Human Evolution

• Formen magnum


  The hole in the base of the skull, through which the spinal cord passes
• Diastema


  The gap in between the upper canine and premolar found in great apes
• Homo Erectus


  The first human to use fire and spread out from Africa
• Oldowan


  The earliest known stone tools
• Valgus angle


  The angle between the shaft of femur and the vertical when the femur is in normal standing orientation
• Hominin


  The bipedal apes and their ancestors
• Acheulian


  The tool with a core of flattened stone with two faces made by homo erectus
• Homo habilis


  The first known Hominni to use tools, also known as handyman
• Hominoidea


  Describes the great apes, humans and their ancestors
• Wernicke's area is located in the left temporal lobe and is responsible for speech comprehension
• Cultural evolution 


  The type of evolution where things are taught/learned and not passed on by DNA
• Homo heidelbergensis


  The group of hominin that were initially called archaic homo sapiens and was the first with firm evidence for systematic hunting
• Occipital condyle


  The part of the brain that articulates with the first vertebra
• Biological evolution


  The type of evolution that is passed through DNA. Biological evolution is the transmission of physical, physiological, and behavioural adaptations passed on from parent to offspring in their genes
• Mounsterian


  Name for fine stone tools which include flakes, scrapers and spears with attaches handles
• Homo neanderthalensis


  The group of hominin that first buried the dead and cared for the old
• Cerebrum


  The area of the brain that is most enlarged in apes and in humans
• The first animal to be domesticated was the dog
• Bowl shaped


  The shape of the pelvis in bipedal organisms
• Sagittal


  The crest along the top of the skull
• Australopithecus afarensis


  Scientific name for lucy, the first to probable walk upright
• Lower palaeolithic


  The culture that included the Oldowan and Archeulian together. Called the "old stone age"
• Mousterian


  Neanderthal tool culture
• Upper palaeolithic 


  The later phase of the old stone age
• Composite


  Tools made of more than one material
• Multiregional


  The Multiregional Model contends that after Homo erectus left Africa and dispersed into other portions of the Old World, regional populations slowly evolved into modern humans
• Homo sapiens


  The first species to make and use needles
• Out of Africa


  The Out of Africa Model asserts that modern humans evolved relatively recently in Africa, migrated into Eurasia and replaced all populations which had descended from Homo erectus
• Brow ridge


  Heavy bone over the eye which reduces the stresses in the skull and lower jaw involved with chewing
• Prognathism


  Having a snout/muzzle
• Zygomatic arch


  Gap through which large jaw muscles pass through
• Replacement of hypothesis or eve hypothesis

  Name for out of Africa hypothesis
• What do ice ages do to the sea's water levels?


  Lowers water level, creating land bridges between islands
• What is mtDNA


  Mitochondria DNA which is only passed on to daughters
• Why can't chromosomes be used to show patterns of evolution?

  Because it is passed on only to sons and isn't affected by recombination
• How can mtDNA and Y chromosome DNA be altered?

  mutations
• How did Australopithecus obtain food?

  Scavenging what they found
• What does cooking do to food?

  Softens it and kills microbes
• What are the advantages of fire?

  Cooks food, hardens tools, lengthens day, kept warm, keeps predators away
• How did tools help hominins survive?

  Allowed more diverse animals to be killed and processed