UCONN ANTH 1006 Midterm McBride

What is Anthropology

Study of humans around the world and through time.

Physical/Biological Anthropology

study of human biological variation in time and space. Includes evolution, genetics, human growth and development, human biological plasticity, and primatology.

Archaeology

study of human behavior and cultural patterns, and processes through the culture's material remains

Linguistic Anthropology

-Comparative/Historical Linguistics: concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness, and nature and direction of language change

-Primate language: signs, calls

-Origin of Language: when, why, how

Cultural Anthropology

Study of human society and culture: describes, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural differences and similarities

Ethnography

Provides a detailed account of a particular community, society, or culture

Holistic

The study of the whole of the human condition including past, present, future, biology, society, language and culture.

Paleoanthropology

The study of ancient humans and their immediate ancestors

Paleontology

The study of ancient life through the fossil record

Archaeology

Reconstruction of past lifeways from material remains associated with past societies and cultures, infers human behaviors

Law of Superposition

In any undisturbed sequence of rocks in layers, the youngest layer is on top and the oldest is on the bottom, each layer being younger than the one beneath it.

Physical Anthropology

-Bone Biology: Measurements and examinations of human skeletal remains

-Paleopathology: Study of disease and injury in skeletons

-Paleoanthropology

Survey

Provides a regional perspective by gathering information on settlement patterns over a large area

Excavation

Scientists digging through layers of deposits that make up a site

Stratigraphy

Examines the ways that earth sediments accumulate in strata. This gives a date relative to other layers of strata.

Taphonomy

Study of the processes that affect the remains of dead animals

-Fossilization

-Condition under which fossils are found

-Scavenging, Butchering, Processing

Radio Carbon Dating

Radioactive carbon helps date fossils (organic only) that are as old as 40,000 years.

Potassium Argon Dating

This type of dating can only be done in non-organic fossils. Potassium is trapped inside rocks and minerals that can turn into Argon-40, but can escape when it is heated. The date of the fossil is determined by how fast the gas is released when it is reheated.

Dendrochronology

Tree ring dating, each ring means one year. Thicker rings indicated wet years, while thinner rings indicated dry years.

Catastrophism

Fires, floods, and other natural phenomenons destroyed certain species.

Creationism

Biological similarities and differences originated at the Creation. Characteristics are immutable.

Uniformitarianism

The present is key to the past.

Speciation

The formation of new species

Punctuated Equilibrium

Long periods of stability, during which species change little may be interrupted by evolutionary leaps.

Natural Selection

Process by which the life forms of a species that are best suited for an environment live to reproduce and thrive.

Descent with Modifications (microevolution)

Passing of traits from parents to offspring, yielding new traits

Evolution

New species arise from old ones through a long and gradual process of transformation

Phenotype

Expressed physical characteristics

Genotype

Hereditary Makeup. The specific genetic makeup or set of alleles (gene variants) an organism inherits from its parents, located within its DNA

Gene Flow

Transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another.

Genetic Drift

Variation in frequency of different genotypes in small population due to chance.

Macroevolution (speciation)

Large scale genetic changes in a species over a long period of time that results in speciation.

Reproductive Isolation

Prevents members of different species from producing offspring, or making sure those offspring are sterile.

Mutation

Most important source of variety that natural selection depends and operates on. Bases added, taken out, substituted...etc.

Sexual Reproduction

Recombination of genes from the two parents produces genetic variation.

Primate

Order has two suborders: Strepsirrhini and Haplorrhini. They have lived for the past 65 million years.

Primatology

Branch of zoology dealing with primates.

Hominoids (Great Apes and Humans)

A primate of a group that includes humans, their fossil ancestors, and the anthropoid apes.

Ape Characteristics

-Long arms compared to legs

-Sharp canine teeth

-Lower pre-molar long and projecting to sharpen canine

-Sexual Dimorphism: males twice the size of females

-small body size

-Large molars (probably for chewing savannah vegetables)

-Cranial capacity 430 cc

Laetoli Footprints

Site in Tanzania famous for the hominin footprints in volcanic ash. Discovered by Mary Leakey, the footprints gave convincing evidence for bipedalism.

Bipedalism

Animals walks on two legs, on the ground.

Adaptive Advantages of Bipedalism

Ability to see over long grass, carry items back home, reduce body's exposure to solar radiation.

Theories for Emergence of Bipedalism?

- forests shrunk, hominins adapted to open, grassy, or woodland-savanna environments by walking upright to see over tall grass, spot predators, and travel between food sources.
-more energy-efficient than knuckle-walking for covering long distances, and it freed hands to carry food, tools, or offspring, facilitating better foraging
-Standing upright reduced the body surface area exposed to direct sun, allowing for cooler traveling, while also providing a better vantage point for avoiding predators

Ardipithecus

-5.8-4.4 mya

-lived in humid woodland habitat

-first bipedal walkers
-showing a transition from forest-dwelling forms to a more terrestrial lifestyle

Australopithecines

-4.2-1.78 mya

-5 species
-the evolutionary adaptations for bipedalism and the development of larger brains

Australopithecis Anamensis

-4.2-3.9 mya

-lake area surrounded by forests in East African Rift Valley

-ancestral Au. aferensis
-insight into the morphology of early bipedal hominins in wetland environments

Australopithecus Afarensis

-3.8-3.0 mya

-Ethiopia

-Oldest baby hominid found, Lucy
-key in understanding early human anatomy and locomotion

Australopithecus Africanus

-3.5-2.5 mya

-bodies larger than later australopiths

-South Africa
-shows a mix of ape-like and human-like traits, suggesting a complex evolutionary pathway

Australopithecus Robustus/Bosei

-1.9-1.0 mya

-South Africa

-heavy chewing complex for jaw
-important for understanding dietary adaptations to different environments, especially in relation to their robust cranial features

Homo Habilis

-1.9-.4 mya

-Africa, Asia Europe
-considered the first member of our genus, significant for its association with early tool use

Homo Erectus

-0.8-0.2 mya

-Africa, Asia, Europe
-crucial due to its adaptation for long-distance travel and larger brain size, which laid the foundation for later hominins

Oldowan Tools

Oldest tools from Olduvai, about 1.8 million y/o

Adaptive strategies of H. erectus that allowed them to expand beyond Africa

-H. erectus was primarily a hunter-gatherer society, this allowed them to move around and expand easily.

-Had a modern skeleton that was built for endurance and made long distance hunts easy

-legs were longer, H. erectus was taller than most hominins before them

-Using fire widened the climates that H. erectus could inhabit

Evolution and expansion of H. erectus

-Jaw size decreases because of better tools to mash up food instead of teeth

-Longer legs to hunt for longer periods of time.'

-Cooking breaks down vegetables and meat so there's less strain on teeth and jaw

Differences in morphology and adaptation between H. habilis and erectus

-H. habilis had a smaller brain (600 cc), H. erectus had a much larger brain (600 to 1300 cc) with a longer, lower skull
-H. erectus had flatter faces, smaller jaws, and smaller teeth compared to the more ape-like, robust features of H. habilis
-H. erectus possessed modern human-like proportions with long legs, shorter arms, and a barrel-shaped chest. H. habilis had shorter legs and longer arms.

Acheulean stone technique associated with H. erectus

hand axes, jasper, flint, quartzite used because of good fracturing techniques

Multi-Regional Evolution Theory

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Replacement Theory

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Archaic Homo Sapiens

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Neanderthals

First discovered in Europe, in Heidelberg

Anatomically Modern Humans

Humans that are physically similar to humans today

Brachiation

A form of locomotion in which an animal swings from tree limb to tree limb using its arms, commonly seen in some primates like gibbons.

Gigantopithecus

An extinct genus of ape that lived in Asia, the largest known primate to have ever existed, estimated to have stood up to 10 feet tall and weighed over 1,000 pounds.This extinct genus of ape lived during the Pleistocene and is known primarily from fossil remains found in China and other parts of Asia. It is the largest known primate, believed to have stood up to 10 feet tall and weighed around 1,000 pounds.