Anth 102

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CUNY Queens College *

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102

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Introduction to Human Evolution- TOPIC 1 What is anthropology? ● The study of humankind ● The study of all aspects of the human species, including our biology, culture, and language ● The science that investigates human biological and cultural variation and evolution 4 subfields: 1. cultural - looking at societies that are alive 2. Archaeology- looking at the material culture; not alive 3. Linguistic- looking at the language evolution 4. Physical (biological)- human evolution and variation of both past and present Biological (physical) anthropology: ● Variation- ○ differences between individuals within a population and between populations ○ Anthropologists are interested in the variation in terms of both biology and culture ○ Variation is important because without it there would be a lot more extinction ● Evolution- change over time ○ Cultural and biological ○ The study of the change in allele frequencies over time ■ Everytime a baby is born it displays this allele frequency 4 Subfields of Biological Anthropology: 1. Paleoanthropology- study of the human fossil record, paleolithic archaeology 2. Human genetics- study of human genome 3. Primatology- study of human primates 4. Osteology- study of skeletons Hominin VS Hominid: ● Hominin- humans and all humanlike ancestors after the split between chimpanzees and humans (more narrow) ● Hominid- great apes, humans, and their ancestors (more broad) Primates: ● Group of mammals in the order primates ● Share characteristics: ○ Large brains ○ Forward facing eyes ○ Increased reliance on visual sense ○ Fingernails ○ Reduced sense of smell ● They Humans: are: apes, humans, old world/new world monkeys, tariser What's unique about humans? ● Bipedalism- using two legs to walk ● Non- honing complex- no spaces between canines, reduced in size and shape ● Material culture- we rely on material objects ● Symbolic behavior

○ Material culture ○ Language ○ Speech- increase chance of survival ● Hunting ● Domestication of food items The Scientific Method: 1. Observe a natural phenomenon 2. Collect data 3. Propose hypothesis and test them 4. Draw conclusion Characteristics of Science: ● Scientists believe that an organized reality exists in nature ● Things that occur through natural processes that can be studied ● Principles can be formulated to explain how things work in nature ○ Ex: how raindrops are formed How we know what we know: ● Origin of bipedalism ○ Darwin hypothesis: ■ Environment change ■ Freed hands for tool use- by walking on two feet you can carry the tools that you created with your hands ○ Data: ■ Upright walking evolved in forest habitats ■ Stone tools were much later ■ Hypothesis rejected ● Natural processes govern how different kinds of creatures appear and how creatures are transformed from one kind to another ● Theory: a general statement intending to explain nature that is confirmed by evidence such that it can be predicted the new, as yet unobserved phenomena Some theories: 1. Germ theory of illness 2. The round earth theory Characteristics of Science: ● Facts- verifiable truth ● Inference- conclusions drawn from evidence ● Hypothesis- a testable explanation of observed facts (an educated guess) ● Testability- scientific hypothesis must be testable ● Theory- a hypothesis that explains concrete facts, have been tested and cant be rejected 1. Observation- problem identified 2. Hypothesis- testable explanation of observed facts ex: dark colors attract heat better than light colors 3. Hypothesis tested- this is where you can get a verifiable truth 4. Theory - a hypothesis that explains concrete facts, have been tested and cant be rejected Theory of Evolution:

● Change over time ● Evolution is a fact Scientific Theory: ● Natural selection is the scientific theory that explains how organisms are biologically transformed ○ Natural Selection is survival of the fittest: ■ Heredity differences give a higher rate of survival ■ Peppered moth* ● Inorder for Natural selection to happen you need: ○ Variation- individuals in a population vary from one another ○ Inheritance- parents pass on traits to their offspring ○ Selection- some variants produce more than others ○ Time- successful variations accumulate over time ● Natural selection acts on the traits you already have ● Adaptation- advantageous changes brought by natural selection. Increased survival ○ Morphological ○ Physiological ○ Behavioral Evolution by Natural Selection explains: ● Appearance of new diseases ● Evolution on antibiotic resistant bacteria ● Fossil record: extinct species, new species ● Relationships between organisms Development of evolutionary Theory- TOPIC 2 Pre-scientific European views:* ● Grand design- G-d created the world ● Stasis- the world is a fixed and unchanging because it's perfect ● Great-chain of Being- life is arranged the simplest to complex The scientific Revolution: The path to natural selection- ● Nicolaus copernicus: ○ Heliocentric theory- earth is around the sun ● Galileo Galilei: ○ First use of telescope to study stars ○ Universe is dynamic ○ Earth moves and is not a focal point ● Keppler, Descartes, and Newton- established laws of physics, motion, and gravity ● *John Ray- 1 genus multiple species ○ First definition of genus and species ■ Cains= genus ● Genus familiar ● Genus lupus ● Genus rufus ● Carolus Linnaeus- proposed a system of classification. “Father of Modern Taxonomy” ● Classification goes from broad to specific ● John Baptiste Lamarck-

○ proposed a hypothesis of how human evolution occurred within the species level but has been rejected ○ Ex: if you dye your hair pink then it will be passed to your offsprings ○ They try to modify their phenotype but that won't be transferred to its offspring ○ It was the first attempt to explain evolution ○ It was about inheritance of acquired characteristics ■ Traits acquired during life passed on to the offspring ● Georges cuvier ○ Introduced the concept of extinction and the theory of catastrophism ○ Things happen in nature and it will lead to catastrophic events ex: extinction of dinosaurs ○ He thought the earth was only thousands of years old ● Charles Lyell- ○ Father or geology ○ He realized the earth was millions of years old ○ Uniformitarianism- earth's features result from long term processes that operate in the present as they did in the past. “The present is the key to the past” ○ Unless there are geological disturbances the older things are on the bottom ● Thomas Malthus ○ Intrigued by the amount of resource and population ○ Population growth is kept in check by resource availability ○ When resource goes down competition goes up ● Charles Darwin* ○ Theory of Natural selection ○ Interested in: biological variation within a species is critically important ○ Interested in: sexually reproduction plays a role in increasing variation ● Alfred Russell Wallace ○ Came up with the same conclusion as Darwin ○ Worked in south america but mostly southeast asia ○ Independently developed theory of natural selection ○ Both him and Darwin are credited for the theory of natural selection* Principles of Inheritance- TOPIC 3 Evolution: ● Two types: ○ 1. A change in the genetic structure of a population- microevolution. Ex: everytime a baby is born (alleles will be different in the child) ○ 2. Appearance of a new species- macroevolution ■ Takes a very long time (millions of years) Darwin's Postulates:* Need these 4 to happen in order to have Natural Selection: 1. Competition- Populations can grow infinitely, but environment limits growth 2. Organism must vary within population 3. Variation affects the likelihood to survive, reproduce 4. Variations transmitted from parents to offspring

Natural Selection- mechanisms for change favoring the survival and reproduction of some organisms over others because of hereditary differences between them. Fitness:* ● The potential- measure of relative reproductive success of individuals (men can have way more than women) ● May vary with the environment Reproductive success: ● The actual- how many offspring an individual has that survive to reproduce themselves Selective Pressures: ● Forces in the environment that influence reproductive success in individuals Evolutionary change through Natural Selection: 1. Traits must be inherited 2. Traits must vary between individuals 3. Fitness is a relative measure that changes as the environment changes Perceived problems with Darwins: ● Blending inheritance- they thought that you were half your mom and half your dad ● Selection depletes variation- they thought variation disappears ● How can selection lead to new types not seen in ancestral population? Blending inheritance: ● Offspring will have a mix of parental traits Selection depletes variation?: ● Meiosis adds variation ● Might be other variation that we cant see with our naked eye ● By reproducing you add variation ● Artificial selection brings variation Darwin couldn't resolve these issues: ● He didn't have a physical model for how genetic transmission works Gregor Mendel: ● Basis of genetic inheritance ● Experiments provide foundation for genetic information Mendel's experiments: ● Pure breeding population of plants- same traits across generations ● He crossed different pure breeding plants ● F0- parental generation ● F1- first hybrid generation ● F2- second hybrid generation ● TT= two dominant alleles (homozygous) ● tt= two recessive alleles (homozygous) ● Tt= one dominant allele and one recessive allele (heterozygous) 1 TT= tall 2 Tt= tall 1 tt= short. 75% tall and 25%short Results: ● Traits are controlled by discrete units- genes ● Genes occur in pairs- 1 from mom and 1 from dad ● Meiosis is when egg and sperm cells combine through fertilization

● Genotype reflects phenotypes ● Alleles- different versions of a gene (ex: TT,Tt,tt) ● This system applies to all species but not all genes ● Observed characteristics of organisms are determined jointly by two particles (alleles), one from mom and one from dad ● EX: shoe box= gene and Shoes= alleles Definitions: ● Humans have 46 chromosomes and 23 pairs ● Gene- a sequence of DNA coding for a protein ● Locus- particular position where you find a particular gene ● Allele- different versions of the gene at a locus ● Genotype- particular combination of alleles ● Phenotype- how the genotype is physically expressed ● Homozygous- two copies of the same allele ● Heterozygous- copies of two different alleles DNA: ● Trapped in the wall of the nucleus ● RNA is what transfers the DNA ● karyotype*- picture of the 23 pairs of chromosomes ● “X” chromosome is necessary Mendel's 1st Principle: adding variation ● Principle of segregation- gametes receive individual allele ○ Gamete production- genes separate so each gamete contains one member of a pair ○ Fertilization- full number of chromosomes is restored ● Found that one trait can mask another Medel also performed crosses with two traits: Mendel's 2nd Principle ● Principle of independent assortment- genes controlling different traits are inherited independently if they aren't linked (not on the same chromosome) Linkage- when genes are located on the same chromosome Recombination (crossing over) ● The exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes during meiosis ● When does this happen? Before the first cell division ● It increases phenotypic variation and genetic variation ● It happens only during meiosis Mendelian Traits ● Combination of genes that are going to determine the visible characteristics that an individual is going to display ● Characteristics that are influenced by one pair of genes ● Sickle-cell anemia and Tay Sachs diseases are mendelian traits ● A one to one relationship ○ If you have one copy (only one allele coding for that particular trait) you'll display that trait Cell, Chromosome, and Molecular Genetics: pt.1 TOPIC 4 The cell: ● Basic unit of life

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