ANTH-0050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Homo Habilis, Rising Star Cave, Arthur Smith Woodward
Document Summary
Random, and arise due to problems in cell division (single variations in dna sequence: natural selection. Acts by favoring certain traits over others that makes them more/less likely to reproduce: genetic drift. Small part of population separated from larger strictly by. Classiication of early humans chance smaller gene pool: traditional classiication: hominid (all are bipeds, new classiication: hominin (hominids are humans, chimps, orangutans and gorillas while hominids are other bipeds) Pleistocene (2 mya to 10k bp) (ice age) Rift valley (eastern africa): where most fossils are found due to geological movement, which exposes layers. The oldest known biped species, dates between 6-7 million-years-old. Find includes a complete cranium, and a number of fragmentary lower jaws and teeth. Brain size of 350 cc (modern is about 1400) Has many primitive apelike features (e. g. small brain size, brow ridges) The fossils include fragmentary arm and thigh bones, lower jaws, and teeth in deposits about 6 mya.