Homo sapien. Subspecies[edit] Subspecies of H. sapiens include Homo sapiens idaltu and the only extant subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens. Some sources show Homo sapiens neanderthalensis as a subspecies of H. sapiens. Similarly, the discovered specimens of the Homo rhodesiensis species have been classified by some as a subspecies, but this classification is not widely accepted. Evolution[edit] Homo sapiens idaltu (roughly translated as "elder wise human"), the other known subspecies, is now extinct.[1] Homo neanderthalensis, which became extinct 30,000 years ago, has sometimes been classified as a subspecies, "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis"; genetic studies now suggest that the functional DNA of modern humans and Neanderthals diverged 500,000 years ago.[2] Similarly, the discovered specimens of the Homo rhodesiensis species have been classified by some as a subspecies, but this classification is not widely accepted.
Evolutionary history of Primates[edit] References[edit] Homo neanderthal. The exact date of their extinction is disputed. Fossils found in the Vindija Cave in Croatia have been dated to between 33,000 and 32,000 years old, and Neanderthal artifacts from Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar are believed to be less than 30,000 years old, but a recent study has redated fossils at two Spanish sites as 45,000 years old, 10,000 years older than previously thought, and may cast doubt on recent datings of other sites.
Cro-Magnon (Eurasian Early Modern Human) skeletal remains showing some "Neanderthal traits" have been found in Lagar Velho in Portugal and dated to 24,500 years ago, and in Cioclovina in Romania dated to 35,000 years ago, suggesting that there may have been an extensive admixture of the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal populations throughout Europe.[10][11][12][13][14][15] With an average cranial capacity of 1600 cc,[20] Neanderthal's cranial capacity is notably larger than the 1400 cc average for modern humans, indicating that their brain size was larger.
Name[edit] Homo floresiensis. Doubts that the remains constitute a new species were soon voiced by the Indonesian anthropologist Teuku Jacob, who suggested that the skull of LB1 was a microcephalic modern human. Two studies by paleoneurologist Dean Falk and her colleagues (2005, 2007) rejected this possibility.[6][7][8] Falk et al. (2005) has been rejected by Martin et al. (2006) and Jacob et al. (2006), but defended by Morwood (2005) and Argue, Donlon et al. (2006).
Two orthopedic researches published in 2007 reported evidence to support species status for H. floresiensis. Critics of the claim for species status continue to believe that these individuals are Homo sapiens possessing pathologies of anatomy and physiology. A second hypothesis in this category is that the individuals were born without a functioning thyroid, resulting in a type of endemic cretinism (myxoedematous, ME).[15] Discovery[edit] Anatomy[edit] Small bodies[edit] LB1's height has been estimated at about 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in). Small brains[edit] Homo heidelbergensis. Morphology and interpretations[edit] A reconstruction of Homo heidelbergensis. Social behavior[edit] Homo heidelbergensis – forensic facial reconstruction/approximation Recent findings in a pit in Atapuerca (Spain) of 28 human skeletons suggest that H. heidelbergensis might have been the first species of the Homo genus to bury its dead.[7] Language[edit] The morphology of the outer and middle ear suggests they had an auditory sensitivity similar to modern humans and very different from chimpanzees.
They were probably able to differentiate between many different sounds.[9] Dental wear analysis suggests they were as likely to be right-handed as modern people.[10] H. heidelbergensis was a close relative (most probably a migratory descendant) of Homo ergaster. Evidence of hunting[edit] Divergent evolution[edit] Homo neanderthalensis retained most of the features of H. heidelbergensis after its divergent evolution. Some scenarios of survival include:[citation needed] Discovery[edit] Boxgrove Man[edit] Homo ergaster. Homo erectus. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H. erectus, with two major alternative classifications: erectus may be another name for Homo ergaster, and therefore the direct ancestor of later hominids such as Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens; or it may be an Asian species distinct from African ergaster.[1][3][4] Some palaeoanthropologists consider H. ergaster to be simply the African variety of H. erectus.
This leads to the use of the term "Homo erectus sensu stricto" for the Asian H. erectus, and "Homo erectus sensu lato" for the larger species comprising both the early African populations (H. ergaster) and the Asian populations.[5][6] Origin[edit] Homo erectus, Natural History Museum, Ann Arbor, Michigan The second hypothesis is that H. erectus evolved in Eurasia and then migrated to Africa. Discovery and representative fossils[edit] The find became known as Java Man.
Archaeologist John T. Use of tools[edit] Paranthropus. Paranthropus (from Greek παρα, para "beside"; άνθρωπος, ánthropos "human"), is a genus of extinct hominins. Also known as robust australopithecines, they were bipedal hominids that probably descended from the gracile australopithecine hominids (Australopithecus) 2.7 million years ago.[1] Discovery[edit] A partial cranium and mandible of Paranthropus robustus was discovered in 1938 by a schoolboy, Gert Terblanche, at Kromdraai B (70 km south west of Pretoria) in South Africa.
It was described as a new genus and species by Robert Broom of the Transvaal Museum. The site has been excavated since 1993 by Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum. A date of at least 1.95 million years has been obtained for Kromdraai B. Paranthropus boisei was discovered by Mary Leakey on July 17, 1959, at the FLK Bed I site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (specimen OH 5). In his notes Louis recorded a first name, Titanohomo mirabilis, reflecting an initial impression of close human affinity. Description[edit] Sivapithecus. Sivapithecus is a genus of extinct primates. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills in the Indian Subcontinent. Any one of the species in this genus may have been the ancestor to the modern orangutans. Discovery[edit] In 1982, David Pilbeam published a description of a significant fossil find — a large part of the face and jaw of a Sivapithecus.
The specimen bore many similarities to the orangutan skull and strengthened the theory (previously suggested by others) that Sivapithecus was closely related to orangutans. Description[edit] Different angle of skull Species[edit] Currently three species are generally recognized: Sivapithecus indicus fossils date from about 12.5 million to 10.5 million years ago.Sivapithecus sivalensis lived from 9.5 million to 8.5 million years ago. Ramapithecus[edit] Sivapithecus punjabicus See also[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit]
Kenyanthropus. Kenyanthropus platyops is a 3.5 to 3.2-million-year-old (Pliocene) hominin fossil discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1999 by Justus Erus, who was part of Meave Leakey's team.[1] Leakey (2001) proposes that the fossil represents an entirely new hominine genus, while others classify it as a separate species of Australopithecus, Australopithecus platyops, and yet others interpret it as an individual of Australopithecus afarensis. Etymology and description[edit] The name Kenyanthropus platyops was assigned to this unique species for several reasons: the genus name “Kenyanthropus” was proposed to recognize Kenya since so many different hominins have been discovered there, and those findings have played a significant role in understanding human evolution.
The species name “platyops” is derived from two Greek words: platus, which means "flat", and opsis, which means "face", referring to the very flat face of the fossil cranium. Dig sites[edit] Taxonomy[edit] Morphology[edit] See also[edit] Homo habilis. Homo habilis (also Australopithecus habilis) is a species of the Hominini tribe, which lived from approximately 2.33 to 1.44 million years ago, during the Gelasian Pleistocene period.[1] While there has been scholarly controversy regarding its placement in the genus Homo rather than the genus Australopithecus,[2][3] its brain size has been shown to range from 550 cm3 to 687 cm3, rather than from 363 cm3 to 600 cm3 as formerly thought.[3][4] These more recent findings concerning brain size favor its traditional placement in the genus Homo, as does the need for the genus to be monophyletic if H. habilis is indeed the common ancestor.
[citation needed] Homo habilis has often been thought to be the ancestor of the more gracile and sophisticated Homo ergaster, which in turn gave rise to the more human-appearing species, Homo erectus. Findings[edit] KNM ER 1813[edit] OH 7[edit] OH 24[edit] KNM ER 1805[edit] Interpretations[edit] Homo habilis - Forensic facial reconstruction/approximation Notes[edit] Australopithecus. Australopithecus (pronounced AW-struh/strey-loh-PITH-i-kuhs; from Latin australis "southern", Greek πίθηκος pithekos "ape") is an extinct genus of hominids. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around four million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct two million years ago.
During this time period a number of australopith species emerged, including Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali, A. garhi and A. sediba. Academics still debate whether certain African hominid species of this time, such as A. robustus and A. boisei, constitute members of the same genus. If so, they would be considered robust australopiths while the others would be gracile australopiths. However, if these species do constitute their own genus, they may be given their own name, Paranthropus. Evolution[edit] Morphology[edit] According to A. Australopithecus sediba. Australopithecus sediba is a species of Australopithecus of the early Pleistocene, identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago. The species is known from six skeletons discovered in the Malapa Fossil Site at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, one a juvenile male (MH1 also called "Karabo",[2] the holotype), an adult female (MH2, the paratype), an adult male, and three infants.[1][3] The fossils were found together at the bottom of the Malapa Cave, where they apparently fell to their death, and have been dated to between 1.977 and 1.980 million years ago.[4][5] Australopithecus sediba may have lived in savannas but ate fruit and other foods from the forest—behavior similar to modern-day savanna chimpanzees.
The conditions in which the individuals were buried and fossilized was extraordinary, permitting the extraction of plant phytoliths from dental plaque.[6][7][8] Discovery[edit] Age estimates[edit] Morphology and interpretations[edit] Australopithecus africanus. Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between ~3.03 and 2.04 million years ago in the later Pliocene and early Pleistocene.[2] In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, Au. africanus was of slender build, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that Au. africanus was significantly more like modern humans than Au. afarensis, with a more human-like cranium permitting a larger brain and more humanoid facial features. Au. africanus has been found at only four sites in southern Africa — Taung (1924), Sterkfontein (1935), Makapansgat (1948) and Gladysvale (1992).[1] Famous fossils[edit] Taung Child[edit] This was the first time the word Australopithecus was assigned to any hominid.
Mrs. Ples[edit] Dart's theory was supported by Robert Broom.[5] In 1938 Broom classified an adult endocranial cast having a brain capacity of 485 cc, which had been found by G. Sexual dimorphism[edit] Australopithecus afarensis. Localities[edit] Anatomy[edit] A. afarensis, forensic facial reconstruction Lucy skeleton reconstruction. Cleveland Natural History Museum Craniodental features and brain size[edit] Compared to the modern and extinct great apes, A. afarensis has reduced canines and molars, although they are still relatively larger than in modern humans. The image of a bipedal hominid with a small brain and primitive face was quite a revelation to the paleoanthropological world at the time.
Before the discoveries of A. afarensis in the 1970s, it was widely thought that an increase in brain size preceded the shift to bipedal locomotion. Skeletal morphology and locomotion[edit] Stamps of Uzbekistan, 2002 Importantly, the femur also angles in toward the knee from the hip. A reconstruction of a female A. afarensis Behavior[edit] A. afarensis reconstruction Specimens of Australopithecus afarensis[edit] Cast of the remains of "Lucy" The skull of Selam (DIK 1-1) Type specimens[edit] AL[edit] AL 200-1AL 288-1 (Lucy) Australopithecus anamensis. Australopithecus anamensis (or Praeanthropus anamensis) is a stem-human species that lived approximately four million years ago. Nearly one hundred fossil specimens are known from Kenya [1][2] and Ethiopia,[3] representing over 20 individuals. Discovery[edit] A. anamensis bone at the University of Zurich The first fossilized specimen of the species, though not recognized as such at the time, was a single fragment of humerus (arm bone) found in Pliocene strata in the Kanapoi region of East Lake Turkana by a Harvard University research team in 1965.
Little additional information was uncovered until 1987, when Canadian archaeologist Allan Morton (with Harvard University's Koobi Fora Field School) discovered fragments of a specimen protruding from a partially eroded hillside east of Allia Bay, near Lake Turkana, Kenya. The fossils (twenty one in total) include upper and lower jaws, cranial fragments, and the upper and lower parts of a leg bone (tibia).
See also[edit] References[edit] Dryopithecus. Dryopithecus was a genus of apes that is known from Eastern Africa into Eurasia during the late Miocene period. The first species of Dryopithecus was discovered at the site of Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, France, in 1856.[1] Other dryopithecids have been found in Hungary,[2] Spain,[3] and China.[4] Like Sivapithecus, Dryopithecus was suspensory, had a large brain, and a delayed development, but, unlike the former, it had a gracile jaw with thinly enameled molars and suspensory forelimbs; Begun 2004 notes that the similarities and differences between them provides insight into the timing and paleogeography of hominid origins and the phylogenetic divide between Asian and Afro-European great apes. [5] Description[edit] Dryopithecus was about 4 feet tall in body length, and more closely resembled a monkey than a modern ape.
Additional images[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit] Begun, David R. (2004). External links[edit] Mikko's phylogeny archive. Ardipithecus. Missing Link. 'Lucy's Baby' Orrorin. Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Proconsul africanus.