ANTHRO 3

• Periods of Evolution


  • Prosimians
  • Monkeys
  • Apes
  • Hominids
• Prosimians


  Lemurs, lorises, pottos & tarsiers
• Anthropoids


  Monkeys, apes and man
• First Arboreal Mammals


  • Long snouts
  • Good sense of smell
  • Probably nocturnal
  • Very active
  • Claws
• Arboreal


  Living in or often found in trees
• Eosimias, the 1st Primates?
• The Prosimians


  • Tarsiers
  • Lemurs
  • Loris
  • Pottos
• Prosimians


  • Ring-tailed Lemur
  • Indri
  • Slender Loris
• Characteristics of Primates


  • Binocular color vision
  • Upright posture
  • Small litter size
  • Expanded forebrain, larger brain capacity
• Anthropoids (Apes, Monkeys, Humans)


  • Old World Monkey
  • New World Monkey
• Old World Monkey


  • Long snout
  • Close nostrils
  • Non-prehensile tail
• New World Monkey


  • Flat face
  • Wide nostrils
  • Prehensile tail
• Proconsul- Ancestor to Hominoids?
• Proconsul africanus


  • Skull from the Kenya National Museum
• Sahelanthropus tchadensis
• The great apes


  • Gorillas
  • Orangutans
  • Chimpanzees
  • Humans
• What does it take to be human?

  • Standard primate characteristics
  • Upright, bipedal posture
  • Much expanded brain
  • Well defined sexual dimorphism
  • Hidden estrus
  • Altered female sexual response
  • Extended childhood
  • Language
  • Society
  • Culture
• Human Ancestors


  • Australopithecus afarensis
  • Australopithecus africanus
  • Australopithecus boisei
  • Australopithecus robustus
• Australopithecus africanus


  • 2.8 million years ago
  • Cranial capacity 460 cc
• Homo habilis


  • Might have existed 2M years ago
  • Brain~600cc
  • "Handy Man"
  • Oldowan tools
  • Speech?
• Homo erectus


  • "Upright Man"
  • Larger brain than H. habilis
  • Migrated
  • Acheulean tools
  • More advanced culture?
• Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) skeletons were first discovered in Germany's Neander Valley
• Homo floresiensis


  Discovered in Nature, Oct. 28, 2004
• Homo sapiens


  • Archaic - 100,000 to 35,000 years BP
  • Modern - 35,000 years BP to present
• Cro-Magnons


  • Oldest fossils to be designated H. sapiens
  • Modern humans who entered Asia and Europe from Africa 100,000 years ago
  • Aurignacian tools
  • Accomplished hunters
  • Language
• Cro-Magnon humans


  • 1,600 cc cranial capacity
  • Not a different species, just old Homo sapiens from Europe
• Archaic H. sapiens Culture
• Sequence of Human Evolution

  • Common ancestor
  • Australopithecus afarensis
  • Australopithecus africanus
  • Homo habilis
  • Homo erectus
  • Homo neanderthalensis
  • Homo sapiens
  • Modern apes