Slight variations among species
Fossils of non-existent species
Plant and animal breeding
Systematic explanation of observed evidence
Falsifiable (disprovable) through experiments OR further observation of evidence
*Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
HMS Beagle (1831-6)
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)
*Evolution
*Natural selection
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
*Paleolithic or "Old Stone Age"
*Primate family
Hominins and Primates 98.4% shared DNA
Bipedalism
Flexible hands
Brain capacity
Speech
“Pink elephants”
Preservation and spread of knowledge
Africa is site of evolution
*Hominins
Australopithecine genus "southern ape" or "ape men"
Homo genus "human"
Australopithecine afarensis
4.4 million years BP
Lucy, 3.2 million years BP
Brain 400-500 cc
3.5-4 feet tall
60 pounds
Homo habilis "handy human,"
1.5 to 2 million years BP
Brain 650-800 cc
5 feet tall
Origins of tools and technology
Skills and methods used to produce “objects necessary to provide human sustenance and comfort.”
Oldowan hand ax
*Homo erectus "upright human"
1.6 million to 200,000 BP (Before Present)
5 to 6 feet tall, brain capacity 880-1100 cc
Migration out of Africa
Acheulean hand ax
Theories of rapid brain growth
Ice age climate change
800,000 to 13,000 years BP
Glacial and Interglacial
Food procurement
Scavenging
Hunting
Gully in Spain
Communication skills
Social organization
1. What is a scientific theory?
2. Why did European scientists in the 19th-century begin to doubt the biblical creation story of Genesis? How did Charles Darwin's observations and collection of evidence help him to develop a new scientific theory of biological evolution through natural selection?
3. What are Hominins? What distinguishes Hominins from other primates?
4. What were the major evolutionary changes of early Hominins in Africa?
1. When did anatomically modern humans (Homo Sapiens) develop in Africa?
2. When and how did anatomically modern humans first behave in recognizably human ways?
1. Why have some archaeologists developed the theory that tool making influenced human evolution? What mental and physical skills are required to make stone tools? Why were Hominins with well-made hand axes more likely to survive?
2. What types of experiments did Emory University evolutionary anthropologist Dietrich Stout carry out to test whether tool making stimulated the brain? What was the outcome?
3. What experiments did Shelby Putt, a researcher at the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, carry out to determine whether tool making required verbal communication? What was the outcome?