Keebra 2 Hyoid Similarities

Homo Heidelbergensis: Lower half of skull pops out more than the rest of the ‘homo skulls’

Neanderthals were a species of archaic humans who migrated out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. However, around 40,000 years ago the large populations of Neanderthals died off and became extinct. The mysterious circumstances that surrounded their extinction drove various research teams to undertake the task of excavating numerous Neanderthal sites to collect fossilized bones, and artifacts in order to learn more about this group of ancestral humans. Over the past years, major technological advances have allowed researches to analyze the fossilized remains of the Neanderthals which led to major discoveries. For example, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that the ear ossicles of Neanderthals and modern humans had similar functions but differed in terms of structure. In the study, the researchers used high-resolution computer tomography (CT) to scan numerous Neanderthal skulls from different sites in order to determine if there are ossicles present in the middle ear cavity (tympanic membrane). The scans revealed ossicles in fourteen different skulls which came as a surprise to the researchers since the bones of the ossicles are fragile and break down easily in the soil. The researchers then used microcomputed tomography scans and 3D geometric morphometrics in order to virtually reconstruct the bones of the ossicles which are composed of the malleus, incus and stapes. The 3D reconstructions of the ossicles allowed the scientists to

Over the years, several techniques involving the analysis of human skeletal remains for the purposes of ancestral classification have been developed. Many of the earliest techniques involved the visual comparison of different morphoscopic traits and subsequent classification based on the anthropologist’s subjective opinion. Although many of these non-metric techniques have been shown to be

They were found in Africa 600-200kya, Asia 200-130kya, and European 800-200kya. They had big cranial capacity. They were using Acheulean tools. They led to the development of Neanderthal, the closed ancestor of modern human. They occupied the continents from 130-30kya. There fossils were excavated in Neander Valley, Germany in 1856 by C. Fuhlrott. Their cranial and postcranial features were close to the modern human. They had thin cranial bone, which the capacity was about 1500cc; barrel-chested; and short distal limb segment. Neanderthal climate had changed significantly to cold weather. According to Bergmann’s and Allen’s rule, populations living in cold climates tend to have larger body (trunk) sizes and shorter extremities than those living in warm regions (“Human Biological Adaptability: Adapting to Climate Extremes”). Neanderthals developed Mousterian Tool Industry with greater variety of more standardized tool type. The high quality raw material was occasionally used. They used tools for cutting plant material, meat, scraping hides, and sharping tools. Sometimes, shaped bone was used as raw material. Those tools were stable over time and space. There are some new evidences that the Neanderthal had showed the artistic expression. At more than 39,000 years old, the etchings rival in age the oldest cave art in Europe — and they are the first to be unquestionably done by a Neanderthal (Rodríguez-Vidal, J. et

Another interesting conclusion derived from research has been the decreased degree of humeral torsion present in Homo floresiensis (Larson, et al.). When this metric is compared to the modern Homo sapiens, it is clear that the hobbit species did not have a large range of humeral rotation. This low degree of rotation indicates that the elbows of Homo floresiensis allowed for greater articulation on

Viewed from the side, the occipital bone is somewhat bun-shaped. The forehead rises more vertically than that of a H. Erectus, and the brow ridges arch over the orbits instead of forming a straight bar. The Neanderthals were robust, barrel-chested, powerfully muscled. They also had a large, thick skull, a sloping forehead, and a chinless jaw. This robust skeletal structure, in fact, dominates hominin evolution from H. Erectus through all premodern forms. (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan and Ciochon. p.370). Neanderthals had a compact body of short stature. Males averaged 1.7 m (5ft 5in) tall and an estimate to weigh 84kg (185lb), and females averaged 1.5 m (5ft) tall and an estimate 80kg (176lb). (Smithsonian 2007c). Neanderthals also differed from modern Homo Sapiens in that they had a low forehead, double arched brow ridge, larger nasal area, projecting cheek region, weak chin, obvious space behind the third molar, heavily-built bones, broad scapula, short lower leg and arm bones relative to the upper portions, occasional bowing of the limb bones, the hip rotated outward, a long and thin pubic bone, and large joint surfaces of the toes and long bones. (Smithsonian 2007c). Neanderthals had noses that were broad and very large. They had limb bones that were thick and had large joints which indicate they had strongly muscled arms and legs. The shin bones and forearms tended to be shorter than those of modern humans. The pelvis was wider from side to side

Decoding Neanderthals is an analysis of the Neanderthal genome shows that modern humans and Neanderthals had interbred some 60,000 years ago. It all started with our ancestors making their way from Africa to Europe. The ones who were in Africa evolved into humans and the ones who went to Europe developed into Neanderthals. They were also known as “Cavemen”. People saw them as some type of weird specie but the more you learn about them the more you start to realize that they are a lot like us humans.

Ever since Neanderthals have been discovered they have been misunderstood. From their name, physical traits, and their brain power we have misrepresented them in our novels, comic sketches, cartoons, movies and even in scientific literature for a while. Recently in the past couple of decades we have been gaining a better perspective of them through advancements in technology and scientific methods.

Paleoanthropologist discover a skeleton of an 8 year old Neanderthals boy recovered from El Sidrón cave in Spain. Based on the skeleton, Dr.Rosas and his team studied the ancient Neanderthal remains and made an analysis of how the Neanderthal’s brain is different from modern day brain. The Neanderthal people’s brain are much larger but take longer time to grow.

A study co-authored by Lauren Gonzales of Duke University and Fred Spoor of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology sheds some light on some long-held secrets of the ancient skull. Prior to their research, it was commonly thought and generally accepted that primate brains first grew in size, and then in complexity. However, the 3-D brain image that they were able to construct after using

The developmental differences that do exist between Neanderthals and H. sapiens may have a distant evolutionary beginning. An analysis of some 17 skulls dated to 430,000 years ago discovered at the fossil site of Sima de los Huesos, in the Atapuerca Mountains in northern Spain, has shown that members of the population, believed to have been Neanderthal ancestors, had smaller brains than later members of the lineage. The discovery suggests that Neanderthals did not inherit their large brain size from the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans; instead the two species experienced a comparable brain expansion later in their development. Although Neanderthal brains became approximately as large as those of H. sapiens, this independent

Again, according to the Human Origins’ article the homo neanderthal lived approximately 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in “Europe and Southwestern to Central Asia”. Page 367 of the text describes their features as, “wide nasal apertures, a projecting face; an occipital bun; a long, low skull; large front teeth (some with heavy wear); a wide stocky body; and short limbs” (Larsen). Neanderthal’s teeth are some of the largest known to man, explained Larsen (371). Also, often times, they used their teeth as a means of carrying things, so their front teeth suffered a lot of wear and tear, and those details can be found on page 369 of the text.

When trying to determine why Neanderthals cease to exist after modern humans arrived in Europe, many researchers hypothesis that either climactic changes or competition with modern humans was the cause. Some research indicates that Neanderthals were unable to cope with the sheer number of modern humans on the landscape. For others it was the arid climate causing a loss to their habitation. Still some researchers ascertain that Neanderthals never truly left the landscape due to interbreeding between modern humans and themselves. Archaeological evidence in the form of stone tools is used in order to determine whether a site was Neanderthal or modern human. Neanderthal technology favors Mousterian, whereas modern humans used Aurignacian. The differences between these two types of tools are whether flake- based is used as opposed to blade-based technology (Banks et al., 2008:e3972).

The earliest H. erectus is found in Arica, and one of most spectacular fossil comes from Nariokotome. According to these fossils, the anthologists found that H. erectus share some features with modern human beings. Firstly, the ratio of arm length and leg length of H. erectus is much more like human being. This feature means that H. erectus has adapted the life on the ground. Secondly, H. erectus has a larger brain size. Thirdly, a sets of footprints that are found in Ileret show us the footprints that can be dated to 1.5 may and we notice that H. erectus can walk like modern humans because they have same feet with us. In the process of cleaning the face bone of the Bodo skull, Tim White notice that there are many marks that left on the cheek, and he think these marks were made by stone tool and maybe it is a form of ritual, which may be a evidence that human try to

The human foot is an example of micro-evolutionary and macro-evolutionary changes. It has had to adapt to bipedal walking and the stress that is caused by being upright. To identify changes in the human foot; comparative, molecular, and biocultural approaches and their paradigms are used. Therefore, different, and cumulative approaches are needed to make informed hypotheses in biological anthropology. The foot will be shown as an example of approaches commonly used and the resulting perspectives in biological anthropology.