Lecture 08
SAHELANTHROPUS TCHADENSIS
“Man of the Sahel from
Chad”
Earliest possible
hominin fossil
~6MYA
Forested region far from
East African fossil beds
21
Lecture 08
ORRORIN TUGENENSIS
~6MYA
East Africa
Only postcranial fossils
22
Lecture 08
ARDIPITHECUS
5.8 - 4.4MYA
Most well-known is
Ardipithecus ramidus
(AKA “Ardi”)
23
Lecture 08
AUSTRALOPITHECINES
“Southern Apes”
Two genera
Australopithecus
Paranthropus
About 4MYA to 1MYA
Plio-Pleistocene: the period straddling the Pliocene
epoch (5-1.8MYA) and the Early Pleistocene
(1.8MYA-780KYA)
24
Lecture 08
AUSTRALOPITHECUS ANAMENSIS
4 – 3MYA
Probably evolved from
Ardipithecus
Probably ancestral to all
later hominins
25
Lecture 08
AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFARENSIS
Most well known
australopithecine
4 – 3MYA
Best example is “Lucy”
(3.9-3.0MYA)
Still has a parallel dental
arch and sagittal crest
26
Lecture 08
A. AFARENSIS WAS FULLY BIPEDAL!
Shape of pelvis shows
this
As do the Laetoli (3.73.5MYA) fossilized
footprints
27
Lecture 08
A. AFARENSIS CHARACTERISTICS
Sexual dimorphism
Males
about 5 feet tall
Females about 3-4 feet tall
Small brain size
Cranial
capacity about 420cm3
Only slightly larger than an average chimp
28
Lecture 08
THE PLIOCENE ADAPTIVE RADIATION
29
Lecture 08
PARANTHROPUS
Evolves from A. afarensis
ca. 2.5MYA, dies out ca.
1MYA
“Robust
Australopithecines”
“Nutcracker Man”
But probably lived more off
of starchy and fibrous roots
than nuts
Several species, but you
don't need to know them
for this class
30
Lecture 08
THE SOUTHERN AUSTRALOPITHECINES
A. africanus
3 – 2MYA
Raymond Dart & the
Taung Child, 1924
First hominin discovery in
Africa
31
Lecture 08
THE SOUTHERN AUSTRALOPITHECINES
A. sediba
Just less than 2MYA
Shares
australopithecine and
homo traits
A transitional species?
32
Lecture 08
HOMO HABILIS
Probably 2.8-2.5MYA,
but mostly known from
fossils dating to 1.8MYA
Cranial capacity average
631cm3
Believed to have made
the earliest Oldowan
tools
33
Lecture 08
LOUIS LEAKEY & HOMO HABILIS
Initially discovered by
Louis Leakey
At Olduvai Gorge in
Tanzania (1.8MYA)
He believed H. habilis
had made the Oldowan
Industry stone tools
Thus, “Handy Man”
34
Lecture 08
BUT NOT SO FAST!
Discoveries at Lomekwi suggest that stone tool
technology predates both Homo and
Paranthropus!
35
Lecture 08
HOMO RUDOLFENSIS
Some scholars divide H. habilis into two
species: habilis and rudolfensis
But others argue both should be considered
australopithecines!
Teeth
and some of their brain sizes are both within
ranges known for Australopiths!
36
Lecture 08
THE NEXT STEP
After 1.4MYA, only
Homo erectus and last
of Paranthropus fossils
are left in East Africa
37
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