REN R474 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Australopithecus Africanus
20 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Family - hominidae: humans have evolved to be predators however this is something that our ancestors have not done, forest dwelling species, diet of fruits, shoots, leaves of plants, owers, some insects. 5 million years ago: australopithecus africanus, climate change occurring in africa, used to feeding on the ground, had a hard time hiding in the savannah conditions, susceptible to predation, hunted by large cat predators (huge predation pressure). Enter north america at the end of the pleistocene period: the mackenzie ice bridge allowed the clovis peoples (big game hunters) to enter north. Three theories: overkill, overchill, overill, overkill - rst human hunters from siberia killed them off as they colonized the new land, large animals hard to hide, low reproduction rates, fearlessness of humans, trophic cascade. Agricultural man: earliest domestication was the wolf, likely as a hunting companion, the dog was the rst only domesticated animal through the entrance to north.
