Important Dates Midterm 1

• ardipithecus

• 5.7-4.4mya:

• australopithecus 

• 4.3-1.2 mya :

• Homo habilis:

• 2.3-1.65mya

• Homo erectus:

• 2mya-110kya

• Homo Neanderthalensis

• : 400-40kya

• Denisovans:

 200-30kya

• Homo sapiens:

• 300kya-present

Oldowan

: 2.6-1.7mya

Acheulean Hand Axe

: 1.5mya

• Mousterian:

• 160kya-40kya

Radiocarbon dating (C14)

• 100-50,000 years ago

• Dendrochronology (tree rings)

•  11,000 years

Thermoluminescence

• up to 1 million years ago

• Potassium-argon dating

100,000-30million years ago

sahelanthropus tchadensis

• 7-8mya, first homo

first stone tool evidence

3.3mya

ardipithecus ramidus

• 4.3-4.5mya bipedal ape

• facultative bipedalism

• opposable big toe for arboreal navigation

Australopithecus Afarensis

3.8-3mya

Miocene

• 28.5-5.3mya

• warm, wet

• lots of forests

• diversification of apes

• emergence of bipedalism

pliocene

• 5.3-2.6mya

• divergence of chimp and human lineage

• characterized by climate cooling

pleistocene

• 2.6mya-11.7kya

• "Ice age”

• characterized by fluctuating climate: glacial and interglacial periods

• emergence of homo and homo sapiens

Holocene

• 11.6kya-present