Contd The Fossil Record

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Contd The Fossil Record

• Robert E. Rhoades
• Dept. of Anthropology
• The University of Georgia, Athens

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1. On Going Debate in Anthropology

• Great Antiquity of Modern People Line
• The Evolutionists Line

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2. Leakey Era

• Olduvai Gorge
• Australopithecus finds
• Homo habilis (1.8 2 MYA 680 cc)

Louis S. B. Leakey (1903 1972)
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The Leakey Mystique
Unlike many other celebrities who preferred to
keep their secrets private, famed anthropologist
Louis Leakey openly flaunted to the media all the
skeletons in his closet
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Fossil Primates

• Paleocene 80-70 MYA Pleasiadpas
• Eocene 59-34 MYA Adaptis and Notharctus
  (Tarsier/Lemur-like)
• Oligocene 34 to 26 MYA Aegyptopithecu
• Apes separate from Monkeys
• Miocene Apes 26 to 12 MYA
• Examples Proconsul, Pliopithecus, Dryopithecus,
  Ramapithecus, Sivapithecus, Gigantopithecus

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Bipedalism

• Watch for predators
• Carry food
• Fighting
• Long-distance travel

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Australopithecines

• afarensis
• africanus
• robustus
• boisei

gracile
robust
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Theories to explain Australopithecine differences

• Race
• Four species
• Sexual dimorphism
• afarensis Homo habilis

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Homo erectus
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Homo erectus

• Asia
• Africa
• Europe
• Homo habilis and Homo erectus
• Acheulean tool tradition

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Neanderthal and Homo sapiens

• Role of 4th glaciation period

Neanderthal and Cro-magnon
Australopithecus
Homo erectus
Neanderthal
IV
I
II
III
35,000 100, 000 BP
4 2.4 MYA
1.78 MYA
Great Ice Age
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Contd.

• Classic versus generalized Neanderthal

• Seq. 1 Mt. Carmel
• Modern Man
• Progressive Neanderthal
• (archaic sapiens)
• Early Neanderthal / Homo erectus transition type
• Homo erectus

• Seq. 2 Central Europe
• Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon)
• Classical Neanderthal
• Progressive Neanderthal/ early Homo sapiens
• Homo erectus

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Contd.

• Theory of Neanderthal fate
• Environmental isolation
• Interbreeding
• Sexual dimorphism
• Special adaptation to cold
• Multi-explanation

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7. Similarities between Neanderthal and
Australopithecine cases

• Two types (gracile and robust)
• Robust, crude type lost out of bigger brained one
• Similar explanations (specialization, sexual
  dimorphism, extinction)
• Political and religious overtones
• Demonstrates ignorance of anthropologists of
  international zoological nomenclature

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8. Cro-magnon or modern Homo sapiens emerges
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9. Modern human origins

• Multiregional Hypothesis
• The Eve or Out of Africa Hypothesis

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