Paleolithic Unit 1 Study Guide

The Paleolithic Period is the earliest time period man has been alive, and the longest of the Stone Age's. It dates from 2,000,000 B.C to 10,000 BC The people of the Paleolithic Period lived simple lives, which consisted primarily of survival. Man's life was simply to hunt, eat, and survive, while the woman's job was to gather and watch over the children.

Paleolithic art is the oldest known style of art to mankind. It lasted from 42,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE. This is the time of when humans that are now referred to as cavemen existed. This is also the time period after the ice age. Paleolithic people were not confined to any specific geographic parameter because they were nomadic, but much evidence of Paleolithic life comes from parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. They often traveled from place to place depending on the availability of natural resources for survival. The term Paleolithic literally means Old Stone Age. They manufactured sharp weapons out of pebbles and rock in order to have stone tools available for hunting purposes. Hunting was a part of their livelihood and they depended heavily on it. They survived on hunting wild animals and birds, fishing and collecting fruits

Hominin is a group of modern humans, extinct human species and all of our immediate ancestors, such as members of Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Ardipithecus. Of those members, Australopithecus is one of the extinct genuses of hominins. Based on paleontological and archaeological findings, the Australopithecus genus evolved in Eastern African around 4 million years ago. During this time period, different australopithecine species emerged, including A. afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis and A. garhi – to name a few.

In tracing the direct ancestors of Homo sapiens sapiens, the five consequent Hominins I would include in the timeline of human evolutions: Australopithecus afarensis and africanus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Archaic Homo sapiens, and Homo Neanderthal. In 3.6 million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis is considered the earliest hominins that are close relative to Homo. Afarensis had slender body built, but relatively larger than modern humans, but with smaller brains, and a prognathic face. In 1975, the discovery of Lucy commonly referred as “first family”, reveals evidence of bipedalism. In 3.3 million years ago, Australopithecus africanus is considered extinct classified species as hominin. Africanus remain

Evolution is the theory that all living things form an ancient ancestor. Evolution is the process in which species have changed over time. Evolution mostly occurs when adapting to an environment. It happens when the gene is passed or inherited to future generations. When the mutation is passed on, the change helps living organism to survive and reproduce. Some offspring receive characteristics that are more successful at surviving. These characteristics can change over time and create a new species, while the previous becomes

Modern humans, who belong to a specie named Homo sapiens, continue to be until today the only living species in our genus. But 20,000 years ago there were other species of the genus Homo that are now referred as “hominins”. The discovering of Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, describe an unusual collection of hominins

Ancestors of H.ergaster/erectus were restricted to Africa and because of this paleontologist considered the notion that H. erectus evolved in Africa and then moved into Asia. However discoveries of fossils at Longgupo cave in central China have provided evidence that H. erectus may have evolved in Asia from earlier migrants (Freeman and Herron 2007). The fossils at Longgupo cave are similar to H. habilis and H. ergaster, both of which originated in Africa. The findings are significant in that they provide evidence that hominids inhabited Asia as early as 1.9 mya. The fossils also present morphological evidence that may represent a more primitive species related to H. ergaster, not H. erectus. This supports the theory that hominins migrated out of Africa before Homo ergaster evolved. In 1891 Eugene Dubois discovered the first Hominid fossils at Trinil, a village in Indonesia. The remains were assigned to Pithecanthropus erectus, which later became Homo erectus. Decades later remains were found at Zhoukoudian, a cave system in China. The hominid remains became known as ‘Peking man’ and were appointed to a new genus and species, but because of their resemblance to the hominids discovered in Indonesia at Trinil eventually became classified

The Lower Paleolithic period spans from 3.3 million to 300,000 years ago, during this period the first evidence for deliberate stone tool production and use by Hominins emerges. The two types of stone tools associated with the Lower Paleolithic are Oldowan and Acheulean, both constitute fairly crude forms of biface stone hand choppers, scrappers, and axes but are incredibly important in the biocultural evolution of Hominins. The advent of the use of stone tools marked a transition from a hunter-gatherer society to the development of hunting technologies that sparked several behavioral and physiological changes.

Paleolithic societies were nomadic hunters and gatherers, they would move from place to place in small groups based on food availability and environmental conditions. They made temporary shelter and the only form of tools available were fashioned with stone. Population stayed constant, impact on the environment was minimal, and in general, the society was considered egalitarian. This way of life persisted for over 2 million years, notably, a substantial change in environmental conditions led to one of the first major developments

The Paleolithic Era or the “Stone Age” was the beginning of humanity. The was the age of foraging and stone. People often lived in small groups of only close family. The only way to obtain food was by hunting and eating some plants, because of this people only had enough to feed their small group or family. These people relied on mainly animals and some plants which meant they moved when there food moved. Temporary homes were build with bones and hides which allowed them to move the homes when they food wasn't there. Hunting is just one job specialization. Some others include sewing, tracking animals and watching the kids. People traveled with only what they needed. The Great Thaw allowed people to travel to new places

Three hominin species that existed concurrently with early Homo sapiens are the Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and Homo erectus. Four hominin species that were alive 2.5 million years ago consist of Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo

Paleolithic painted in caves. They hunted and they gather. They learned how to make fire and how to tame it. Then they made weapons.Women gathered food and cared for the children The men hunted animals. *Histraison call the changes in the Neolithic Age the agricultural revolution. Some historians consider it the most important event in the human history.

Evolution is the change of an organism, over time the organism have change to be more adapted to the environment that they are surrounded in order to live. By evolve that mean that their structure will change, for an example, their skeleton structure however the ancestor skeleton structure are some what similar to the more recent organisms. For instant, fossil is a great example for evolution, fossil is the remains of organisms that use to be alive, when scientist examine the fossil they found that there are similarities between related living organism. There are other evidence for evolution which are homologous structures, analogous structures, and vestigial structures. Homologous is when it have a similar structure but different

Australopithecus is a hominid who was short, hairy, and had a limited intelligence. They stood over three feet tall. This hominid weighed about fifty five kilograms. The key for their evolvement was that

In this paper, I will be going over my new literature findings and what I have learned so far in my class lectures and readings. First, I found that by using dental root and also pulp canal evidence we may have found what could be the oldest known hominin. Then according to a researcher Dr. Ryan Bohlender, there is a species that is not from either the Denisovan or Neandertals species. He believes we may have found a new member of the family tree. I also found that according to a Professor Lee Berger, we may be getting closer and closer to finding our ancestors in our early hominins. Whether it be a new hominid or just a closer one to us, it is quite amazing that we are still finding information on our heroic hominins.