Homo Erectus Culture

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

At least 222 fossils of Homo erectus have been found to date throughout Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe that support these statistics

All animals with limbs have a common design. If a batwing were to be formed from a person’s hand, make the fingers extremely long; a horse elongates the middle fingers and reduce and lose the outer ones; frogs elongate the bones of the leg and fuse several of them together. All in all, despite radical changes in what limbs do and what they look like, this underlying blueprint is always present.

For many animals, the ability to move is essential for survival. Animals move for a variety of reasons such as: to find food, a mate, a habitat to live in, or to escape predators. It is important for animals to develop new abilities and traits to accomplish these necessities of living. Natural selection has shaped the locomotion methods and mechanisms used by moving organisms for millions of years. Generally, non-human primates are studied to garner an understanding of evolution caused by natural selection because of the many distinctive adaptations that have occurred within their taxonomic order. To understand the origin of locomotion that exist amongst primates, the two categories of primates must be analyzed to recognize morphological trait differences. Then, three major determinants can be evaluated to describe the variety of locomotor patterns primates display: the ecological niches in which the primate originates, the current inhabited niches, and the major key aspects of survival such as

In site one, where the Parahomo fracticranius was discovered, it can be assumed that the habitat for the species was an open grassland due to the fact that other fossils of animals that lived in the area were grazers. Since there were 14 remains of both male and female sexes, it can be assumed that the P. fracticranius lived in a large multi-male, multi-female system. Based on the lectures from class, it is known that for most cases, multi-male, multi-female environments result in polypoly mating (Atkisson Lecture: Primate mating systems and primate evo). Therefore, it can be assumed that the P. fracticranius not only engaged in polypoly mating, but they also had some sexual dimorphism and large testes. The evidence that supports the sexual dimorphism claim can be seen when the body size of the female and male are compared since the male’s body size is 41 kg larger than the female’s.

This article shows how Paleoanthropologist David Lordkipanidze and his group of archeologist discovered a 1.8 million-year-old skull fossil that could lead to knowing more about the earliest known ancestors of humans that ventured outside of Africa. Lordkipanidze’s excavation in the Georgia site known as Dmanisi. With this archeology find, it has been concluded that all early fossil humans belong to the same species known as Homo erectus. The article explains that the Dmanisi hominins had brains less than half the size of a modern human’s, and are key to understand the evolution and expansion these ancestors experienced from Africa to Eurasia. Genetic studies indicate that their expansion began from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. The article also mentions that with these new findings there can be a better ground from where to start to understand these ancestors as how they lived and socialized. Lordkipanidze does mention that the Dmanisi “were very primitive, we think there were social groups that connected with each other and learned from each other”.

The main component of human evolution involves change. Because of the significant differences between each of the hominids and the ancestors of the chimpanzee determined by the categories of muzzle angle, Position of forearm Magnum, cranial capacity and finally the brain size to body weight ratio, provides exclusive data that the evolution of each of the species changed constantly over time. The phylogeny above was determined based on the data collected using the aspects above as the sole evidence on this subject matter. The time period in which they lived (refer to

The significance of finding these traits primitive in nature compared to the apes is that it shows how these are specialisations for apes to better access their terrestrial and tree dwelling environments. It also indicates that hominids did not develop these traits and therefore developed a less specialised grasping hand (Lovejoy et al., 2009a). Further evidence to support the hypothesis that Ardipithecus ramidus were both bipedal for tree dwelling life and land living is in the wrist bones. The bones were less fixed with the joints providing mobility to the hand. The most significant feature is the midcarpal joint, which shows increased flexibility that would allow Ardipithecus ramidus the ability to bear its body weight solely on it’s hands whilst moving throughout trees (Lovejoy et al., 2009a). The length of the upper limbs overall would have been difficult to support vertical climbs and aid in reaching longer distances between trees commonly found in arboreal settings (Sarmiento et al., 2011)

Tattersall’s main argument in this book is how and why we are so different from not only our ancestors, but the rest of nature. Masters of the Planet goes into some detail on the skeletal features of all of our distant relatives but also focuses on aspects of social behavior, bipedalism, losing bodily hair, diet

Some surprising discoveries reveal aesthetics and abstract thought in Neanderthal cultures that predate the arrival of H. sapiens. These finds include the engraving and signs of feather use from Gorham's Cave. In fact, artifacts of this nature have been discovered at archaeological sites across Europe. At the Grotta di Fumane in Italy's Veneto region, archaeologists found evidence of feather use and the fossil of a snail shell which had been collected from at least 100 kilometers away that had been stained red, suspended on a string and worn as a pendant at least 47,600 years ago. The sites of Cueva de los Aviones and Cueva Antón in southeastern Spain have also yielded seashells bearing traces of pigment. Some seem to have served as cups for

The males were typically seen to be taller in height than the females, but with each member having a different height the trait can vary among offspring. If the environment demands for taller offspring then it will naturally select for that trait among individuals,

The Homo erectus fossils were first discovered in October 1891 on the island of Java, Indonesia by Dutch anatomist named Eugene Dubois during his research in finding more fossils he named “the missing link.” Initially, Dubois found a petrified skullcap “with a cranial capacity of slightly over 900 cm” by the Solo River, nearby the town of Trinil; and then, in 1892, a human femur unearthed 15 yards away from where he discovered the skullcap and so, Dubois presumed and claimed that both skullcap and femur pertain to the same individual and named it Pithecanthropus erectus. Based on the study of Javanese geology, the fossils of all Javanese Homo erectus have derived from the eastern part of the island, and so, most of the fossils belong to Early

Peter, 103). Thus, bipedalism of living hominids is considered to be more efficient than quadrupedalism (Rodman, S. Peter, 104). The morphology of locomotion is often a comprise with other dimensions of existence (Rodman, S. Peter, 105).

These two models provide insights into how bipedalism evolved from quadrupedal type of locomotion. Though the arguments are supported by numerous evidences, there are actually still a lot of things need to be explained, and they all seem to have something in common, which is to ensure the continuity of the

They were full bipedal and their brain size and brain patterns evolved by increasing (590-687 cc). Their diet was mainly meat which might have an influence on their rapid growth of their brains. (Tobias 1987).