BIOL SCI 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Homo Sapiens, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis
14 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
The extinction of dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid, and was followed by a radiation of mammals - - 60 million years ago years of close relatives to homo sapiens including some great apes. Hominid = individuals from the large family hominidae from roughly the last 6 million. Hominin: the group consisting of the evolutionary bush leading to modern humans. Rough time order: 1) chimps, 2) ardipithecus, 3) australopithecus 4) homo erectus: homo sapiens. Experts used to think that human evolution was linear from australopithecus to homo sapiens. Now it"s thought of more as a bush w/ lots of side branches and dead ends. Fossil records can tell us character traits of individuals in the homo lineage. Her pelvis and femur shows that she was bipedal (before australopithecus, Fossil from 3. 2 million years, from the genus australopithecus hominids walked on four legs) There aren"t that many fossils and the most prevalent fossils are teeth, which isn"t the most helpful.
