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| members of the primate suborder anthropoidea that includes the monkeys, apes, and hominids. |
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| describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (e. g., by growing when resources are abundant, and predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (e.g., limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey) |
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| any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates. |
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| species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. |
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a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs.
~Energetically efficient
~improves foraging capacity
~Adaptation to sun's radiation & head stress
~Sexual selection for male provisioning of mates (lovejoy hypothesis) |
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| a form of locomotive patterns that involves the use of four limbs to support the body above the ground or a tree limb. |
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| Canine-shearing (cp3) complex |
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Definition
| Combination of canine and first premolar teeth that forms a self-sharpening apparatus. |
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| Bony crest running lengthwise down the center of the cranium on the parietal bones; for the attachment of the temporalis muscles. |
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| A pointed or rounded projection on the chewing surface of a tooth. |
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| One of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. |
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| Hole in the occipital bone through which the spinal cord connects the brain. |
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| Belonging to one of three superfamilies of Anthropoidea that includes all apes and humans. |
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| Members of the taxonomic family Hominidaie |
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| Stone tool industry of the early and middle Pleistocene characterized by the presence of bifacial hand axes and cleavers. Made by a number of homo species, including H. erectus and earty H. sapiens. |
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| a prominent bulge, or projection, of the occipital bone at the back of the skull. The term is most often used in connection with scientific descriptions of classic Neanderthal crania. While common among many of mankind's ancestors, primarily robust relatives rather than gracile, the protrusion is relatively rare in modern Homo sapiens. |
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| describes the rapid speciation of a single or a few species to fill many ecological niches. An evolutionary process driven by mutation and natural selection. Often occurs when a species is introduced to a new ecosystem, or when a species can survive in an environment that was unreachable before. For example, the Darwin's finches on the Galapagos islands developed from a single species of finches that reached the islands. Other examples include the introduction of predatory mammals to Australia by humans, the development of the first birds, which suddenly were able to expand their territory into the air, or the development of lung fish during the Devonian period, about 300 million years ago. |
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| First group of stone tools, are comprised primarily of cores & flakes as well as hammerstones. |
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| term invented by Raymond Dart, to describe the tool kit of our hominid ancestor Australopithecus africanus. Dart believed that Australopithecus built tools out of bone (osteo), teeth (donto) and horn (keratic), because a lot of broken animal bone had been found at the site Makapansgat, South Africa. Other research (such as that of C.K. Brain) has not found evidence supporting Dart's theory. |
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| BROW RIDGE. Bony prominence above the eye. |
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~Hypothesized ancestors & descendents
~Separated by time
~Basically a family tree
An evolutionary tree indicating relatedness and divergence of taxonomic groups. |
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Definition
~A "last common ancestor" is assumed, but not specified.
~Only particular traits derived traits are considered diagnostic of distinct evolutionary lineages.
~NO time frame specified.
Method of classification using ancestral and derived traits to distinguish patterns of evolution within lineages. |
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| Branching diagram showing evolved relationships among members of a lineage. |
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| Evolution of major phenotypic changes over relatively short time periods. |
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| A gap or space between two teeth. The term is most commonly applied to be an open space between the upper incisors (front teeth) |
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| term describing differences due to sex, usually indicating that males are larger than females. |
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| a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. |
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| a cast made of the mold formed by the impression the brain makes on the inside of the neurocranium (braincase), providing a replica of the brain with most of the details of its outer surface. Endocasts can also form naturally, when sediments fill the empty skull, after which the skull is destroyed and the cast fossilized. S |
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| a taxon which is not extinct, but still living. |
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| Or "Atlatl" is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy during the throw. It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur, which may be integrated into the weapon or made separately and attached, in which the butt of the projectile, properly called a dart, rests. It is held near the end farthest from the cup, and the dart is thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist. |
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Definition
| Formation of one or more new species via reproductive isolation. |
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| Gracile australopithecine |
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Definition
| Means slender. Believed to have given rise to the branch leading to the emergence of the genus Homo c.2.5 million years ago. ROUGHLY comparable to robust. |
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| a side branch of human evolution. Became extinct. |
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| Muscle on the lateral surface of the skull that has an important role in chewing. |
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| the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized (if they do). |
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| Thickened area of bone along the sagittal suture, seen in some members of Homo erectus. |
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| A thickened ridge of bone running horizontally across the occipital bone. |
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| the history, origin and evolution of a set of organisms, usually of a species. A major task of systematics is to determine the ancestral relationships among known species (both living and extinct), and the most commonly used methods to infer ************ include cladistics, phenetics, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian. |
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Definition
| the pattern found on molars with five cusps separated by grooves, reminiscent of the letter Y. |
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| Dental arrangement found in apes that maintains the sharpness of the edges of the upper canine and lower first premolar. |
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| Paired bone of the face; lies between the maxilla and the temporal; commonly called the cheekbone. |
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| Characteristic stone tool manufacturing of Neanderthals and some early modern humans that includes modifications of early stone tools, as well as the development of blade tools and microliths. |
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| Parallelism (parallel evolution) |
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Definition
| the independent evolution of similar traits, starting from a similar ancestral condition due to similar environments or other evolutionary pressures[1]. Frequently this is the situation in more closely related lineages, where several species respond to similar challenges in a similar way. |
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| Convergence (convergent evolution) |
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Definition
| the independent development of similar (analogous) structures in different groups; convergent evolution is thought to be the result of similar environmental selection pressures on different groups |
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| A group of organisms that share a common ancestor; lineage; a monophyletic group |
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| a group of similar fossils whose range of morphological variation does not exceed the range of variation of a closely related living species. |
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~Unique to a taxonomic group
~Distinguished from other groups
~ex: Knuckle walking in apes & chimps
Trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. |
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| Primitive(ancestral) trait |
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Definition
~Inherited from common ancient ancestor
~Shared with all living relatives
~ex: 5 digits in humans & turtles (limbs)
Trait that is inferred to be a modified version of a more primitive condition of that character and therefore inferred to have arisen later in the evolution of the clade |
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Definition
| the concept that major evolutionary changes tend to take place in stages, not all at once. It is a pattern in evolution in which the rates of evolution in one functional system vary from those in other systems. For example, in hominid evolution, the dental system, locomotor system, and neurological system, evolved at markedly different rates.[ |
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| a span of time smaller than a "period" and larger than an "age". |
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| a hypothesis of evolutionary biology which states that most sexually reproducing populations experience little change for most of their geological history, and that when phenotypic evolution does occur, it is localized in rare, rapid events of branching speciation (cladogenesis) |
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Definition
| ancestral to Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Orrorin, and Orrorin begets Australopithecus afarensis, which is ancestral to Homo. |
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Definition
| the genus of the four extinct species believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes. Remains were discovered in what is now Montana in deposits believed to be about 65 million years old. First described as primate-like by William Clemens in a 1974 issue of Science, it is believed to have been about as small as a rat in size. |
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| a diverse group of extinct primates that primarily radiated during the Eocene epoch between about 55 and 34 million years ago. However, one specialized endemic Asian group (sivaladapines) survived into the Miocene. Fossils are known from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. One of two groups of Eocene primates with a geographic distribution spanning holarctic continents. (other being omomyids) |
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| a genus of extinct primates. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills in what is now India and Pakistan. Any one of the species in this genus may have been the ancestor to the modern orangutans. |
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| an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly one million years to as recently as three-hundred thousand years ago. Largest apes that ever lived. |
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| Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills in what is now India and Pakistan. Any one of the species in this genus may have been the ancestor to the modern orangutans. |
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| one of the best represented Miocene hominoid in the fossil record. It lived from approximately 23 to 14 million years ago |
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| considered to be the second-oldest known hominin ancestor that is possibly related to modern humans and is the only species classified in genus *******. The name was given by the discoverers who found ******* fossils in the Tugen Hills of Kenya. By using radiometric dating techniques, the volcanic tuffs and lavas, faunal correlation and magneto-stratigraphy, the strata in which the fossils were found were estimated to date between 6.1 and 5.8 million years ago, during the Miocene. This find is important because it is possibly an early bipedal hominin. |
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| Australopithecus afarensis |
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Definition
| Extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago, slenderly built. From analysis it has been thought that it was ancestral to both the genus Australopithecus and the genus Homo, which includes the modern human species, Homo sapiens |
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| a very early hominin genus (subfamily Homininae) which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene. Because this genus shares several traits with the African great ape genera (genus Pan and genus Gorilla), it is considered by some to be on the chimpanzee rather than human branch, but most consider it a proto-human because of a likeness in teeth with Australopithecus. |
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| Australopithecus africanus |
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Definition
| an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2-3 million years ago in the Pliocene. was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that A. africanus was significantly more like modern humans than A. afarensis, with a more human-like cranium permitting a larger brain and more humanoid facial features. A. africanus has been found at only four sites in southern Africa - Taung (1924), Sterkfontein (1935), Makapansgat (1948) and Gladysvale (1992). |
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| Australopithecus anamensis |
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Definition
| a fossil species of Australopithecus. The first fossilized specimen of the species, though not recognized as such at the time, was a single arm bone found in Pliocene strata in the Kanapoi region of East Lake Turkana by a Harvard University research team in 1965. |
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| "Flat faced man of Kenya" a 3.5 to 3.2 million year old (Pliocene) extinct hominin species that was discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1999 by Justus Erus, who was part of Meave Leakey's team. [1] The fossil found features a broad flat face with a toe bone that suggests it probably walked upright. Teeth are intermediate between typical human and typical ape forms. The only described species in the genus. |
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| Discovered in 1959, by Mary Leakey- made the first hominine discovery in East Africa at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania which resembled the robust australopithecines already found in South Africa. After reconstructing the skull which was built up out of hundreds of fragments, it was found that this specimen was even more "robust" than its southern relatives. |
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| Australopithecus robustus |
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Definition
Species/fossils first discovered and named by Dr. Robert Broom. generally are from three sites: Swartkrans, Dreimulen, and Kromdraai.
was stocky, had a heavy bone structure and relatively long arms. The bones of the skull and jaw were quite thick, and there were pronounced brow ridges. The species also had a sagittal crest that anchored large jaw muscles and a wide face which allowed these massive muscles to pass underneath the cheekbones. Also, the zygomatic arches flared, further widening the face. The foramen magnum was placed anteriorly indicating bipedalism. The species was sexually dimorphic.
Robustus had large, flat molars with thick enamel, and a parabolic dental arcade. The canines and incisors were relatively small. The generally held opinion is that Robustus was a vegetarian and its large jaw muscles and molars were adapted to a diet of coarse, tough plants processed by laborious chewing. |
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Definition
The "handy man"
a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2.2 million to at least 1.6 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene. |
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| a fossil hominin species discovered by Bernard Ngeneo, a member of a team led by anthropologist Richard Leakey and zoologist Meave Leakey in 1972, at Koobi Fora on the east side of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana) in Kenya. The scientific name Homo rudolfensis was proposed in 1986 by V. P. Alexeev for the specimen Skull 1470 (KNM ER 1470). Skull 1470 has an estimated age of 1.9 million years. |
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| Australopithecus aethiopicus |
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Definition
may be an ancestor of two later species, Australopithecus robustus and Australopithecus boisei. The species has a peculiar mixture of primitive and highly derived traits relative to earlier species.
Brain size of A. aethiopicus is comparable to that of modern apes and the much-earlier A. afarensis. Other skull traits appear to be novel adaptations, some of which probably allowed A. aethiopicus to exploit tougher food sources. The massive face was flat or concave with no forehead.
A very large sagittal crest (a ridge of bone running along the top of the skull) and other heavily reinforced areas of the skull would have provided strong points of attachment for chewing muscles. Powerful chewing muscles, paired with the species' extremely large and thickly enameled molars and premolars, suggest that A. aethiopicus ate very tough, grainy foods that required a great deal of processing. |
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Definition
sometimes categorized as a subspecies of Homo erectus. H. ergaster may be distinguished from H. erectus by its thinner skull bones and lack of an obvious sulcus. Derived features include reduced sexual dimorphism; a smaller, more orthognathic (straight jawed) face; a smaller dental arcade; and a larger (700 and 850 cm³) cranial capacity. It is estimated that H. ergaster stood at 1.9 m (6ft3) tall. Remains have been found in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa.
The most complete Homo ergaster skeleton known was discovered at Lake Turkana, Kenya, in 1984. Paleanthropologists Richard Leakey, Kamoya Kimeu and Tim White dubbed the 1.6 million year old specimen as KNM-WT 15000 (nicknamed "Turkana Boy"). |
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Definition
| an extinct hominin species (or subspecies, according to some authorities) which lived throughout eastern and southern Africa between 1.9 to 1.4 million years ago with the advent of the lower Pleistocene and the cooling of the global climate. |
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| Group of specialized hominids who lived in Europe, Western Asia, and the Middle East between approximately 130,000 and 25,000 years ago. |
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| Eoanthropus dawsoni (piltdown) |
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Definition
"The Piltdown Man" a famous hoax consisting of fragments of a skull and jawbone collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, a village near Uckfield, East Sussex, in England. The fragments were thought by many experts of the day to be the fossilised remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human. The Latin name Eoanthropus dawsoni ("Dawson's dawn-man", after the collector Charles Dawson) was given to the specimen.
The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan combined with the skull of a fully developed, modern man. |
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Definition
| one of the main types of Homo sapiens of the European Upper Paleolithic, living approximately 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. It is named after the cave of in which it was found in southwest France. |
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Definition
| An extinct human species or subspecies (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) living during the late Pleistocene Epoch throughout most of Europe and parts of Asia and northern Africa and associated with Middle Paleolithic tools. |
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| Anatomically modern Homo sapiens |
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Definition
| Originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection and problem solving. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees the forelimbs (arms) for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species. |
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| Nickname of the fossilized remains of a young adult female A. afarensis that was found by Johanson, Taieb, and White in 1976 and is approximately 40% complete. |
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Definition
| Prepared piece of stone or bone in the process of making a tool. |
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| A bifacial core tool flaked to produce a straight sharp edge at one end. |
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| A type of stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake from a stone core. |
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| Pieces intentionally removed from a rock or bone to create a tool. |
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| an Australian anatomist and anthropologist best known for his discovery in 1924 of a fossil of Australopithecus (extinct hominids closely related to humans) at Taung in Northwestern South Africa. |
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| A Dutch physician who discovered specimens from Homo erectus in Indonesia during the 1890's. |
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| a paleoanthropologist, and since 1977, a professor of anthropology and adjunct associate research scientist, Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is the leading proponent of the multiregional evolution hypothesis that attempts to explain the evolution of Homo sapiens as a consequence of evolutionary processes within a single species. His research on the Multiregional model of human evolution challenges the 'Out of Africa' theory. His basis for advancing the multiregional interpretation of human evolution derives from his disbelief in punctuated equilibrium. |
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| Paleoanthropologist well known for the discovery of the skeleton of the female hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy", in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia (along with Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White) |
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Definition
| Made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from six hominids in Sterkfontein, which he named Plesianthropus transvaalensis, popularly called Mrs. Ples, but which was later classified as an adult Australopithecus africanus, as well as more discoveries at sites in Kromdraai and Swartkrans. In 1937, made his most famous discovery of Paranthropus robustus. These discoveries helped support Dart's claims for the Taung species. In 1946 he proposed the Australopithecinae subfamily. "And now thats finished, and so am I." |
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Definition
| a diverse group of extinct primates that radiated during the Eocene epoch (34 to 59 mya) between about 55 and 34 million years ago (mya). Fossils are found in North America, Europe, Asia, and possibly Africa. |
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Definition
| a span of time longer than a period and shorter than an eon. |
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| The cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. |
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