Hominina Essays

Chapter 1: Before History (to 2500 BCE) Hominids adapted to only walking on two legs after spending more time on the ground. They started walking upright in East Africa 6 and 7 million years ago. Hominid means a primate of a family. They can adapt themselves to environments such as the use of tools, and language, which connects to their culture. The hominids can use their language to help them communicate to others for protection and defense. These are forms of identity, such as language and culture

Paranthropus is based on the Greek words, para meaning beside or near. Anthropus means man. This name indicates that Paranthropus is not directly descended from modern humans. Paranthropus Aethiopicus is categorized into the group: Robust Australopithecines. Paranthropus Aethiopicus is still to be much of a mystery to the world of anthropology due to the lack of species that have been found. For instance, we do not know the size or shape of the body that Paranthropus Aethiopicus species held. However

Donald Johnson had discovered an Australopithecus afarensis in Ethiopia during the year of 1974. Later to be named Lucy, this ape ended up being the, oldest potential ancestor for the hominid species, according to BBC. According to PBS, before her discovery, scientists had rationalized that the main trait that separated humans from apes was intelligence. This was based on the cranial capacity of the skull. Perhaps Lucy developed human-like features to hunt for food or possibly even to look over tall

Australopithecus africanus is one of the possible direct ancestor of Paranthropus robustus. separating new species in to cladograms is a very difficult task, the case of Paranthropus robustus is no different. The two most common arguments as to what is the direct ancestor of P. robustus is A. aferensis or Australopithecus africanus. Both of these two species have notable similarities and differences with P. robustus, and the answer to who is the ancestor is not cut and dry. The Pre Cranial morphology

It has been decades since paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson discovered the first fossilized bone of Australopithecus afarensis. Donald and his team had been surveying a remote area in Ethiopia when the discovery was made. Donald later unearthed vertebra, skull fragments, and a jaw bone further giving validity to a new hominid he would later name Lucy. It wouldn’t be for a few years, but the discovery would be labeled as the “missing link” between humans and a direct ancestor. The scientific community

The world of anthropology is ever changing and each new discovery can discredit multiple other discoveries. Laetoli, Tanzania has been one site that has discovered and rediscovered multiple species of hominins, but the greatest discovery there was an ancient footprint trail left by our hominin ancestors. There have been other footprint trails discovered in other parts of the world, but none as old as the Laetoli trail. The Laetoli footprints are important because it lets us look into the species

Australopithecines, early hominins, were characterized by fossil evidence as having a combination of ape-like and human traits (Eadie, 2015, 10/07/2015). Studies of australopithecines fossils indicated they had bipedalism locomotion, pelvis, leg bones and small teeth’s like modern humans (Eadie, 2015, 10/07/2015). With this, australopithecines human-like traits shed light to human evolution. Australopithecines’ skeleton structures tell us that our ancestors moved around in a bipedal locomotion.

In the movie Dawn of Humanity, it talked about how they were able to fill a huge gap of history dealing with human ancestry when they discovered skeleton remains in various locations. The first hominid remains the movie talked about was when Lee and his son found a fossil that contained a clavicle of a child they first thought it was a fossil of an antelope because of the abundant amount antelope fossils in that area. They brought more people back to that area and found even more fossils and brought

How humans came to walk on 2 feet while any relative of homo sapiens like apes, chimpanzees, or monkeys walk quadrupedally has sparked many thoughts and questions about how this came to be, some scientists and anthropologists have produced educated guesses that are reinforced by evidence linking to their hypotheses being correct. The hypotheses of bipedalism and how it’s origins came to be are heavily debated still to this day. Some hypotheses are gaining more support than others as technology of

Article Review #3 The article “Ardipithecus ramidus: A New Kind of Ancestor: Ardipithecus Unveiled” written by Anna Gibbons, talks about how scientist learn many things about human evolution through artifacts of ancestors, DNA and bones. All of this helps reveals different things about our past and how we came to be. This article briefly mentions Lucy and it mainly focuses on the discovery of ardipithecus ramidus. In the short introductory paragraph, Gibbons mentions Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old

Geographically speaking, East Africa’s Great Rift Valley is home to a number of hominins including the Australopithecus. These fossils date back to 8 mya, closing a 4 million year gap, which we previously knew little about. A number of scientist hypothesized on the reasons for a shift to bipedalism. Charles Darwin proposed that the shift to bipedalism was motivated primarily by the desire to hunt. Early humans freed their hands so they would be able to carry weapons and tools. Peter Rodman

One of the many theories that Anthropologist are trying to answer is whether bipedalism or cranial capacity came first in the human ancestry. During recent discoveries, the fossils illustrate that bipedalism came first then the increase of human cranial capacity. Why was it important to be able to walk on two legs instead of the usual four? The evolution of bipedalism enables the human ancestor to use their free hands to create tools which was stated in earlier arguments. Some other arguments state

The discovery of a complete skeleton of an early hominin would involve a variety of scientists who are knowledgeable about the process of excavating and examining skeletal remains. The team of scientists would most likely comprise of paleoanthropologists, archaeologists, and geologists. Paleoanthropologists can provide analysis and interpretation of the fossil record determining the specimen’s age, behavior, and structure; but paleoanthropologists need the geological analysis for dating, archaeological