An artifact is an object made by humans of cultural or historical significance, while a fossil is the preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms. There are two main types of fossils - body fossils which are the actual remains, and trace fossils which are signs of the organism's presence like tracks or trails. Several important early human fossils have been discovered that provide evidence about human evolution, including Ardi dated to 4.4 million years old, Lucy dated to 3.2 million years old, the Taung Child dated to 2.8 million years old, and Selam dated to 3.3 million years old. The Talgai Skull found in Australia is the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Australia, dated between 9
An artifact is an object made by humans of cultural or historical significance, while a fossil is the preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms. There are two main types of fossils - body fossils which are the actual remains, and trace fossils which are signs of the organism's presence like tracks or trails. Several important early human fossils have been discovered that provide evidence about human evolution, including Ardi dated to 4.4 million years old, Lucy dated to 3.2 million years old, the Taung Child dated to 2.8 million years old, and Selam dated to 3.3 million years old. The Talgai Skull found in Australia is the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Australia, dated between 9
What is an Artifact? • an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. • something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure. What is a Fossil?
• A fossil is the naturally preserved remains or traces of
animals or plants that lived in the geologic past.
Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone
imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. Two main types of Fossil 1. Body fossils include the remains of organisms that were once living
Examples: Bones, Teeth and claws, eggs, embryo and
nests, skin, muscles, tendons, organs and blood vessels of a species or organisms. • 2. Trace fossils are the signs that organisms were present In trace fossils there are 2.categories which are the Track and trail Tracks and trails tell more about the organism's behavior rather than the organism itself. These traces are typically formed when an organism moves over the surface of soft sediment and leaves an impression of its movement behind. Tracks are the markings of movement that vertebrates leave Examples: footprints Trails are similar to tracks, but their patterns are more irregular Examples: impression left by a snail, crawling worm and etc. Fossil Evidence of Human remains Ardi was excavated between 1994 and 1997 and has been isotopically dated at 4.4 million years old. She is one of more than 100 specimens from the site that belong to Ardipithecus ramidus , a species considered by most scientists to be a very ancient hominid. A team led by American paleoanthropologist Tim White discovered the first Ardipithecus ramidus fossils at Aramis in the arid badlands near the Awash River in Ethiopia. Lucy, nickname for a remarkably complete (40 percent intact) hominin skeleton found by Donald Johanson at Africa near the village Hadar in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia on Nov. 24, 1974, and dated to 3.2 million years ago. The specimen is classified as Australopithecus afarensis and suggests—by having long arms, short legs, an apelike chest and jaw, and a small brain but a relatively humanlike pelvis that bipedal locomotion preceded the development of a larger (more humanlike) brain in hominin evolution. Lucy stood about 3 feet 7 inches (109 cm) tall and weighed about 60 pounds (27 kg). Taung child , the first discovered fossil of Australopithecus africanus with an age of 2.8 mya. Discovered by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa in 1924, the fossil was recognized as a primitive hominin (member of the human lineage) by paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart . Selam (DIK-1/1) is the fossilized skull and other skeletal remains of a three-year-old Australopithecus afarensis female hominin, whose bones were first found in Dikika, Ethiopia in 2000 and Discovered by Zeresenay Alemseged an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. Although Selam has often been nicknamed Lucy's baby , the specimen has been dated at 3.3 million years ago, approximately 120,000 years older than " Lucy" (dated to about 3.18 mya). The Talgai Skull is a human fossil found on the Talgai Station, Queensland , Australia. It is the first direct proof of the Pleistocene antiquity of Homo sapiens in Australia. The Talgai Skull was discovered in 1886 on Talgai Homestead , as the first fossil evidence of early human occupation in the area. It was found by fencing contractor, William Naish. It had been embedded in the wall of Dalrymple Creek, which had been scoured out by heavy rain. Radiocarbon dating suggests the Talga skull is between 9,000 and 11,000 years old. Thankyou!!!