Biological Anthropology

Primates: Quadrupeds are “normal” (10/14)

  • Adapted to live in trees (shoulder girdle, dexterous hands)

  • Adapted to changing environment (color vision, visual activity, larger brains)

  • Sexual dimorphism- distinct differences in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal

Evolutionary Changes

  • Humans are the only living bipedal mammal 

  • The first thing that happened evolutionarily to make us begin to walk on two feet is our spine, which is S-shaped instead of C-shaped, which once was

  • Then, our skull is foramen magnum (a big hole in the bottom of our head)

  • For quadrupeds, their ribcage holds their organs up

  • For us humans, our hips hold our organs up

  • Our pelvis became flat and broad; narrow birth canal

  • In addition, our femur angle from our hip to knee allows us to walk upright

  • Our arches in your feet act as a shock absorption

  • Arms get wimpy, hands more precise

  • Reasons why bipedalism might’ve started:

    • Carrying things

    • Visual surveillance

    • Hunting

    • Saving energy

    • Makes you look bigger in front of a threat

  • Hominins- refers to extinct and living members of the human lineage

  • Brains got bigger, we developed tool use, and speech, language, and culture

  • Homo= latin for “man”

  • Homo habilis= “handy person”

Disappearing Languages

  • What makes a language unique?

    • Mutual intelligibility- If a speaker of one language can understand another, and vice versa, it is not a unique language

    • Dialect continua- a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible (ex. The US south vs. US north)

  • Language hotspots- concentrated regions of the world where there is the highest level of linguistic diversity

  • Endangered language- a language that is spoken by relatively few people, is not being learned by the next generation, and/or is likely to become extinct in the near future

  • sapir-Whorf Hypothesis- people experience the world based on the structure of their language

    • Means that we lose the world view, culture, and knowledge that was encoded in that language

  • Cultural genocide- intentionally trying to kill off a culture that is still alive; not letting the people in that culture practice that culture

Who were the Neandertals? 10/21


Semi-erect primitive humans?

Funny looking modern humans?


The original Neandertal

  • Fairly complete skeleton discovered in 1856 in the Neander valley (Germany)

  • Two years before Darwin’s origin of species

  • Interestingly did not influence Darwin’s thinking nor play a prominent role in evolutionary thinking at the time

  • Pathological modern human or new species of human ancestor?


Neander thal = neander valley (old german)


Neander tal = neander valley (new german)


Spy Neandertals

  • Two partial neanderthal skeletons found in 1870s

  • Hard concretions on neanderthal bones were also found on extinct animal remains

  • Demonstrated that these bones were ancient relics


European Neandertal Sites

  • Croatia- Krapina (1899)

  • France- La Ferrassie (1907)

  • Spain- Zafarraya (1980)

    • Some of the most recent neandertals 

  • Shanidar Cave- Iraq


Neandertal Geographic Distribution

  • Neandertal’s ranged across the middle-east

  • Fluctuating ranges according to temperature

  • Middle east and southern europe acted as refugia during cold periods


Evolutionary place of neandertals

  • Lived fairly late in geological times

  • There were multiple encounters with neandertals and homosapiens 


Origin of the Neandertals

  • Neandertals evolved gradually over several hundred thousand years in Europe

  • Earliest neanderthal fossil record is from northern spain




Neandertal anatomy

  • short body, lots of muscle mass

  • Wide pelvis

  • Big brains

  • Neandertal cranium is long and low, projecting faces

  • Absence of chin


Gained these features due to a combination of:

  • Cold adaptation 

  • High levels of physical activity

  • Genetic drift in small isolated population (founder effect)


Neandertal technology

  • Relied on a middle paleolithic stone tool technology

  • Points, scrapers, denticulate forms, small handaxes, etc


Neandertal diet

  • 90% of the diet was meat based

  • Consistent dietary pattern


Neandertal hunting

  • Tool technology is clearly adequate to bring down large game animals


Burial:

  • Burial practices included both adults and children

  • No clear evidence of grave goods or burial offerings


DNA:

  • red hair, light skin

  • ABO blood groups

  • A language gene?

    • FOXP2- known to have a specific role in the development of language and speech in humans


Disappearance of the Neandertals 

  • The latest Neandertals overlapped in time with the arrival of modern humans in Europe

  • There may have been considerable exchange of cultural items between the two human groups

  • May have been a case of biological replacement without any significant cultural exchanges

    • Competition for resources

    • Violent encounters

    • Demographic factors

Neanderthal Lifeways:

  • Were well adapted (biologically and culturally) to life in Ice Age Europe

    • This makes the precise reasons behind their disappearance even more difficult to understand

Paleoanthropology

Bioarchaeology: analysis of human remains in order to learn more about past populations


Paleoanthropology: analysis of older hominin remains in order to learn more about past populations


Paleo/Bioanth and forensic anthropology

  • Both are trying to figure out: 

    • Who were these people?

    • What was their life like?

  • Both use the same methods

  • paleo/bioanth focus on the broader picture/ more ancient history, whereas the forensic anthropologist focuses on the individual itself for legal reasons


Two types of Human Remains

  • Hard Tissue

    • Bones

    • Human Osteology: roots of the term Os, latin for bones and osten is greek for bony

  • Soft tissue

    • Bones are wrapped in flesh



Who were they? 

  1. Determine the sex of the individual - take measurements

    1. Males have narrow, long sacrum

    2. Females have a broader pubic arch (>90°) and a wider pelvic outlet

  2. Determine the age 

    1. Examine the teeth (how much wear is on the teeth)

  3. Examine growth plates

  4. Look for arthritis 

    1. Can help reveal someone's lifestyle

  5. DNA

    1. Bones, hair, fingernails can reveal the individual’s diet and more about who they were

  6. Determining context sheds light on mortuary practices or treatment of remains

    1. Mortuary analysis: looking at past burial techniques, grave goods, and rituals associated with death


Who were they? (with Paleoanthropology)

Species concepts

  • Biological species

  • Phenetic species

    • Look at the phenotype (what they look like)


Holotype: Type specimen, or first specimen

  • Other specimen are compared to the Holotype 

  • Usually stored in a museum


Paratype: all other specimens assigned to that species


Evolution: the process by which different kind of living organisms developed


What happened over the last 7 million years?

  • Hominins: refers to extinct and living members of the human lineage

  • Brains got bigger, we developed tool use, and speech, language, and culture


Sahelanthropus tchadensis

  • Very prominent brow ridge

  • 6-7 million years ago

  • Found in Chad, West Africa

  • Left with only a skull to define the entire species

  • First hominin in our lineage to walk upright





Australopithecus spp.

  • 4.2-1.9 mya

  • Found all over eastern and southern Africa

  • Smaller brains than modern humans

  • Stood at about 3’7” to 4’11”

  • More pronounced sexual dimorphism (males were about 15% larger)


The Genus Homo

  • 2.3 mya-today

  • Latin for “man”

  • Not very different from ancestors

  • “Handy person” 

  • East and South Africa → oldowan tools


Homo erectus

  • 2 mya- 108 kya

  • Developed in Africa

  • Migrated all over the old world → reached Java by 1.6 mya (first colonizers of our species in the old world)

  • Controlled fire (to cook food, clear forests, etc.)

  • Made acheulean hand axes 

  • Hunted in groups

  • With access to rich protein, their brains grew

Homo sapiens (300kya in Africa) and neandertals (250 kya-40kya in Europe)

  • Likely interbred 

We once likely shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees and gorillas