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A
...
3 mya)
Ape-like projecting face
Thick-enamelled chewing teeth
Diet mainly fruit and leaves, perhaps some animal food too
Long arms
Short legs
Long curved fingers
Climbing trees - forage for food, shelter or escape predators
Braincase long and low
Small ape-like brain capacity
Males much taller than females
Infancy and childhood = short = less time for learning
Well-developed bipedal walk
Big toe = divergent
Pronounced ridges above the eyes
Jutting jaw
Large canine teeth
No tools or fire

A
...
A
...
g
...
afarensis + A
...
g
...
robustus + A
...
5 my old ) 1997 by Ronald
Clarke & Phillip Tobias

Paranthropus
Nutcracker-man
co-existed with Homo
...

What you need to look for:
Position of incisors - forward pointing
- erect and forward pointing
- erect
Shape of jaw - semi-circular
- long with parallel sides
- between semicircular and long
Size of canines - large
- small
Size of premolar/ molars - large
- medium
- small
Forehead shape - straight up
- sloped
Size of supraorbitial ridges - prominent
- reduced
- present but not very prominent
Position of foramen magnum - back or front of skull
Bipedal / Quadripedal (give reasons for how you reached this conclusion)

Generalised hominoid:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

mobile wrist
large braincase
mobile shoulder joint
very long forelimbs
dorsally placed shoulder blade
short lumbar region
broad hips
robust big toe
broad knee joint
mobile hip joint
broad thorax
forward facing eyes
flexible elbow

Prosimians - e
...
lemurs and tarsiers
Anthropoids - e
...
New world monkeys and Old world monkeys and Hominoids -> Gibbons, Orang-utans, Gorillas,
Chimpanzees, Humans
Anthropology : study of man -> present and past
Palaeontology : the scientific study of life in the geological past through the study of plant and animal fossils
Paleoanthropologist : the scientific study of extinct members of the genus Homo sapiens by means of their fossil
remains i
...
hominid fossils
Archeology : study of man’s past through the material remains of different cultures

Evolution of mammals - 3 middle ear bone
- parental care
- differentiation of teeth
- mammary glands
- hair - endothermic - constant body temperature
- larger brain
marsupials - small shrew-like placental mammal
Most recent common ancestor ⁂ least different
Species who have fewest similar sequences of bases in their DNA - going back a long way ⁂ more time to diverge +
change further
Evolutionary biologists expect a phylogenetic tree drawn up from the physical characteristics of organisms to agree with
one drawn up from their DNA sequence as DNA codes for the physical characteristics of an organism so organisms that
have similar DNA sequences will also have similar physical characteristics
...
position of foramen magnum
2
...
femur
4
...
arms
Unique features the hands of humans share with the apes : Opposable thumb, limited precision grip
Three advantages of bipedalism :
1
...
see further
3
...
g
...

Early Homo appeared to have had :
- greater intelligence and behavioural flexibility
- an ability to manufacture and use a range of simple tools
- speech
- collaborative foraging

H
...
habilis (1
...
egraser (1
...
4 mya) - taller, larger brain, used more sophisticated tools than the other Homo species - Ethiopia,
Tanzania, Kenya, Swartkrans,S
...

H
...
egraser in Africa - spread via Europe into Asia +
disappeared approx
...
- existed until 200 000 years ago
Peking man and Java man both discovered in Asia
to date an organism/fossil on a graph you need to look at the origin/starting point of the bubble or line
to be a social animal increases your survival
Brain frontal lobe could allow for success of the species - more intelligent
Early Homo species :
foramen magnum is closer to the front for stable upright walking

Chromosomal DNA (in nuclei) can determine how closely related 2 organisms are
Mitochondrial DNA (in Mitochondrion) can determine evolutionary paths
if there are many differences the separation occurred earlier
⁂ more time for mutations to occur = more variation
fewer differences = separation occurred more recently
⁂ less time for mutations to occur = less variation
Cultural evidence : tools (intelligence + well-developed hands)
- choppers (flakes cut from it, the hammerstone)
- Flakes (thin sharp stones used to cut meat)
- scrapers (smaller flakes used to clean and prepare hide (animal skins) for making clothes and shelter)
- Hand axes - bifacial tools (sharp on both edges)
- picks
- cleavers (has a blade section)

2 models/ hypotheses to explain the origin of Homo sapiens through the world (genus Homo)

Out of Africa

Multiregional

wave of Homo erectus that led to dead end in
Homo neanderthalensis followed by a second
wave of Homo sapiens from Africa

Homo erectus developed into Homo sapiens in
various locations, including independently in
South Africa

H
...
of humans

modern humans gradually evolved simultaneously
from H
...
heidelb
...
g
...
erectus without
interbreeding) Thus H
...
erectus from Africa
2mya; developed slightly different variations in
different parts of the world due to particular genetic
isolation, founder effects, genetic drift plus
adaptation to different local conditions

Evidence :
- earliest fossil finds of H
...
e
...
sap evolved directly from H
...
of different regions i
...
H
...
africanus)

Australopithecu
s

Discovered by
whom

Donald
Johanson &
Tom Gray

Prof
...
sediba

Ronald Clarke
& Phillip Tobias

Johannesburg

1947 1995/1997

1925

2008

Fossilised
body part/s
found

almost
complete
skeleton

skeleton parts

skeleton parts

almost
complete
skeleton

partial skeleton
& almost
complete skull

Estimated age
of fossil

3
...
5 myo

2
...
5 myo

1

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