Biological Anthropology-FINAL

Paleoanthropology

hominid ancestors, not chimps but are related to us. uses the study of extinct organisms from their fossils to understand change and adaptations that happened over time. Very interdisciplinary field because we are going so far back in time. This field also includes genetics.

Bioarchaeology

study of health disease and skeletons. study of human remains from an archaeological context, used in a general sense to study any biological remains from an archaeological site. Anything closer to the present is historical, anything more than 2 generations is archaeological.

Molecular Anthropology

studied who we are by looking at DNA, proteins, and isotopes

Forensic Anthropology

police, military, crime

Biological Anthropology

we are the products of millions of years of evolution, and biological anthropologists are trying to figure out how we came to be by studying that evolution in the past and present. It deals with our adaptation to environmental stressors.

Survive & Reproduce

2 things we have done the best compared to any other species

Paleo

refers to fossil record of humankind

Paleopathology (subfield of bioarchaeology)

specifically focusing on the health of individuals. Used to understand disease in the past. This is often done by medical doctors.

Primatology

the study of living or extinct monkeys and apes to understand their physiology, genetics, behavior, etc. This is to understand us better. Great apes are most closely genetically related to us.

Evolution

the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms. Evolution is not change, but adaptation, it is a means to make sure you survive in an environment. If frequency goes up, it means evolution is working better. There is no end game.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

There was a relationship between organism and environment, the environment is the stressor.

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

an organism can acquire favorable characteristics throughout their lifetime, then passed to offspring. This was incorrect.

Adaptations

inherited structures, functions, or behaviors that help organisms survive and reproduce.

Niches

parts of the environment where an organism can find its own place.

Charles Darwin

went on a 5 year journey (1831-1836) in HMS Beagle. Wrote The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

He outlined what evolution why and why there was variation, and how organism developed into new species

Wrote that natural selection was the mechanism for this

Wrote about adaptation through natural selection

Fitness

described in terms of individual reproductive success compared to other individuals in their species; equal to a contribution to the gene pool by an individual, genotype, or phenotype.

Natural Selection

works by mutation, favorable mutations are more likely to survive

Tenets of Natural Selection

Ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of any environment to support pop is always finite.

Organisms within populations vary and this variation affects the ability of individuals to survive and reproduce (color, facial markings, etc)

This variation is transmitted from parents to offspring.

KT extinction

mass extinction. Larger animals are usually first to die. Thought an asteroid did this. Smallest animals are always first to rebound after these events

K-strategists

long-body, long-life, slow maturation. Small litters, large offspring investment, more intelligent. This is where we fall. Long gestation periods.

R-strategists

lie fast, die young, rabbits, mice, small bodied, quick maturation, large litters, minimal offspring investment, less intelligent. Short gestation periods. These thrived and filled a niche after the extinction event.

Primates

adapted to live in trees, they have shoulder girdle, lots of mobility and dexterous hands, for gripping and traversing trees, big feet. Adapted to a changing environment.

Color vision (differentiating between ripe fruit and not ripe fruit, you can pick fruit with more calories)

Visual acuity (binocular vision)

Larger brains (navigating landscape)

Prognathism

how the bottom of your face protrudes. Apes and monkeys have more prognathism than we do

Bipedalism (happens due to multiple factors) is good because:

Feeding adaptation

Collecting fruit from trees'

Energy efficient (uses less calories to walk)

Keeping cool (less exposed to radiation)

Hands are free for other tasks

Hominins

refers to extinct and living members of the human lineage.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

earliest known hominin

7-8 mya

Found in Chad, West Africa

Australopithecus spp.

4\.2-1.9 mya

Found all over eastern and southern africa

"Southern ape"

Six species: au. Anamensis, afarensis, deyiremeda, africanus, sediba

Larger brains than chimps

Small bodied, but matured really rapidly

More pronounced sexual dimorphism

Teeth, skull, and jaw adapted to a generalized diet. It is good to be a generlaist, because you can get your calories from lots of diff places.

Paranthropus spp.

2\.5-1.1 mya

All over east and southern Africa

'Parallel to man"

Massive jaws and teeth to access hard/tough foods.

3 species: P. aethiopicus, robustus, boisei

Early Genus Homo

2\.8-1.4 mya

Found in East Africa

"Man" or "Same"

Larger brains than Au

Skulls and jaws, derived traits, but quite variable

Homo Habilis

2\.4-1.4 mya

East and South Africa

"Handy Person" because they were associated with stone tools

Oldowan stone tools and cut marks

Tools were not new, but more habitual with these species

Strong enamel and jaws but flexible diet

Bones were dated with australopiths

Homo Erectus

1\.9mya - 110 kya

North, east and southern Africa, then migrated to east and southern asia (first to migrate and reach java)

"Upright"

More modern limb proportions, tall

Large brains, new tools (more sophisticated)

Controlled fire

Made acheulean hand axes and cleavers (to butcher animals)

Hunted in groups and shared meat

With access to rich proteins, their brains grew. You get more calories out of cooked foods than raw.

Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals

Homo Sapiens 200kya in Africa

Neanderthals 250-40 kya in Africa

Evidence of interbreeding (Denisovan DNA as well as other ghost populations, meaning we can detect signals of these individuals in our genes, but we have no fossil records of them)

Both sophisticated with large brains and different adaptations

Mortality profile

took ages of death and made chart to show frequency distribution. It is NOT a cemetery profile

Encephalization quotient

taken to study brain size increase, rather than just brain volume

Perimortem fractures

happens at or around the time of death. Might be the cause of death, or it could have happened after death.

Homo is genus

sapien is species

Paramasticatory Behavior

use or manipulation of the oral complex for purposes unrelated to subsistence (food) consumption

Primates have issues with climate change and their habitats

while humans have issues with fertility.

Jane Goodall

she couldn't afford college so she went to secretarial school. She got to go to South Africa for 6 months. She focused on chimpanzees. She was driven by intuition. She popularized primatology. She was the first to observe that chimps use tools. She named the chimps. She went to Cambridge without an undergrad to get a pHD. She didn't want to manipulate animals, she just wanted to let them be. Louis Leaky supported her.

Strepsirhini

Traits:

have a turned nose to the side/ wet nose.

Reliance on smell

Nocturnal

Vertical clingers and leapers.

Stereoscope Vision (makes them good on the landscape)

Lemurs - only found on madagascar

Galagos

Lorises

Haplorhini

simple nose, or dry nose. Points downwards

Monkeys (Old World and New World)

Apes

Tarsiers - special outgroup

Most carnivorous nonhuman primates

They adapted huge eyes.

New world - Haplorhine: platyrrhini

some have prehensile or grasping tails (spider monkeys) they have long tails

Old World: Catarrhini

ischial callosities (butt pads)

Better facial muscles

Hominoids

lots of apes with similar characteristics

Social complexity (in most)

Brain and body re the largest size

Gorillas live around 40 years old. There is an alpha male usually.

Chimps are known to sue tools

In chimps females leave

In Bonobos, the females stay (matrilocal)

Wampanoags

people of the East or people of the dawn. They were not one tribe, they were several tribes living in Massachusetts. Had over 12,000 people in early AD 1600. They were one of many American groups.

Ate ducks, fowl, deer

Farmed 3 sisters

Had domesticated plants NOT animals

Squanto

captured by Thomas Hunt and sold to Spanish Monks and they tried to convert him. He was hired as an interpreter and made it home. When he came home, the population of Wampanoags declined due to smallpox.

Wampanoags ate on thxgiving

mussels, clams, passenger pigeons, deer, cranberries and lobster.

passenger pigeons

Hunters overhunted passenger pigeons and now they are extinct.

Behavioral Shifts During Adolescence

Leaving the protection of caregivers

Seeking social inclusion, even if it subjects them to social rejection

Jane recorded:

Spatial behaviors

Grooming behaviors

Travel vigilance

Reassurance behaviors

Biodistance

how people were moving across the landscape

Mechanical loading history

if you broke your arm, there will always be scar tissue. Bone remodeling/tissue turnover.This only applies to bone NOT teeth, this is because teeth are a lot stiffer because they have higher hydroxyapatite content.

Exposure of Skeletal Remains

need to be recorded, mapped, and photographed. Then you lift bones and collect them.

Data collection (in order):

Metric and nonmetric remains

Estimation of sex and age

Recording of health status marker

Recording of activity and stress indicators.

Bone tissue is only affected when

there are long term diseases, but can be detected through the proteins found in the bones.

The Terry Collection

anatomical collection. 1,728 skeletons. Collected age, sex, and ethnicity. 1899-1941. This allows us to use and create statisticall probablilities of age and sex based on morphological traits

Forensic anthropologists are often bioarchaeologists.

True

Nitrogen

tells us what food is being eaten

carbon

tells us what plants are being eaten.

Pathology

macroscopic and microscopic analysis of skeletal remains to understand past health.

Mortuary Analysis

looking at past burial techniques, grave goods, and rituals associated with death

Taphonomy

life of the bones from deposition to recovery. Were lines from fungus or an aspect of their life?

Grave Goods

objects intentionally buried from the dead

Ascribed Status

Inherited

Primary Context

skeleton in anatomical position. Indicates that no one did anything with the bones.

Secondary Context

body is not in anatomical position. Indicates that someone buried the body or mangled with them. Shows disturbance.

Disturbed Context

body moved, probably not by the people who buried it. Could be an animal or human.

Biocultural Approach

approach human health as being the interface of different types of experiences. Lived experiences become embodies in our bodies.

Etic

outsider's perspective

Emic

insider's perspective

Haplotype

set of linked genetic markers all in linkage disequilibrium on the same chromosome. Usually refers to non-recombining parts of the genome like the mtDNA and Y chromosome. Collection of polymorphisms or markers linked on the same chromosome.

Haplogroup

collection of haplotypes that all share a number of polymorphisms in common.

Rho

the average number of mutations different from each other.

Pathogen

its an organism that causes pathology

Microorganisms include

Bacteria

Viruses

Fungi

Protozoa

You can have infections that are NOT pathogenic.

True

Are there any noninfectious pathogens?

Yes, botox

Prions

a single protein

Miasma Theory

miasma (bad air) is a cause of diseases

Humoral Theory

a mix of 4 humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. An imbalance of humors leads to disease,

Coevolution

the changes that happen when 2 species interact with each other.

How a host responds to infection

Eradication

Tolerance

Spontaneous Generation Theory

Organisms could arise from nonliving, like microbes, maggots come from decaying meats, rats come from wheat.

How a Pathogen response to immune system

Resistance/avoidance

Tolerance

Hill Culture

elevated houses

Delta Culture

non-elevated houses

Epidemiological Transitions

1st Shift - shift from foraging to food production, increase in infectious disease.

2nd Shift - decline in infectious disease and rise of chronic disease.

3rd Shift - globalization of reemerging infectious diseases, novel infections, increased drug resistance.

Human biological variation

is continuous, NOT discrete.

Populations

have a constructed opponent

Skin color is

coordinated with the sun's radiation

Skin color is NOT

correlated with race.

Differences in skin color are not due to the melanocytes in the skin

but to the melanocytes' level of activity, which can be adaptive.

Gloger's Rule

the phenotypic traits that do exist are largely adaptive in nature. Skin color for example, has nothing to do with ethnicity/culture, rather it is adaptive.

Too much melanin blocked

no vitamin D

Too little melanin blocked

Too little melanin blocked

Ancient DNA Issues and Resolutions

1. Short or fragmented - processing pretreatments, clean lab, bioinformatics, NGS barcoding
2. Low quantities - clean lab work, enrichment protocols
3. Chemically damaged - NGS technology, authentication criteria
4. High contamination - use as a authentication criteria

Race

any of the groups into which humans can be divided according to their physical characteristics (ex: color of their skin, color and type of hair, shape of eyes and nose

ethnic group

a community or population that share a common cultural background

biological species concept of race

is geographically isolated subdivision of a species, or subspecies

if reproductive isolation lasts long enough..it will become a new species

early human classification into races have been dependent solely on the evaluation of

phenotype