Hominins

Austrelopithicus Anamensis

• Time period-

  • 4.2-3.9 mya

• Location

  • East Africa: Kenya

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • Huge canine teeth

  • Parrallel tooth rows

  • Thick tooth enamel

  • Flexible elbows

  • Weight bearing tibia

Austrlopithicus Afarensis

• Time Period

  • 3.6-3.0mya

• Location

  • East Africa (Ethiopia and Tanzania)

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • “Lucy”

  • 3.5-4 feet

  • Developed arch

  • Parallel tooth rows

  • Moderately large canines and incisors

  • Prognathic

  • Sexually dimorphic

  • Foramen magnum is anteriorly placed

  • bipedalism but also lived in trees

Australopithecus Africanus

• Time Period

  • 3.0-2.0 mya

• Location

  • Found in South Africa

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • Less prognathic

  • Large molars

  • Tooth rows begining to curve

  • Longer arms than legs (for trees)

Homo Habilis

• Time Period

  • 2.8-1.8 mya

• Location

  • East Africa

• Distinguishing characteristics

  • Facial reduction

  • Reduced brow ridge

  • Frontal lobe expansion

  • No sagittal crest

  • Large incisors

• Cultural innovations

  • Used stone tools

  • Ate both plants and animals

Australopithecus Garhi

• Time

  • 2.5 mya

• Location

  • Ethiopia

• Characteristics

  • Longer face

  • Large molars

  • Small brain

  • Ratio of arm to leg lengh is human-like

• Culture

  • Less reliant on trees

  • Many tools found around their sites

Australopithecus/ Paranthropus Aethiopicus

• Time period: 2.5 mya

• Location

  • East Africa

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • hyper robust

  • large sagittal crest

  • large cheek bones

  • flared, broad face

Australopithecus / Paranthropus Boisei

• Time period

  • 2.3-1.2 mya

• Location

  • East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia)

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • Hyper- robust

  • Largest molars

  • Sagittal crest

  • No forhead

  • Sunken face

  • Supraorbital tori (brow ridge)

Australopithecus /Paranthropus Robustus

• Time period

  • 2.0-1.5 mya

• Location

  • South Africa

• Characteristics

  • large, dished face

  • small incisors

  • large molars

  • thick tooth enamel

• Cultural innovations

  • May have used sharpened bones as tools to dig up root vegetables

Homo Erectus

• Time

  • 1.8mya-100 kya (longest time)

• Location

  • Africa, Asia, and Europe

• Distinguishing characteristics

  • Less prognathic face

  • Large brain (450-1250 cc)

  • Supratoral sulcus (could hold a pencil)

  • Dental reduction

  • Shovel-shaped incisors

  • Long bones

  • thick cordial bone

  • muscular

• Cultural innovations

  • Acheulean handax

  • May have hunted in groups to hunt large animals, either that or they scavenged

  • Fire

  • may have migrated out of Africa

Homo Naledi

• Time

  • 335-236 kya

• Location

  • South Africa

• Distinguishing characteristics

  • curved dental arcade

  • Human-like hands, feet, and teeth

  • tiny brain

  • Long femoral neck

• Cultural innovations

  • lack of stone tools

  • may have buried their dead?

Homo Heidelbergensis

• Time period

  • 350-130 kya

• Location

  • Africa and Europe

• Characteristics

  • Arched brow ridges

  • reduced face

  • steep forehead

  • robust skeleton

• Culture

  • Hearths

  • Collected items/artifacts

  • Long term shelters

  • Hunting (spears)

  • Levallois Tools

Homo Neanderthalensis

• Time period

  • 130-40

• Location:

  • throughout Europe, in parts of Asia

• Distinguishing Characteristics

  • Sloping foreheads

  • occipital bun

  • Smaller brow ridge

  • broad nasal openings

  • widely spaced eyes

• Culture

  • Mousterian tools

  • Burials

  • Care for elderly

  • Violence/ cannibalism

  • Hunting (spears and large mamals)