HOMININ ORIGINS

Part 2: Human Evolution

1. Bipedalism
2. Stone Tools/Culture
3. Out of Africa
4. Modern Humans
5. Peopling of Australia & New World
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Today
Hominin Origins
What is culture?
Early Hominins
Bipedalism
Emergence of culture
Early Homo
Expansion out of Africa
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Culture
Shared values, ideas, beliefs
Material culture = things made by people,
shared because of shared values, etc.
Culture as exclusive to humans (!?)
Depends on how we define it:
Tool use
Chimpanzees, otters, crows
Communication/language
Bees, ants, crows
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Human biocultural origins
Aspects of human variation which are a product of
inheritance
Palaeontological record of humans goes back to
between 6 and 7 million years ago (mya) in Africa
Can recognize early humans from skeletal
remains in Africa long before any stone tools
appear
Oldest stone tools around 2.6 mya in Africa

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Classification of Hominins
Kingdom: Animalia
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Anthropoidea
Superfamily: Hominoidea
Family: Hominidea
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe: Hominini


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T. Harrison Science 327, 532-534 (2010)
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What is a Hominin?
Modern humans
Our ancestors up until the human/ape split
Other species branching off this lineage

First Hominin debate
5 10 mya
Earliest Hominin fossils are:
African, ~7 million years old
Very apelike mosaic of traits
Recently discovered, and poorly understood



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Identifying Early Hominins
Key Hominin traits:
1. Skeletal traits
associated with
bipedalism
2. Changes to the face,
teeth, and jaws
3. Expansion of the
brain
(encephalization)
4. Tool-making
behavior
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Why Bipedalism ?
Freeing of the hands
Prolonged infant care
Food carrying or
provisioning activities
Tool use
Elevate head
Visibility in open
grasslands
Energetic advantages
Long distance, slow
walking
Improved heat regulation
Mating advantage?


Lower body stresses
Knee, hip, and lower back
pain
Advantages Disadvantages (Costs)
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THE SKELETAL EVIDENCE OF BIPEDALISM
Flaring of
hips for
weight
distribution
Change in
position of
foramen
magnum
S-shaped
curve to
spinal
column
Double
arched
foot
Change in
limb
proportions
Early Hominins
KEY EARLY HOMININ SITES
Early Hominids (before ~4.5 mya)
New finds are constantly changing what is known
about early hominins
Identifying hominins is not as big a problem as
deciding which primate line they are ancestral to
Mosaics of hominin and ape/chimpanzee traits are
common
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Sahelanthropus tchadensis
6 7 mya
Toros-Menalla, Chad
Partial cranium, no
postcranial
Closest common ancestor
to chimps?
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5.8 6 mya
Western Kenya
19 specimens of jaw,
teeth, finger, arm, and leg
bones
Brigitte Senut, 1998

Orrorin tugenensis
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4.4 mya
Aramis, Ethiopia
1994: jaw fragment & miscellaneous teeth
2004: 45% complete skeleton, teeth, cranial,
and upper limb bone fragments
Two species:
Ardipithecus ramidus
Ardipithecus kadabba
Ardipithecus
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The Australopithecines
Diverse group of early
Hominins:
Dates range from 4.2 to 1 mya
Brain not much larger than
modern apes
Variation in robusticity
Gracile vs. robust
Bipedal
Footprints (3.6 mya, Laetoli,
Tanzania)
Partially arboreal


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Australopithecus vs. Paranthropus
A. anamensis
A. afarensis
A. africanus

A. garhi
A. bahrelghezali
A. sebida


A. robustus
A. boisei
A. aethiopicus
Gracile Robust (Paranthropus)
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Gracile Australopithecines
As a group:
Cranium, mandible, and
teeth are more lightly built
All extinct by ~2mya ?
Three species:
Australopithecus anamensis
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus africanus





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Australopithecus anamensis
4.2 - 3.9 mya
Kenya
-anam: Lake in Turkana
language
Meave Leakey
Mosaic of ape and Hominin
traits
Most primitive of the genus



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Australopithecus afarensis
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3.9 - 2.9 mya
Ethiopia and Tanzania

Most well-known Hominin
At least two dozen individuals
Thought to lead to Homo


Australopithecus afarensis
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Lucy
Ethiopia
Young female, ~3
feet tall
AL 288
Don Johansen &
team
Bipedal
Anteriorly placed
foramen magnum
Flared ilium
Femur angled



Australopithecus afarensis
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Laetoli footprints
Tanzania
Mary Leakey & team
1 to 2 adults and one juvenile
Evidence of bipedalism
Evidence of sexual dimorphism

Australopithecus africanus
3.5 2 mya
South Africa (Taung, Sterkfontein,
Makapansgat)
Raymond Dart and Robert Broom
Bipedal
More human-like dentition

Taung child
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Other Australopithecines
A. bahrelghazali
3.5 3 mya
Chad
First hominin found outside of East African Rift
Valley
Single fragmentary jaw

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Other Australopithecines
A. garhi
2.5 mya
Middle Awash, Ethiopia
Few skull and limb fragments
Similar to, but definitely not, any of other
australopithecines
Range of variation?
Adaptation?


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Other Australopithecines
A. sebida
1.95 1.78 mya
South Africa
2 partial
skeletons
Lee Berger 2010
Decended from
A. africanus
Derived Homo-
like morphology
Ancestral to
Homo


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Robust Australopithecines
(Paranthropus)
As a group:
Chewing adaptations
Thicker jaws
Larger molars and premolars
Massive muscle attachment areas (crests)
Not substantially different in postcranial
Not our relatives
Three species
Australopithecus robustus
Australopithecus boisei
Australopithecus aethiopicus

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Australopithecus aethiopicus
2.7 2.3 mya
Northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia
Ancestral to A. boisei
Hyper-robust
Black skull
(KNM-WT 17000)
2.5 mya
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Australopithecus boisei
2.3 1.3 mya
East Africa (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)
Louis and Mary Leakey
Zinj or Nutcracker Man
Tool maker ?

Pronounced sexual dimorphism
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Australopithecus robustus
1.8 1 mya
South Africa
Robert Broom
Omnivore
Tools ?
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Figure 11.7
Emergence of Culture
Early Hominid Tools
First tools recovered in East Africa
Earliest at Gona, Ethiopia
Date to around 2.5 mya
Australopithecines?
early Homo?
Lower Paleolithic
Oldowan tool tradition
Choppers and scrapers
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Supposed Range of Activities
Interpretation = experimental
archaeology
Tool making
Processing/consumption of foods
Re-concentration of food resources
for sharing, sleeping, grooming,
socializing
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FLK North elephant processing?
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M. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, 1971
Early Homo
Homo habilis
2.3 to 1.7 mya
East and South Africa
Leakey,Tobias, and Napier
Handy Man


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Homo habilis: Variability
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Homo habilis represents two
(2) contemporaneous
species?
1. Homo habilis
Smaller body and brain size
Gracile face and teeth
2. Homo rudolfensis
Larger body and brain size
Robust face and teeth, more similar to
Australopithecines
Homo erectus
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1.8 mya 500 kya
As late as 100 kya in Asia
Great diversity/variability anatomically
First movement out of Africa (Out of Africa I)
Trinil, Java; Dmanisi, Georgia (W. Europe);
Swanscombe, England; Atapuerca, Spain;
Zhoukoudian, China
Africa = Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania; Lake Turkana,
Kenya



Homo erectus
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Despite diversity, some typical traits can be
identified in the cranium & postcranium
Cranium
Pronounced ridges, sloping forehead, receding chin
Smaller more vertical face
Smaller teeth
Postcranium more similar to modern humans than to
early Homo
Larger body size
Modern proportions

Homo erectus: Variability
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Homo erectus represents two (2)
contemporaneous species?
1. Homo ergaster
Thinner vault bones
Smaller supraorbital torus and occipital torus
Lack of sagittal keel (vault more rounded, less obviously
pentagonal)

2. Homo erectus
Previously discussed traits
Erectus or Ergaster?
Division into H. erectus and H. ergaster
argued on basis of (slight) anatomical
differences between African and Asian
specimens
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Homo ergaster?
Homo erectus?
OH 9
Homo erectus
Sangiran 17
Homo ergaster
KNM-ER 3733
Homo ergaster : African and
Georgian Forms
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~1.8 mya
Left Africa around 1.7 mya and went to the
Republic of Georgia

Other sites include:
Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania
Nariokotome, Kenya
Famous example: Nariokotome Boy
Nariokotome (Turkana) Boy
KNM WT 15000

Nearly complete H. ergaster/erectus specimen

Dates to 1.6 my

Sex = Boy = shape of pelvis
Age = 11 13 = dental eruption
(no 3
rd
molar = no wisdom teeth)

Skeleton = 53
Projected would have stood between 56 and 6 feet
tall had he reached maturity
Dmanisi hominids:
Homo georgicus (1.75mya)
The best preserved, oldest hominid fossils
from outside Africa have been found at
Dmanisi in the Georgian Republic of eastern
Europe
Dmanisi hominids were not typical of the tall-
standing, big brained Homo erectus - instead
they were short (4 tall), long-armed, small-
brained, thin browed
They used only very basic chopping and
cutting tools and there is no evidence for the
use of fire

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Homo erectus: All Other Forms
Earliest Asian forms date between 1.8
and 1.6 mya
Found at several sites all over
Indonesia and China
Whether or not Homo erectus was in
Europe is still up for debate
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HOMO ERECTUS SITES
H. erectus in Java
Eugene Dubois went to Sumatra
in 1887 with the intention of
finding the missing link
1891: found a skull cap which
made him famous
1894: published his find as
Pithecanthropus erectus
At first his conclusions were
controversial, but by 1930,
accepted
Dubois never agreed that later
finds from China were the same
species as Java man
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Peking / Beijing: 700 - 400 kya
Pei Wenshong was working at the
site of Chou-Kou Tien (Zhokoudian)
in the 1920s
1929 he found a fossil skull which he
brought to the Canadian anatomist,
Davidson Black, who spent four
months removing it from the
limestone
Black had already recognized and
named Sinanthropus pekinensis as a
new genus and species after
examining teeth found in 1927
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Weidenreich & A Mystery
Blacks work was taken over by
Franz Weidenreich
Made casts, stored originals (1937)
Leaves China (1941, WWII) with
casts, drawings, photographs
Arrangements were made to move the
fossils but the trunks they were placed
in for shipping disappeared
No trace of the other fossils has ever
been found despite years of searching
New evidence in 2012!?

Composite reconstruction
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Who were the first African
emigrants?
H. ergaster/erectus probably evolved in East
Africa close to 2.0 mya
One problem is the early dates (1.8-1.6 mya) for
H. erectus in eastern Asia, and in eastern
Europe (1.75 mya)
To travel from Africa to Java in a few thousand
years is possible and implies very rapid
expansion
At the time H. erectus left Africa, there were land
bridges available which allowed access to Java

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Why the Expansion?
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Advanced culture and more modern anatomy?
Problem: The Dmanisi material is not modern and did
not have the brain for advanced culture
Ecological explanations?
Climate change around 1.8 1.6 mya altered the
range of many animals
Homo erectus is thought to have followed them
Homo erectus: Culture
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Tools and other artifacts dating from 1.8 mya to
200 kya are assumed to have been produced by
Homo erectus
Culture of Homo erectus:
1. Acheulian Tool Tradition
2. Big Game Eating
3. Control of Fire
4. Language
5. Other ritual evidence

Homo erectus: Culture
1. Acheulian Tool Tradition
Earliest finds in Tanzania at 1.5 mya
Latest finds date to 200-150 kya (Africa)
Latest finds in Europe until 100 kya
Bifaces
Mental models
Template ? = symmetry, standardization
Possible ritual, symbolic meaning
Especially later Acheulian handaxes
Symbolic status/ status based upon ability within hominid
social groups
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Isimila, Tanzania
Homo erectus: Culture
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2. Big Game Eating
Evidence at some Acheulian sites in the form of large
animal bones and tools
But, does the association mean anything?
Some think that Homo erectus was more of a
scavenger and not a big game hunter
Regardless, they ate big game and most likely hunted
for smaller game


Homo erectus: Culture
Schningen, Germany
400,000 year old spruce
spears
Evidence for systematic
hunting
Cooperation (& communication)
inferred
Boxgrove, Torralba, Ambrona
sites
Cooperative hunting
Seasonal rounds
Flexible social groups
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Homo erectus: Culture
3. Control of Fire
Cold
Making some foods edible
Hardened spear tips
Deliberately set by Homo
erectus?
They would have needed
some type of clothing



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Homo erectus: Culture
4. Language
Skeletal evidence
Remodeling of the brain
Studying endocasts
A preserved, fossilized relief of a brain
Similar to our brain or to apes?




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Homo erectus: Culture
5. Other Ritual Evidence
Bodo site in Ethiopia
Cut marks around eye socket on
cranium
Possible ritual defleshing of cranium
Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca,
Spain
Deliberate, ritual burial
Berekhat Ram, Israel
Possible female figure in volcanic
scoria
230 kya (late Acheulian)
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Summary: 7 - 2.5 mya
Dates Chad South Africa East Africa
2.5 to 3 Mya Australopithecus
africanus (Taung,
Sterkfontein)
Australopithecus garhi (2.5
Mya)
3 to 4 Mya Australopithecus
barhelghazali
Australopithecus
species? Around 4
Mya Sterkfontein
M2
Australopithecus anamensis;
Australopithecus afarensis;
Kenyanthropus platyops
4 to 5 Mya Australopithecus anamensis;
Ardipithecus ramidus
5 to 6 Mya Ardipithecus kadabba;
Orrorin tugenensis
6 to 7 Mya Sahelanthropus
tchadensis
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Summary: 3 - 1.7 mya
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Dates South Africa East Africa
1.7 to 2.0 Mya Paranthropus
robustus
Australopithecus
sediba
Early Homo (H.
habilis)
P. boisei
Early Homo (H. habilis
and H. rudolfensis)
2.0 to 2.5 Mya Early Homo (H.
rudolfensis)
2.5 to 3.0 Mya A. africanus 2.5 Mya = A. garhi,
Paranthropus
aethiopicus
2.6 Mya = first stone
tools (Gona, Ethiopia)
First member of the genus Homo around 2.3 mya
in East Africa
Contemporary with robust forms (Australopithecus
or Paranthropus sp.)
Earliest archaeological evidence appears around
the time that the genus Homo appears
Called Oldowan
First signs of change
(1) by 1.8 mya, humans out of Africa into Asia and
(2) development of Acheulean technology around
1.6 mya
Summary
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Summary
H. ergaster/erectus was a very successful
species which travelled far and survived from
~1.8mya to 200kya
Technology did not change quickly, but tools were
more sophisticated than their predecessors
Questions remain about behaviours
Did they hunt or scavenge? Control fire? Cannibalize
their fellows? Care for the elderly and sick?
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Next Topic
Questions ?
Concerns ?
Problems ?
From Homo erectus to
Neanderthals

Readings:
Chapter 4
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