Physical Anthropology (Test)

• Physical anthropology


  Examining bone and stone remains of humans, and examining the physical differences and similarities of existing human populations
• Bipedalism


  • Walking upright over long distances
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882)


  Proposed the Theory of Natural Selection
• Charles Darwin's work


  1. Sailed for 5 years around the Galapagos Islands

  2. Studied wildlife, plants, fossils, and rock formations

  3. Hesitant to make ideas public because he knew there would be backlash from religious believers

  4. Alfred Wallace: friend of Charles Darwin who came up with the same idea, pushed Darwin to tell the world his theory

  5. Published On the Origin of Species in 1859 where he proposed his theory of evolution
• Natural selection


  • Process where only organisms best adapted to environment survive and pass down their genetic characteristics to the next generations
  • Less adapted tend to be eliminated
  • Biggest factor resulting in diversity of species and their genes
  • Phrase: "Survival of the fittest"
  • Fittest is not always strongest: could be tallest, best camouflaged, most poisonous, smartest, etc.
• Anthropologists to know

  • Charles Darwin
  • Raymond Dart
  • Louis and Mary Leakey
  • Donald Johnson
  • Jane Goodall
• Raymond Dart


  • Anthropology teacher in South Africa
  • In 1924, covered skull and fossilized brain of a human-like child that lived three million years ago
  • He named this species australopithecus afarensis
• Louis and Mary Leakey

  • Searching for evidence of human ancestors in Tanzania in July, 1959
  • They found a complete fossil skull
  • Important in establishing that early humans lived in Africa
• Donald Johnson


  • Digging in Ethiopia in 1974
  • Found 40% of a skeleton that he named Lucy
  • Discovered in Ethiopia in 1974
  • Dated at 3.2 million years old
  • Only four feet tall
  • Bipedal and walked upright
  • Scientific name is australopithecus afarensis
  • First early skeleton of its type that could be reconstructed
• Jane Goodall


  • In 1960s, she studied behaviour of chimpanzees at close quarters
  • First to observe chimps making and using simple tools
• Hominids


  • Any human-like species, including us
  • Bipedal (walks on two legs)
  • Intelligent (large brain, uses tools)
• Hominid species


  • Australopithecus Afarensis (3-3.5 mya)
  • Paranthropus Boisei
  • Homo Habilis (2.5 mya)
  • Homo Ergaster (1.9 mya)
  • Homo Erectus (1.9 mya)
  • Neanderthals (200,000 years ago)
  • Homo Sapiens
  • Homo Sapiens Sapiens
• Australopithecus Afarensis

  • Was bipedal
  • Strange combination of ape and human qualities
  • Ape-like face
  • Human-like feet, pelvis, and femurs
  • We know their feet because of the famous "Laetoli footprints"
  • Brain Size = 500 cm3 (¼ of human)
  • Probably lived in groups
  • No language, but can communicate with body language and sounds
  • Staying cool preserves energy and allows brain size to evolve to larger/smarter brain
• Paranthropus Boisei


  • Lived alongside Homo Habilis
  • Enormous teeth (4 times human) with strong jaw muscles that allowed for a vegetarian diet
• Homo Habilis


  • Nomadic scavenger who worked cooperatively to make simple tools and eat meat
  • High fat and high protein diet caused brains to grow twice the size of Boisei (thus much smarter)
  • First hominid to invent stone tools
  • Stone tools made by them are called "Oldowan technology" because Olddowan means "from Olduvai Gorge" in Africa where the tools were found
  • First hominid to have hands similar to a human being (which is why scientists named his species "handy man"=habilis)
  • First hominid to develop the Broca's area of the brain, allowing for simple language skills
  • Homo Habilis had smaller jaws and teeth than Australopithecus
• Homo Ergaster


  • Brain is ⅔ the size of a human brain
  • Make sophisticated stone axes
  • First hominid with HUMAN VOICE and uses sound (not language)
  • Start to live together in troupes of monogamous couples for social relationships and not just survival
  • Some palaeontologists consider Homo Ergaster and Homo Erectus as separate species, some consider them as the same
  • The name means "Man who works"
  • Brain Size: 800-900 cm3
  • More advanced stone tools known as Aeschulian Technology
  • 20% less sexual dimorphism than Australopithecus
  • Probably had more advanced language than Habilis
  • Most complete example was discovered in 1984 in Kenya by Kamoya Kimeu, contains 108 bones
  • Nicknamed "Turkana Boy" after Lake Turkana where it was found
  • Also known as "Nariokotome Boy"
  • 5 feet tall and 150 pounds
• Homo Erectus


  • Lives and technology same as Homo Ergaster
  • Brains limited to real world (no imagination)
  • First to use fire
  • First hominid to walk completely upright like modern humans
  • First hominid to survive by hunting instead of scavenging, also gathered wild plants
  • Made tools from materials like bone and horn
  • Brain Size = 850-1400 cm3 (much bigger than ancestors)
  • First hominid to leave Africa
  • Extinct 140,000 years ago
• Neanderthals


  • Emerge from north and live in groups
  • Physically smaller and shorter than humans
  • Use fire and tools and strategize to hunt
  • Sounds to communicate but no language
  • Full name: Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis
  • Extinct 30,000 years ago
  • Lived in a very harsh, ice-age environment (colder and drier than modern)
  • Large, muscular bodies
  • Some had larger brains than modern humans
  • Excellent hunters, able to hunt rhinos, elk, bison, and mammoths
  • Gathered food from plants and other small animals
  • First hominids to invent clothing
  • First to inhibit large areas outside Africa
• Homo Sapiens


  • Emerge from Africa
  • Tall and slim
  • First hominids to use imagination
  • Bury their dead
  • Only hominids to use language
• Homo Sapiens Sapiens


  • Latin name means "very wise man"
  • Refers to modern humans
  • Brain Size = 1400-1500 cm3
  • Left Africa in different waves (60-80k years ago)
  • Arrived in Australia 50k years ago, China 40k years ago, Europe 30k years ago, Americas 12-15k years ago
  • All modern humans carry about 1-4% Neanderthal DNA
  • Advanced technology
  • Variety of materials
  • Building better shelters
  • Colonize all climates
  • Creation of artwork
  • Changed every square inch of the planet
• Common descent


  An effect of speciation, in which multiple species derive from a single ancestral population