Review for Anthoropology Essay

2) Lucy is a collection of fossils from an early hominid species that is over 3 million years old. Lucy's fossils were discovered in Ethiopia, and Lucy was also very short compared to the average modern

The earliest known and accepted fossils are categorized as Australopithecus or the southern ape. A well known and famous fossil known as Lucy belongs to this fossil group, fossils of Australopithecus's have been found in areas such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Chad, and South Africa and are dated as far back as 4.2 - 2.3 MYA. These primates are known as bipedal apes meaning they walked upright, members of this primate group also had facial features that were apelike, had brains half the size of chimpanzees, and weighed on average of one-hundred and five pounds. It is thought these primates adapted to arboreal and terrestrial environments because dental exams of their teeth indicate a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and leaves. On the contrary members of the Paranthropus primates have fossils that have also been recognized these fossils have been found in places like: Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa which are dated as far back as 2.8 - 1MYA. This species was thought

for at least an estimated 1.06 million years before any association between hominid and tools was recognised by archaeologists (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, 2014).

Stone blades and other stone tools were used by the humans around 250,000 years ago

You are a young hotshot physical Anthropologist with the discovery of the century. We probably know less about Homo erectus then we did 20 years ago. But your new site and find answer all the questions. Tell me what Homo erectus was like and what data proves your case. How were they like humans and how were they different.

Archeologist took into consideration what function each tool served for. For example, an edge angle of a blade was used to chop off wood (Duvall & Venner, 1979). Blades with wider angles were used to skin

In the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1856 a group of quarrymen discovered the remnants of a skeleton. In a limestone cave they found 16 pieces of bone including a skull. Thinking that the bones belonged to a bear the quarrymen gave them to a local teacher named Johan Karl Fuhlrott. From him the bones found their way to other scientists. It was eventually determined that they were an ancient human relative. (Szalay, 2013) At first scientists weren’t sure what they’d found: some claimed it was the remains of Mongol horsemen, others thought they were deformed Homo sapiens. It wasn’t until 1864 that an Irish Geologist named Dr. William King came up with the name Homo neanderthalis describing the location of where the bones were found, Thal is an older spelling of tal which is the German word

Homo erectus being the oldest of the three skulls dates back up to 1.8 million years ago to 300 ka yBP. This genus was known for its large brow ridges, used to support the muscles of its massive jaw (Fagan, 1994). Also, Homo erectus had low and elongated skulls, bigger brains flatter faces, smaller molars and thinner enamels, although they did still contain large nasal cavities and rounded eye sockets compared to that of other archaic homo genus (Larsen, 2014). In addition, Homo erectus also contained a thick walled, rounded skull, a sloping forehead, and had a cranial capacity ranging from 8 hundred to 13 thousand (Fagan, 1994), and a cranial base, which is the delicate bony platform behind the eyes on which the brain rests,

A hand axe is hand held and contains a sharp edge. The hand axe was primarily used by prehistoric man during the Stone Age. Hand axes are found in Africa, Western Europe, Northern Asia and the Indian Peninsula. The use of these tools is estimated to date back to the lower Paleolithic and also the middle Paleolithic era. The hand axes ranged in sizes starting from a few inches long up to and over a foot long. The different types of sturdy stones recognized in these hand tools include quartz, flint, and coarse rocks.

The Australopithecus afarensis was a robust, early australopithecine that lived 3 to 3.6 million years ago (McFarland). The origin of this species name comes from two different factors. The first comes from the genus name, Australopithecus. This genus means “southern ape” and was originally developed for a species found in South Africa. The word afarensis is based on the location where some of the first fossils for this species were first discovered (Dorey). “Lucy” was an Au. afarensis that was discovered in Afar, Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago and “Dikika Child” was of the same species that was discovered in Dikika, Ethiopia 3.3 million years ago. Because to these discoveries, the Au. afarensis is one our best known ancestors due to Lucy’s

In the historical year of 2013, two amateur cave explorers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, discovered a primitive human-like species in a cave in South Africa. After two years, Lee Berger, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa was tipped off by the cavers, who had explored the deep cave to find multiple fossils. Berger and his team soon identified the multitude of fossils as a primitive human. This revolutionary discovery has added an ancestor to our evolutionary tree.

Biological, (also known as physical) anthropology works to identity species, mainly through the analysis of bones, and teeth, and strives to further learn about their way of life. In anthropology today many scientific discoveries have been made through skeletal findings in the field. Although, from the many discoveries that have been made there are a few that stand out as having ground breaking effects for the world of biological anthropology. Such findings include, the Taung child who displayed signs of early human bipedalism, Lucy, which gave rise to the species of Australopithecus afarensis, and Turkana boy, which is the most complete Homo erectus skeleton. Anthropology has worked to answer questions about human evolution and our early ancestors. The Taung child, Lucy, and the Turkana boy have all provided anthropologists with scientific proofs and evidence that will help to further understand our ancestry.

Australopithecus africanus is a species of human like and ape like animal. The Australopithecus africanus lived primarily in Southern Africa. A man by the name of Raymond dart set out to find one and he did. “It was half ape and half human, and the skull of a child in Johannesburg, South Africa” says Brain. Dart chipped and chipped away at the rock containing the skull until eventually he was able to make out the child’s face. The child had a full set of milk teeth and also its permanent molars in place.

Homo habilis is thought to have mastered the Lower Paleolithic Olduwan tool set which used stone flakes. These stone flakes were more advanced than any tools previously used, and gave H. habilis the edge it needed to prosper in hostile environments previously too formidable for primates.

Homo habilis was discovered by Louis and Mary Leaky and their other coworkers Johnathan Leaky, Philip Tobias, and British Scientist John Naiper, in 1960. They both believed that humanities roots in Africa had been taken for granted and that people weren’t