Describe the evolutionary history of hominids for the last six million years or so. (Hint: is it more bush like or a consecutive string of bipedal forms?)
Which evolved first, large brains or upright walking? About when do the fossils show upright walking evolving?
Which group evolved first, H. neandertalensis or H. erectus? When did each live?
Who was Homo floresiensis and what makes them such a curiosity?
Habilis means “handy” in Latin. Explain why the early human H. habilis was given this name.
In what part of the world is it believed the ancestors to modern day humans lived?
Answers
Answer:
That thinking began to change in the 1920s when anatomist Raymond Dart discovered the skull known as the Taung Child in South Africa. Taung Child had a small brain, and many researchers thought the approximately three-million-year-old Taung was merely an ape. But one feature stood out as being human-like. The foramen magnum, the hole through which the spinal cord leaves the head, was positioned further forward under the skull than an ape’s, indicating that Taung held its head erect and therefore likely walked upright. In the 1930s and 1940s, further fossil discoveries of bipedal apes that predated Neanderthals and H. erectus (collectively called australopithecines) helped convince anthropologists that walking upright came before big brains in the evolution of humans. This was demonstrated most impressively in 1974 with the finding of Lucy, a nearly complete australopithecine skeleton. Although Lucy was small, she had the anatomy of a biped, including a broad pelvis and thigh bones that angled in toward the knees, which brings the feet in line with the body’s center of gravity and creates stability while walking.
In more recent decades, anthropologists have determined that bipedalism has very ancient roots. In 2001, a group of French paleoanthropologists unearthed the seven-million-year-old Sahelanthropus tchadensis in Chad. Known only from a skull and teeth, Sahelanthropus‘ status as an upright walker is based solely on the placement of its foramen magnum, and many anthropologists remain skeptical about the species’ form of locomotion. In 2000, paleoanthropologists working in Kenya found the teeth and two thigh bones of the six-million-year-old Orrorin tugenensis. The shape of the thigh bones confirms Orrorin was bipedal. The earliest hominid with the most extensive evidence for bipedalism is the 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus. In 2009, researchers announced the results of more than 15 years of analysis of the species and introduced the world to a nearly complete skeleton called Ardi.
Although the earliest hominids were capable of upright walking, they probably didn’t get around exactly as we do today. They retained primitive features—such as long, curved fingers and toes as well as longer arms and shorter legs—that indicate they spent time in trees. It’s not until the emergence of H. erectus 1.89 million years ago that hominids grew tall, evolved long legs and became completely terrestrial creatures.
While the timeline of the evolution of upright walking is well understood, why hominids took their first bipedal steps is not. In 1871, Charles Darwin offered an explanation in his book The Descent of Man: Hominids needed to walk on two legs to free up their hands. He wrote that “…the hands and arms could hardly have become perfect enough to have manufactured weapons, or to have hurled stones and spears with a true aim, as long as they were habitually used for locomotion.” One problem with this idea is that the earliest stone tools don’t show up in the archaeological record until roughly 2.5 million years ago, about 4.5 million years after bipedalism’s origin.
Explanation:
There is a development of the body structure of the human needs due to the change in the pattern of the skeletal and the muscles resulting in the change in the appearance of the human being over the last 6 million years.
Explanation:
- upright walking took place earlier , as a result of this there is a change in the working pattern of human being from the four legged like The Other mammals to the upright walking , fossils of Java man show the evidence of this.
- There was evolution of Homo erectus earlier than H Neanderthal
- H floresiensis was actually a subgroup of that Java man. Homeo habilis is an example of the the people who started using their hand for their daily purposes. Habilis comes from the word meaning handy.
- the ancestors of modern day human lives mostly in the African continent because of the presence of extensive number of skeletons and rocks that had been found there
To know more,
whar is the evolutionary history of modern man? - Brainly.in
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