The vital clue that the "Toumai" fossil is bipedal is how the skull connects to the spine. Researcher Michele could confer that by the shape of Toumai's skull. If the skull is placed on a neck of an ape that walks on all fours its eyes point down ward (not correct). If the skull is placed on an upright spine of a biped its eyes point straight ahead; for Michele this proved that Toumai walked upright.…
From the moment humans were created to modern times, they made numerous physical and technological advancements. It started when the Australopithecines began displaying signs of bipedalism, freeing two arms for using tools and carrying food while walking at the same time. This was a significant physical change that the hominid species chose to make, as bipedalism was the gateway to hunting, farming, and harvesting. As time passed, the homo habilis began showing up. Their brain size was on a range between 550 and 687 cubic centimeters, whereas the Australopithecines had a brain size between 350 and 600 cubic centimeters, which meant that the homo habilis' brain capacity grew around 50%. This larger brain capacity led to the experimentation with…
Quality of Bipedalism: Neanderthals walked with a fully upright posture. They remain far more closely related to us than most of the other extinct hominins.…
Neanderthals and modern humans have many similarities in appearance which include, but are not limited to, the size of the cranial capacity and shortened limbs. The cranial capacity of a Neanderthal varies from 1200 to 1750 cubic centimeters (O’Neil, 2010) with an average of 1400 cubic centimeters (Haviland, & Crawford, 2009) with a modern human varying between 900 to 1880 cubic centimeters (O’Neil, 2010) and an average of 1300 cubic centimeters (Haviland, & Crawford, 2009), respectively. It has been speculated that this was only because of the difference in size between Neanderthals and modern humans and when compared to those of similar size, a similar cranial capacity was present (Berger, 2010). Aside from similarities in cranial…
Just to make it fair for all readers , the Australopithecus is the genus of Pliocene and Pleistocene hominids. A major characteristic of a hominid is bipedal locomotion or walking upright on two legs. Several types of Australopithecines have been found but all lived Africa mostly east Africa about four million years ago. The Australopithecus is the first definite hominid but they all slightly differ in their features. All species of the Australopithecus can be split into either a gracile or robust australopithecine. The gracile group consists of species with smaller dentition and lighter facial features and includes the Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis, and Australopithecus africanus. The robust australopithecines have a larger dentition than the gracile with a massive jaw and face. The three species of robust australopithecines consist of the early Australopithecus aethiopicus and then the Australopithecus boisei and Australopithecus robustus. Three different types of Australopithecines will be compared and analyzed in this paper to review evidence for bipedalism and characteristics; two of the three australopithecines will be a part of the gracile group the Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus afarensis then one from the robust is the Australopithecus boisei.…
In order to be able to walk or run on two feet many evolutionary changes had to occur, early humans had to develop arches in their feet, curved spines, specialized hips, and specialized knees. The muscle structure of the early human body also had to…
Along with a big brain, opposable thumbs, bipedalism is one of the characteristics that makes the human species unique. The dictionary defines bipedalism as “a condition of using two feet for standing or walking”. Walking on two legs allowed our ancestors to see better, have freed up hands, and eventually become erect. Bipedalism is one of the initial driving force of the human 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…
Three critical biological traits, bipedalism, a very large brain, and the location of the larynx, are due to natural selection. Bipedalism evolved because it provided australopithecines with some advantage for survival. Larger brains had greater survivability such as enabling Homo habilis to locate things to eat throughout the seasons of the year. Homo sapiens are believed to be connected to the emergence of language with the intellectual and social capabilities that humans we have.…
Conclusion: While conducting this experiment I have come to the conclusion that my hypothesis was rejected. My hypothesis stated that 4 of the skulls would be bipedal. It turned out that five of them were bipedal. All of the the skulls in the ‘homo’ section were bipedal. The reason why many people think humans evolved from apes is because our structure is similar but as you learned that is not the case. As time passed humans have evolved in many ways. Based solely on the skulls from the ‘homo’ section, as you went ahead to the next one the heads became a little bit smaller. Also the zygomatic (cheek) bone shrunk. We humans are species that have evolved in many different ways over a long period of…
For several centuries, it has been researcher’s goal in science to find the human race, ancient ancestry. From the time of Charles Darwin’s, Theory of Evolution, anthropologists, paleontologist and other researchers from various fields have been discovering and identifying human origins. The quest to find human’s oldest ancestor was the missing link in the human evolution tree. The “missing link” was eventually discovered in Hardar, Ethiopia by Dr. Donald Johanson, an American paleoanthropologist. According to Johanson, Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) represented the missing link between apes and humans. She was our oldest human ancestor, the ape who walked upright. According to Dr. Donald Johanson, Lucy was one of the greatest paleoanthropological finds of the 20th century, but to others, Johanson’s discovery and methodology of identifying Lucy had many flaws and contradictions to his theory.…
The creation of man begins with “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. One sentence that if proven correct, depicts that a certain scientific theory taught generation after generation is completely and indefinitely ludicrous. If this sentence is wrong, various religions cease to exist. Ah, but does Christianity need to be proven? In our minds, the correct answer to this question is no, to believe is to see. But as human beings, sinners in the eye of God, to see is to believe. Now stay with me here. As the mundane world revolves around the simplistic idea that happiness can be achieved by buying the world, certain people rise among the filth. Go-getters. Transcendentalists, if you may. These people are the true “Hipsters” among the conforming young generation set upon being differently the same. They are the people who pay little or no attention to the world of Consumerism evolving around them. They may be different; hell they might even be bizarre. The point is that these are the people who change lives. They are the people that can truly make a difference in this god-forsaken planet we call home. They may not be of faith, but they can be compared to the disciples of Jesus Christ. Now back in the day, the disciples weren’t some group of “religious freaks”. They were not celebrities. They weren’t even liked. These disciples were the people who stood up for what they believed in, facing both death and the fate of being cast away as outsiders. You see, it doesn’t take much for change to occur. It just takes a person who has the courage to partake in disorder.…
medical field. These principles have significantly helped with providing scientists with helpful information in understanding different illness, and issues that arise in the medical field. More specifically, the cooperation of evolutionary biology with modern medicine has helped with understanding antibiotic resistance and susceptibility, spread of disease, and development of cancer. I will be discussing the antibiotic resistance and susceptibility of E. Coli Biofilms, the spread of Tuberculosis, and the changes in breast cancer cell DNA. These different examples are going to prove how evolution has affected medicine and illnesses within modern medicine.…
With the evolution of bipedalism humans became more fit for their environment because they were now able to use their hands and arms for other uses besides walking on all fours. Humans could now stand fully erect, and reach tall trees and shrubberies for food, as well as using their arms for hunting and gathering. Besides using their newfound appendages, they could also see farther distances with their now higher statute. Humans went from walking on all fours about four feet above the ground, to walking tall at an average of around five foot nine. With their new line of vision, humans were aware of predators and prey from far distances, they could also spot where they were in the wilderness rather then roaming around aimlessly.…
This is why primate evolution is considered paleoanthropology (Begun, 2012). In researching the evolution of primates to humans a common topic is the curvature of hominoid phalangeal. The concept derives from the adaptation of tree living (arboreal) to land locomotion. When a prime is classified as arboreal the phalangeal is curved more than a knuckle walker. In the article Broke Fingers by David R. Begun in the Journal of Human Evolution, begun compares pedal phalangeal (toe) and manual phalangeal (fingers) curvature of various species including homo sapiens. The research exhibits a noticeable line correlation between homo sapiens who have the least amount of curvature of both manual and pedal phalangeal to genus Pongo ancestors of Orangutan with the highest degree. The experiment is conducted using a one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance). This study shows identical results as analyses Normalized curvature moment arm (NCMA) Stern, Jungers, & Susman 1995 (Begun, 2008). Begun notes the most interesting observation from the study is the inability to distinguish the ranges of manual and pedal phalangeal curvature (2008). The conclusion drawn is while the results show variations it is not a reliable source of discrimination among most hominoid locomotor functional groups. (Begun, 2008). The results of this study further strength previous research. The significance of the research…