1. Chapter 4 - UCF Pressbooks - University of Central Florida
Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and best-known early hominin species, living around 3.9 to 2.8 million years ago. This species survived ...
In order to understand the exact place of humans among the animals, it is helpful to understand how we are taxonomically classified. In the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné placed humans together with other similar-looking organisms in the taxonomic order Primates. Modern molecular biology has reinforced our place with primates, as humans, monkeys and apes share the vast majority of their DNA, with chimpanzees sharing between 97 to 99% genetic identity with humans.
2. The evolution of the upright posture and gait—a review and a new ...
Its advocates argue that this upright travelling locomotion of orang-utans in the crown of high trees represents an ancestral behaviour which has been retained ...
During the last century, approximately 30 hypotheses have been constructed to explain the evolution of the human upright posture and locomotion. The most important and recent ones are discussed here. Meanwhile, it has been established that all main hypotheses ...
3. Human Evolution - Science - University of Waikato
Orrorin tugenensis, from Kenya, is dated at 6 million years old. Its remains ... species that last shared a common ancestor hundreds of millions of years ago.
Human evolution is a rapidly-changing field, with the regular discovery of new fossil material leading scientists to constantly reconsider evolutionary relationships. This section is an overview of current knowledge of human ancestors, but also presents information on trends in human evolution and the use of DNA technology to examine our past history.
4. Climate Effects on Human Evolution - Smithsonian's Human Origins
Missing: anatomy | Show results with:anatomy
This article explores the hypothesis that key human adaptations evolved in response to environmental instability. This idea was developed during research conducted by Dr. Rick Potts of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program. Natural selection was not always a matter of ‘survival of the fittest’ but also survival of those most adaptable to changing surroundings.
5. 3.3: Human Evolution - Social Sci LibreTexts
Aug 23, 2022 · The Hominin ancestral line (modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors including members of the genera Homo, ...
This page is a draft and under active development. Please forward any questions, comments, and/or feedback to the ASCCC OERI (oeri@asccc.org).
6. Glossary - eLucy
an extinct African hominin species, possibly ancestral to humans, that existed approximately 4 million years ago to 3.8 million years ago; fossil remains found ...
eLucy is dedicated to sharing information about Lucy, an early fossil hominin represented by the 3.2 million year old remains of a relatively complete skeleton. If you have problems using this site, or have other questions, please feel free to contact us.
7. Homo heidelbergensis - The Australian Museum
Homo heidelbergensis skull cast · Age. This species lived between 300,000 and 600,000 years ago. The African fossils tend to be older than those from Europe.
These humans evolved in Africa but by 500,000 years ago some populations were in Europe. They lived and worked in co-operative groups, hunted large animals and made a variety of tools including stone hand axes and wooden spears set with stone spearheads.
8. The evolution of human and ape hand proportions | Nature Communications
Jul 14, 2015 · However, since the molecular revolution in the 1980–1990s (which provided unequivocal evidence for humans and chimpanzees being sister taxa) a ...
Human hands are distinguished from apes by possessing longer thumbs relative to fingers. However, this simple ape-human dichotomy fails to provide an adequate framework for testing competing hypotheses of human evolution and for reconstructing the morphology of the last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees. We inspect human and ape hand-length proportions using phylogenetically informed morphometric analyses and test alternative models of evolution along the anthropoid tree of life, including fossils like the plesiomorphic ape Proconsul heseloni and the hominins Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus sediba. Our results reveal high levels of hand disparity among modern hominoids, which are explained by different evolutionary processes: autapomorphic evolution in hylobatids (extreme digital and thumb elongation), convergent adaptation between chimpanzees and orangutans (digital elongation) and comparatively little change in gorillas and hominins. The human (and australopith) high thumb-to-digits ratio required little change since the LCA, and was acquired convergently with other highly dexterous anthropoids. The human hand can be distinguished from that of apes by its long thumb relative to fingers. Here the authors show that hand proportions vary greatly among ape species and that the human hand evolved from an ancestor that was more similar to humans than to chimpanzees.
9. [PDF] Human Origins: An Infocomic - Western CEDAR
That species—the last common ancestor (LCA) of all monkeys and apes — lived about 25 million years ago. (MYA) Our LCA with chimpanzees was only about 6-8 MYA.
10. [PDF] Glossary | eLucy
Australopithecus afarensis: an extinct African hominin species, possibly ancestral to humans, that existed approximately 4 million years ago to 2.8 million ...
11. Analysis of Early Hominins
Missing: movement orrorin tugenensis,
Bipedal locomotion may have been an adaptation to living in a mixed woodland and grassland environment. It has been suggested that bipedalism was selected for because it made it easier to see long distances when moving over areas covered with tall grasses. This would have been a useful advantage in scavenging for food and watching for big cats and other predators in open environments. An upright posture also potentially helps to dissipate excess body heat and reduces the absorption of heat from the sun because less skin has a direct exposure to ultra violet radiation during the hottest times of the day. There is evidence suggesting that bipedal animals usually can walk greater distances because less energy is expended with their longer strides. This would be useful for scavenging for food throughout vast areas. However, the legs of bipedal animals need to be sturdy enough to support at least 2.5 times their body weight while running. Over many generations, early hominin legs grew longer and much stronger than their arms. Their feet became longer and developed arches for more efficient support of their bodies. In addition, their hands became more adept at carrying and manipulating objects such as tools and food. It also made it easier to hold babies and to tend to their needs. These adaptations to walking bipedally on the ground made it progressively more difficult to climb and travel through the canopies of trees. However, they obviously provided many other natural selection advantages.
12. The First Hominins and the Origins of Bipedalism | Evolution
Missing: movement | Show results with:movement
Molecular and paleontological evidence now point to the last common ancestor between chimpanzees and modern humans living between five and seven million years ago. Any species considered to be more closely related to humans than chimpanzees we call hominins. Traditionally, early hominins have been conspicuous by their absence in the fossil record, but discoveries in the last 20 years have finally provided us with a number of very important finds. We currently have three described genera, Ardipithecus, Orrorin and Sahelanthropus, of which Ardipithecus is extremely well represented by cranial, dental, and postcranial remains. All three genera are argued to be hominins based on reduced canine size and an increased capacity for bipedal locomotion. The evolutionary relationships between these taxa and both earlier hominoids and later hominins are somewhat disputed, but this is to be expected for any species thought to be close to the root of the hominin lineage.
13. earliest modern human: Topics by Science.gov
The earliest evidence of woodworking dates back 1.5 million years to the modern human ancestor Homo erectus.1 Many characteristics that made wood a ...
14. [PDF] Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Africa
'Millennium ancestor', a 6-million-year-old bipedal hominid from Kenya. South African Journal of Science, Vol. 97, Issue 1–2, pp. 22. Potts, R., A.K. ...
15. Introduction to Paleoanthropology/Print version
Oldest known hominid or near-hominid species (6-7 million years ago). ... Fossils of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (6-7 million years) and Orrorin tugenensis (6 ...
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16. [PDF] Human Evolution
The first is Orrorin tugenensis, a collection of postcranial and dental material dated at about 6 mya. These early hominid finds are fascinating because they ...
17. [PDF] The National Academies Press
Each species has distinctive anatomical characteristics that can be inferred to be adaptations to climatic conditions—Neanderthals were shorter with more robust ...
18. [PDF] PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY - College of the Canyons
approximately 6 million years ago. Several species evolved from the evolutionary branch that includes humans, although our species is the only surviving member.
19. 2 HUMAN EVOLUTION - Sage Publications
Millions of years ago, some animals developed characteristics through evolutionary processes that gave rise to later primates, includ- ing modern chimpanzees, ...
20. What is Evolution? - Strange Science
Evolutionary theory argues that all the organisms alive on Earth today share a common ancestor. As unlikely as it sounds, life forms from spiders to spider ...
Overview of Evolution
21. [PDF] Introduction to Paleoanthropology - Humanities Commons
Mar 12, 2013 · Oldest known hominid or near-hominid species (6-7 million years ago). • Discovery of nearly complete cranium and number of fragmentary lower ...