Major Trends In Hominin Evolution Essay
Jerico Feranco
Anthropology 102: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
Professor Arnie Schoenberg
11/2/2014
SDCCD
Test #2
1. What are the major trends in hominin evolution?
Major Trends in Hominin Evolution are diet, cultural evolution, encephalization, language and speech Diet; In addition to forcing changes in locomotion that led to walking upright, the increasingly dry climate of east Africa over the last six million years forced changes in the diet of early hominins from the soft fruits of the tropical rain forest to the increasingly fibrous and tough foods available in open habitats.Early hominin diets are reconstructed partly based on the surface areas of the molars and the cross-sectional area of the body of the lower jaw (Collard …show more content…
After 300,000 y.a. tools become more complex and are labeled in Europe as the Middle Paleolithic or in Africa, as the Middle Stone Age (Ambrose 2001). Regional variation is great enough that cultural traditions become evident. Tools composed of two or more materials that require complicated preparation become common and suggest increasingly complex brains. The tool tradition associated with the Neanderthals in western Europe is called the Mousterian (Klein 1999). All are eventually replaced by the blade industries of the Upper Paleolithic which are associated with modern humans. Encephalization, Language and Speech; brain sizes expressed as estimated cranial capacities are commonly reported for various species of hominin. Australopithecus afarensis and A. africanus have the smallest averages to date at 410 and 440 cubic centimeters (cc.), respectively (Collard & Wood 1999). Chimpanzee cranial capacity also averages 410 cc. But chimpanzees weigh about 24% more than the australopiths, thus complicating this simple comparison. The cranial volume of the robust hominins such as P. robustus and P. boisei were in the 500’s and H. habilis, H. rudolfensis and H. ergaster averaged 610, 750, 850 cc.,
Anthropology 102: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
Professor Arnie Schoenberg
11/2/2014
SDCCD
Test #2
1. What are the major trends in hominin evolution?
Major Trends in Hominin Evolution are diet, cultural evolution, encephalization, language and speech Diet; In addition to forcing changes in locomotion that led to walking upright, the increasingly dry climate of east Africa over the last six million years forced changes in the diet of early hominins from the soft fruits of the tropical rain forest to the increasingly fibrous and tough foods available in open habitats.Early hominin diets are reconstructed partly based on the surface areas of the molars and the cross-sectional area of the body of the lower jaw (Collard …show more content…
After 300,000 y.a. tools become more complex and are labeled in Europe as the Middle Paleolithic or in Africa, as the Middle Stone Age (Ambrose 2001). Regional variation is great enough that cultural traditions become evident. Tools composed of two or more materials that require complicated preparation become common and suggest increasingly complex brains. The tool tradition associated with the Neanderthals in western Europe is called the Mousterian (Klein 1999). All are eventually replaced by the blade industries of the Upper Paleolithic which are associated with modern humans. Encephalization, Language and Speech; brain sizes expressed as estimated cranial capacities are commonly reported for various species of hominin. Australopithecus afarensis and A. africanus have the smallest averages to date at 410 and 440 cubic centimeters (cc.), respectively (Collard & Wood 1999). Chimpanzee cranial capacity also averages 410 cc. But chimpanzees weigh about 24% more than the australopiths, thus complicating this simple comparison. The cranial volume of the robust hominins such as P. robustus and P. boisei were in the 500’s and H. habilis, H. rudolfensis and H. ergaster averaged 610, 750, 850 cc.,