Australopithecus Afarensis, and Australopithecus Africanus Essay

Homo erectus was first found in Africa and the fossilized remains dated 1.8 and 1.0 million years old. The Homo erectus traits are very similar toward the modern human traits. Homo erectus brain size was smaller than the Homo sapiens. Homo erectus had a brain size of approximately 650 cc and Homo sapiens had a brain size of approximately 1251

In the quest to explain human origins it is necessary to find a species that bridges modern man (Homo sapiens) with the apes. To fill this gap evolutionists have set forth Homo erectus, who lived approximately 400,000 to 1.6 million years ago (Johanson and Shreeve1989). Although the distinctions are somewhat vague, below the neck, Homo sapiens and Homo erectus are practically Identical and Homo erectus was responsible for pioneering the use of standard tools (such as the hand axe), big-game hunting, and the use of fire (Johanson and Shreeve1989).

In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.

They also had differences. The adapids happened to be huge, with a 1kg body mass. They had small orbits, implying diurnal lifestyles. These species ate fruits and leaves because

Afropithecus is a fairly large extinct ape- 50kg, characterized by a lack of a prehensile tail, long snout with procumbent incisors, generalized limb proportions and thick molar enamel. The braincase of Afropithecus is fairly small in size compared to other Miocene apes and Old World Monkeys from the same area. The primitive characteristics of Afropithecus suggest a relation to early catarrhines- such as Aegyptopithecus. And the post-cranial fossil record suggest that it was both arboreal and quadrupedal, similar to the proconsul that Afropithecus is categorized

There were 24 Neanderthal remains and 40 early modern human remains that were studied. The bimolecular preservation of DNA of five early humans and four Neanderthals was helpful enough for the preservation.

The first true evolution of primates goes all the way back to 55 million years ago.. Primates descend in two orders, Stepsirrhini and Haplorrhini. The Stepsirhines were the first of the suborders to unfold. That term is identical with prosimians. Prosimians are defined as a “pre-monkey” in Latin(anthro.palomar.edu). Evidence was not shown until the 20th century of prosimians evolving before the monkey. A stepsirhine that is still alive and studied today are lemurs. Lemurs are the oldest ancestors of monkeys, apes, and humans. There is research of a Lemur’s past and present habitats, discovered theorists, predators, diet, life expectancy, large number of subspecies, and fossils collected about Lemurs.

The eight primates whose sequences were used are: Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human), Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Neanderthal), Pan troglodytes (chimpanzee), Pan paniscus (bonobo), Gorilla gorilla (gorilla), Pongo abelii (Sumatran orangutan), Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean orangutan), and Hylobates lar (gibbon). Based on morphological similarities, it is hypothesized that Neanderthal is the most closely related species to humans. For instance, both species walk up right, have large brains, were able to develop and create tools and had spoken language—although more research is still needed to say for certain that Neanderthals did have spoken language. Additionally, it is also hypothesized that modern human and Neanderthal are both more closely related to the sister group of bonobo and chimpanzee, then to gorilla, then to the sister taxa of Sumatran orangutan and Bornean orangutan, and lastly the gibbon (the outgroup of this data). Hence, by developing the order of these eight primates through genetic data and phylogenetic character analysis, we can gain a new insight into the evolution of

The “wrist morphology” is more similar to that of African ape/humans than that of Neanderthals or Homo Sapiens (iv.). The reason that this is contradictory to the theory that Lb1 is simply a mutated member of Homo Erectus is that the wrist structure actually forms during the early stages of prenatal development greatly decreasing the possibility that the wrist structure could have been a modified version of modern Homo’s. This evidence would indicate that Lb1 belongs to a species of Homo that branched off before the evolution of the modern wrist structure that was prevalent in more recent

However the minority of species that branch off from the human evolutionary tree and are either claimed by extinction or evolved down a second evolutionary branch, and what differences existed in them that differed from our ancestors. The species such as Australopithecus Boisei lived in the same time period to that of Australopithecus Africanus and Aferensis. However based off the information (See research booklet) it I notice that the A. Boisei has a significantly decreased brain to body weight

This week’s video is about how humans evolved and their ancestor, homo erectus. The homo erectus were the first apes to be able to walk on two feet just like humans. They evolved from apes about two million years ago. Compared to apes, homo erectus had bigger arms, longer legs, and bigger brains. This made them really similar to humans. They even have the same skeletal structure as humans. Although they have similarities they also have differences. Unlike humans the homo erectus had smaller brains and slightly larger jaw structures.Although they had smaller brains they were able to think more advanced than apes. They also grew at a faster rate than humans. They are the perfect example of human evolution.

       In the article, "Natural History of Homo erectus" by Susan C. Antón discussed our view of H. erectus is different today than when Pithecanthropus erectus, then only the second fossil hominin taxon to be discovered, was described by Dubois (1894) (Antón, C. Susan, 162). H. erectus was the most primitive and smallest-brained of the fossil hominins (Antón, C. Susan, 162). Therefore, early observations expended significant effort showing that the Indonesian fossils from Trinil were actually hominins (Antón, C. Susan, 162). Thus, it took the dismissal of Piltdown and the broad acceptance of Australopithecus as a hominin ancestor, along with the substantial Asian

The next species to appear were the Homo erectus which might have descended from Homo habilis. They were the first human whose fossils were found outside of Africa. They also had larger brain than the species before them. Homo sapiens sapiens came after the Homo Neanderthalensis; they are the only human species around. This could have been due to the result of increase brain sizes that allows more cognitive abilities that help them adapt to different environment changes and hence survive. Global evidence have been found of art, music, and culture and advanced tool making. In Mithen’s 3 phase of mind proposes that the shape of the Neanderthals’ frontal lobe was similar to the one of the modern Homo sapiens and this indicated that they were able to cope with complex cognitive functioning. Evidence for this could be explained using the phonological approach by Frank Gall (1758-1828).

There has been a great deal of heated debate for the last few decades about where modern Homo sapiens originated. From the battle grounds, two main theories emerged. One theory, labeled “Out-of-Africa” or “population replacement” explains that all modern Homo sapiens evolved from a common Homo erectus ancestor in Africa 100,000 years ago. The species began to spread and replace all other archaic human-like populations around 35,000 to 89,000 years ago. The rivaling opinion, entitled the “regional continuity” theory or “multiregional evolution” model refutes this theory and states modern humans evolved from various species of Homo erectus who interbred with others that lived in

Hominids with a brain absolutely and relatively larger than that of the australopithecines appeared about 2.3 million years ago. These hominids are classified in our own genus: Homo. The earliest species to appear was the Homo Habilis. It was the first of our ancestors to show a significant increase in brain size and also the first to be found associated with stone tools. These characteristics resulted in this species’ placement into the human genus, Homo.