Anth 309 Final

What notable shifts in features do we see between australopiths and homo?

• Increased brain size

• Increased body size (mass, height)

• Change in body proportions (long legs, shorter arms)

• Decreased sexual dimorphism

List the species in the grade “Habilines”, include dates and location

Homo sp. 2.8Ma Eastern Africa

Homo habilis 2.4-1.4Ma Eastern and South Africa

Homo rudolfensis 2.0-1.8Ma Eastern Africa

Homo sp. (Ledi Geraru Manidble)

Likely a new species, more primitive than H.habilis

Mandible from Hadar, Ethiopia

2.8Ma

Derived Features: small molas/premolars, corpus shape

Primitive: sloping mandibular symphysis

+ KNM-ER 5431 set of teeth from Koobi Fora could be same taxon

Homo habilis

Where: Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Turkana Basin, Kenya Omo and Hadar, Ethiopia Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, South Africa

Age: 2.4-1.4Ma

• Oldest material from east Africa (2.4Ma), South Africa younger (2.0Ma)

Type: OH7 Juvenile Partial Skeleton

Key Features: Brains size >600cc, tool making, primitive limb proportions, obligate biped, precision grip

Homo habilis cranial features

• Brain size 600cc (larger than apes/australopiths)

• Widely spaced temporal lines

• Supraorbital sulcus

• Double arched, small supraorbital torus

• Small dentition

• Rounder cranium

• reduced prognathism

Homo rudolfensis cranial features

• Brain size 752cc

• No supraorbital sulcus

• small supraorbital torus

• Large flat face - wide maxilla

• Larger anterior dentition

What are the apomorphies of H.erectus?

• Sagittal keel

• Occipital torus

• Long skull (football shape)

Homo erectus cranial features

• Brain size 1000cc

• Sagittal keel

• Large, shelf-like supraorbital torus

• Occipital torus

• Almost orthognathic

• Long skull, football shape

• Rounder/domed skull

• Smaller dentition (than H.habilis)

Home rudolfensis

Where: Turkana Basin, Kenya Omo, Ethiopia

Age: 2.0-1.8Ma

Type: no typ designated, lectotype: KNM ER 1470 skull

Key features:

• Brain size 752cc

• Large, flat face

• Larger molars than H.habilis

What material/info confirms that H.habilis and H.rudolfensis are different species?

A mandible (KNM-ER 6000) and face (KNM-ER 6200) attributed to H.rudolfensis show:

• Larger anterior dentition than H.habilis

• Large, flat face, not H.habilis-like

What was the historical view of what makes a species “Homo” and what has discredited this?

The 1960s view:

• Larger brain size

• Language

• Tool use

• Precision grip

We now know that australopiths had tool use and precision grip, blurring the lines between these two genus

What primitive features do we see in Habilines? Derived features?

Primitive:

• Small body size

• Australopith body proportions

• Teeth larger than later Homo

Derived:

• Larger cranial capacity (still smaller than later Homo)

• somewhat reduced dentition

• more developed precision grip

• rounder cranium shape

Homo erectus

Where: Africa, China, Indonesia, Georgia. Very wide dispersion (oldest fossils in Africa)

Key sites: Turkana basin, Kenya. Dmanisi, Georgia

Age: 1.9-0.4Ma

Type: Dubois’ skull cap (Trinil, Java)

Key features:

• Brain size +1000cc

• Molars similar size to modern humans (slightly larger)

• Acheulean Industry tools

• Postcrania similar to modern humans

Homo erectus postcrania

• Long legs and short arms

• Narrow pelvis

• Large leg joints

• Long femoral neck

(Very modern human-like)

What are the 2 hypothesis about H.erectus? What is the support for each?

H1: 1 variable species; Homo erectus

• Quantitative analysis (measurements): shows continuous variation and cannot separate asia and africa specimens

H2: 2 species; Homo ergaster (early african) and Homo erectus (asia)

• Qualitative analysis (presence/absence of traits): Suggests that the variation is geographically distributed and there is too much variation for this to be a single species

Explain the first out of africa event, why did it occur?

Homo erectus appears to be the first to disperse out of Africa

• Left by 1.8-2.1Ma

• Very quickly spread across Asia

Why? Many possible reasons or a combination of them:

• Following prey

• Change of climate in Africa: middle pleistocene had lots of changes in climates

• population growth

• competition with other animals or hominin species

Explain the findings at the Dmanisi site

Site: ~1.8Ma

5 crania and 5 sets of postcrania + oldowan tools

• Lots of variation (including high sexual dimorphism)

• Small brain and body size (below 800cc)

• cranially oriented glenoid (like lucy, climbing feature)

Derived:

• Cranium shape

• limb proportions

Gibbons 2013 paper

What dietary shift do we see with the appearance of H.erectus? What evidence supports this?

Increase in brain size and body size in H.erectus suggests an increase in available energy, main suggestion for where this energy came from is a major increase in meat consumption

Evidence:

• Hominin anatomy

• New tools (Acheulean tools, often found with animal bones)

• Animal bones (increase in sites with stone tools present too, extensive processing)

• Changes in African communities (larger herds, carnivore decline)

• Tapeworms from raw meat consumption

Explain the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis and its relation to early Homo diet

Bigger brains and bigger bodies evolve ~2Ma in H.erectus which requires great energy to maintain

The expensive tissue hypothesis suggests that energy budgets are fixed and therefore tradeoffs occur between expensive tissues (in this case brain and gut)

H.erectus able to have a shorter,smaller gut because they consume meat (higher energy with less consumption needed)

When do we see first evidence of fire use?

Solid evidence that hominins used fire by at least 1Ma

• Soil chemistry changes that match campfires: high heat for prolonged periods produces oxidized soils

• Bones and plant remains that show changes consistant with >400°C

Controversial sites from 1.5-1Ma

What makes hominin carnivory unique amongst primates?

1. Use/manufacturing of stone tools

2. Acquisition of resources from animals larger than themselves

3. Complex mix of hunting strategies + scavenging

How does Hominin anatomy (H.erectus) support the theory of an uptick in meat eating?

Dentition: reduced teeth size, jaw size and muscle size

Larger bodies: easier to hunt large prey

Longer legs: can travel further for prey

Thorax shape: cone-shaped thorax no longer present in H.erectus, suggests smaller guts

Explain hypervitaminosis A and how this is evidence of H.erectus meat-consumption

Hypervitaminosis A is a condition that can be acquired by eating the liver of carnivores and can be evident on the bones

A 1.7Ma erectus skeleton from Koobi Fora displays this condition

Explain how tapeworms provide evidence of H.erectus meat-consumption

Tapeworms are gotten from consuming raw or undercooked meat

• All human-specific tapeworm species are closely related and giverged 780,000-1.7Ma

• +Our tapeworms are most closely related to those that live in African Carnivores

• Suggests that meat-eating was occuring with enough frequency that tapeworms adapted specifically to hominin hosts around this time

What is the alternate hypothesis to increased meat-consumption in H.erectus?

Suggests that the major change was cooking of plant foods, specifically of underground storage organs (tubers). This would reduce the energy needed to process these foods and make them more easily digestible and the energy more available

However there is lots of evidence that stone tools were being used to process meat specifically. Plus there is no compelling evidence of fire use 2ma

Homo aff. erectus

Homo affinity erectus as in similar to erectus but is something different

Where: Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain

Age: ~1.2Ma

Type specimen: none

Key material: facial fragment and mandible, tools, processed animal bones

Key features: First European hominin

• narrow face and distinct nasal region compared to erectus

• taller midface than H.antecessor

Homo antecessor

Where: Gran dolina, Atapuerca, Spain

Age: 900,000 - 800,000

Type specimen: ATD 6-5 mandible

Key material: 11 individuals to date - all but 1 juveniles/infants

Key features:

• Clear evidence of cannibalism

• Posses canine fossa

• short midface (more modern)

• infraorbital plate (under eye) sloped posteriorly

Explain the network of caves in Atapuerca, Spain. What has been found in each cave?

A network of caves varying in age

Cave 1: Sima del Elefante

• Age ~1.2Ma

• facial fragment and mandible of Homo aff. erectus

• tools and processed animal bones

Cave 2: Gran Dolina

• Homo antecessor- 11 individuals (all but 1 juveniles/infants)

• cannibalism evidence

• stone tools and animals bones

Cave 3: Sima de los Huesos

• Age: ~400,000

• >5,000 bones (MNI=28) most agree to assign this material to H.heidelbergensis

• However share some features with Neanderthals (possibly ancestors to or early version of): midface projection, taurodont molars

• Provides evidence that H.heidelbergensis may be the ancestor of neanderthals

• Most died in their prime (18yrs old)

• Unknown how so many bounds ended up in this pit but was not accidental

Homo heidelbergensis

Where: Europe, Asia, Africa

Age: ~800,00 - 200,000

Type specimen: Mauer mandible (from Germany)

Key features:

• brain size ~1200cc

• Human-like postcrania

• Culture: Levallois tradition, hunting, fure, range expansion

Homo heidelbergensis technology and culture

Strong evidence for active hunting of big game:

• Butchered horses, rhinos etc.

• possible game drives

• Schonigen spears (wooden tools)

• Aucheulean industry tools + levallois technique: major innovations in flake preparation

Fire/cooking

Homo naledi

Where: Rising star cave system, South Africa

Age: 236,000-350,000 (controversial)

Type specimen: DN1 male cranium

Key features:

• small brained 456-610cc

• Habiline-like (compatible w/ ~2ma): similar to H.habilis or A.sediba

• Curved phalanges, cranially oriented glenoid, short stature

• BUT: modern limb proportions, smaller supraorbital torus, modern hands

Dr.cote puts this species in with the Habiline grade

Explain the rising star cave system, what was found in each cave?

A cave system in South Africa contained H.naledi specimens, 3 main areas:

Dinaledi:

• At least 15 individuals

• Dated but shows clear disturbance (+hard to access)

Lesedi:

• At least 3 individuals

• not dated

UW110:

• Found recently

• contains “Leti” - juvenile

Homo neanderthalensis

Where: Europe, Middle East, Central Asia

Age: 150,000 - 30,000

Type specimen: Feldhofer 1 - skull cap and partial skeleton

Key features:

• Brain size 1450cc

• Cold-adapted, robust postcrania

• Culture: Mousterian tradition, hunting, fire

Homo neanderthalensis cranial features

Homo neanderthalensis postcranial features

What is the origin of Neanderthals?

• Likely evolved from European branch of H.heidelbergensis

• Evident from Sima de los Huesas hominins which show some neanderthal traits

• “Classic” Neanderthal features don’t appear until later

What does Neanderthal tooth ware say about their behaviour?

• Large, worn anterior teeth suggest paramasticatory activity: pulled meat or hide through their teeth

Describe the life history of neanderthals

Neanderthals grow differently/faster than humans

• Teeth form quicker

• M3 erupted at age 14 (18 to humans)

• Rapid cranial growth early + late growth spurt in brain, especially occiptial lobe (hence occipital bun)

Neanderthal birth likely difficult but not the same as humans

• somewhat wider pelvis

• Do not experience the twist if fetus moving from pelvic inlet to outlet that humans do

Age of death 40-45yrs

• many older individuals

• many healed injuries

• suggests altruistic care

Describe the cold adaptions of Neanderthals, why would they need this?

During the upper pleistocene (when neanderthals existed) there was an ice age from 120-12Ka which means much of the Neanderthals range in time and space was associated with cold climates

• Large projecting nose: increase surface area to warm and humidify air

• short and stocky- allens rule

Describe the technology used by Neanderthals

Mode III tools:

• 300,000 - 35,000

• fewer bifacial cutting tools

• appearance of Levallois technique

Mousterian industry (a specific predominant industry within mode III):

• appears later with Neanderthals and includes Levallois-prepared tools

Evidence of complex tools

• Hafting points onto spears

What evidence is there for meat-eating in Neanderthals

Climate

• Human arctic foragers used as models (but they consume aquatic mammals so not exactly alike)

Nitrogen isotopes

• Neanderthals consuming more protein than cave bears from same archaeological sites

Animal bones

• Majority of animal bones found in and around neanderthal sites are from large prey

Coprolites

• Fossilized faeces contain meat

What evidence is there for plant-eating in Neanderthals

Dental calculus

• scraped from teeth of 3 neanderthals

• microfossils of plant starches and phytoliths preserved in the calculus

• barley starch grains show damage similar to having been cooked

Coprolites

• Fossilized faeces contain some plant material

Is there evidence of cannibalism in Neanderthals?

Yes it was relatively common behaviour, 25% of Neanderthal sites have some evidence of cannibalism

• Abri Moula best evidence: pattern of cut marks and bone breakage of neanderthal bones matches the