Hominin Dispersal in The Old World Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the evolution and dispersal of early hominins such as Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, and Neanderthals based on archaeological sites and timelines.

Homo habilis

A species that appeared around $2.5$ million years ago, likely produced Oldowan tools, and co-existed with $H. ergaster$ and $H. rudolfensis$.

Homo ergaster

Emerged $1.9$–$1.8\,mya$ and lived until $700,000\,ya$. It is the first hominin species labeled human, likely invented the Acheulian tool, and the first to expand into Eurasia.

Turkana Boy

A near-complete discovery of $H. ergaster$ from Nariokotome, N. Kenya, who was $1.62\,m$ tall with a brain capacity of $880\,cc$ and exceptionally thick skull walls.

Homo erectus

A species unearthed in East Asia around $1.5\,mya$ with anatomy similar to $H. ergaster$ that continued in East Asia largely unchanged.

Oldowan

A stone tool industry appearing around $2.5\,mya$ associated with the appearance of the genus $Homo$.

Acheulean (Acheulian)

A stone tool technology most likely invented by $H. ergaster$, with the oldest documented site located at Ubeidiya in Southwestern Asia.

Encephalization

An evolutionary event characterized by the enlargement of the brain.

Bipedalism

The evolutionary development of walking on two legs.

Ubeidiya

Located in Southwestern Asia, it is the oldest documented Acheulean site containing mostly Eurasian mammals but some African ones.

Dmanisi

A site in Georgia dated by potassium-argon dating to between $1.95$ and $1.77\,mya$, containing artifacts and fossils resembling both $H. habilis$ and $H. ergaster$.

Homo floresienses

Hominin fossils discovered in Liang Bua cave, Flores, in eastern Indonesia, dated between $100,000$ and $50,000$ years ago.

Java man

The popular name for $Pithecanthropus\,erectus$, discovered by Dubois in $1887$ in Java, now recognized as a variant of $H. erectus$.

Sinanthropus pekinenses (Peking Chinese man)

A variant of $H. erectus$ discovered in Zhoukoudian in Southwestern Beijing.

Homo heidelbergensis

A species related to sporadically occurring human occupation in Europe before $700,000$ years ago, though fossil evidence is limited.

Neanderthals

A hominin group that evolved in Europe around the same time as modern humans, with proto-Neanderthal fossils dating to $400,000$ and $200,000\,ya$.

Swanscombe and Steinheim

Specific sites in England and Germany, respectively, where Proto-Neanderthal fossils dating to $400,000$ and $200,000\,ya$ were found.