BIO3242: HUMAN BIOLOGY AND NUTRITION

UNIT 2: Hominin evolution

 Hominin evolution
1. First signs of humanity
• The early history of the apes can be traced from about 30
million years ago, starting with finds in the Fayum area of Egypt,
but the early stages of human divergence from the ape line are
still largely absent from the record.
• New evidence for early apes has recently been found in China,
Kenya and Namibia.
• Remains of Ramapithecus, once thought to be a hominin
ancestor of about 15 million years ago, are now believed to
belong to an ape, related to the orangutan.
• In the last 5 million years, the hominins become apparent in
the fossil record.
• Finds from the Awash Valley in Ethiopia and the Baringo region
of Kenya demonstrate hominins, and probably bipedal walking,
• The important early sites of Laetoli in
Tanzania and Hadar in Ethiopia have
shown that the hominins of 3 million
years ago certainly walked upright,
and were largely human in body form,
even though their brains were small,
and culture had hardly taken roots.
 2. Hominin characteristics

• Hominins characteristic can be divided into two

types:
• primitive, or generalized, characteristics, which are
held in common with other species within a more
comprehensive group (primates, anthropoids,
catarrhines, and hominoids);
• derived or specialized characteristics, which are
distinct to hominin lines and are not shared with
non-human primate species.
 Specialized hominin characteristics
1. Teeth: small front teeth (canines and incisors) and huge
molars relative to other primate species
2. Posture: bipedalism, involving numerous anatomical
adaptations including:
• a fully erect stance and gait, habitual bipedal locomotion
• shortening of the arms relative to the legs,
• restructuring of the pelvic bones for weight bearing,
• restructuring of the foot or weight bearing, involving the loss
of toe opposability;
3. Hands: increased manual dexterity involving a lengthening of
the thumb;
4. Brain: increase in brain size, especially in the frontal lobes;
5. Face: reduction in the musculature and bone mass of the
skull and face involving a flattening of the muzzle area.
 Hominin species
1. Ardipithecus ramidus

• This species is the oldest known hominin, dated at 4.4 million

years ago. It was announced in September of 1994.
• A few fragmentary skull remains were found in Ethiopia,
Africa. Due to the lack of fossil material found, scientists do not
know much about this species.
• Characteristics: Indirect evidence suggests that some individuals
were about 122 cm tall.
• ape-like with long, curved phalanges (fingers and toes)
• chimp-like teeth, including large canines, premolars and molars.
• thin tooth enamel
• The importance of this hominin is that scientists believe it to
be forest-dwelling, which counter-argues the theory that
hominins became bipedal because they moved to a savanna
 2. Australopithecus genus
• Australopithecus genus is the link between
Ardipithecus ramidus and the Homo genus.
• Their gracile skulls and the transformation from
apelike features to modern human features
characterize this particular group.
• Australopithecus anamensis: This species existed
from 4.2 - 3.9 million years ago. It was found by
Meave Leakey in East Africa and was named in
August of 1995.
 Characteristics of Australopithecus
anamensis
1. Reduced pointy canines
2. Thick tooth enamel
3. More upright posture
4. Fingers long and curved diastema (the
space between the teeth that allows the
mouth to close)
5. Prognathic (elongated face)
• A. afarensis existed from 4-3 million years ago. It was found in
Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Characteristics:
1) cranial capacity of 430 - 440 ml
2) slight saggital crest
3) megadont (huge) teeth
4) very prognathic
5) ape-like, long, curve phalanges
6) The” Laeotoli Footprints” found by Mary Leakey and “ Lucy”
found by Donald Johanson were evidence of bipedalism.
7) After studying all of the A. afarensis individuals, Johanson
believes that this species is sexually dimorphic. In this case,
the males seem to be more robust, are prognathic, and have
bigger canines.
 Characteristics of A. africanus
• This species existed from 3.0-2.3 million years ago. It was found
in South Africa.
• Characteristics:
• cranial capacity of 440-480ml
• no saggital crest
• smaller canines than A. afarensis
• no diastema
• not as prognathic as A. afarensis
• ape-like arms and legs (arms longer than legs)
• 1. "Taung Child" was found by M. de Bruyn in 1924. This was a
significant find because it was the first evidence that our
origins began in Africa.
• 2. "Little Foot" was found in Sterkfontein, South Africa by Ron
Clark. Clark found this fossil stashed in a box in a museum and
 Characteristics of A. garhi
• A. garhi existed 2.5 million years ago. Tim White and
Berhame Asfaw found it in Bouri, East Ethiopia.
Characteristics:
• cranial capacity of 450ml.
• canines and premolars like Homo genus
• huge molars
• no diastema
• prognathic
• ape-like arms and legs
• it was found with many tools and an array of slaughtered
animals.
• All australopithecines described above cannot be our direct
ancestors, so which ones were? Debates are still going on!
 Homo genus
• This genus is separated from the earlier hominins
because of the emergence of tool use, language,
and culture. The genus evolved about 2.3 million
years ago. The characteristics of the species
belonging to this genus are:
1) bigger brain (above 1000ml)
2) the forehead rises straight up
3) the skull becomes rounder
4) the teeth are reduced
5) arms are shorter and legs are longer
6) the skeleton becomes more delicate
 1. Homo habilis

• Homo habilis is the earliest

known species of the genus
Homo; that is, the first
human species. It existed
from approximately 2.4 to 1.6
million years ago.
• They were found in Tanzania,
Kenya, Ethiopia, South
Africa, and China. These
hominids are considered as
the first tool users.
• They used tools that were
chips of rock called Oldowan
tools (the fig. shows a H.
habilis making a tool)
• H. habilis brains are about 30% larger than those of A.
africanus. Males were much larger than females
Characteristics of H. habilis
1) cranial capacity of 630ml
2) smaller back teeth
3) gracile skulls and skeletons
4) less prognathic
5) flatter face
6) forehead begins to rise straight up
7) no brow ridge
8) no postorbital constriction (indentation behind the
orbits of a skull)
9) arm still long
 Homo erectus
• H. erectus lived from Characteristics:
approximately 1.8 1) cranial capacity of 900-1200ml
million to around 2) Sloping ( oblic) forehead
300,000 years ago. 3) big brow ridge
• Although the H. 4) large orbits, nasal openings, and
erectus brain is face
configured somewhat 5) saggital keeling (like the keel of a
boat found on the top of the
differently than our
skull)
own, he is a large
6) postorbital constriction
brained species, with
7) sulcus (a depression behind the
adult brains ranging orbits)
from 900 to 1200 cc. 8) thick cranium
9) occipital bunning (a slight bulge
The left skull is found in Africa: the right skull
is reconstructed from remains of many
individuals in China
 Important finds associated with H. erectus

• The tool called Acheulean tools ( tools in stone).

These tools were more advanced than the Oldowan
tools. They were sharp and these tools were used
for many tasks such as chopping, scraping, and
cutting.
• There is some evidence that H. erectus may have
used fire.
• In 1891, Eugene Dubois found a skullcap in Java at
a time when people wanted to believe that our
origins did not begin in Africa.
• Another major fossil found was the Turkana Boy found in
West Turkana Lake in Africa.
• This was stronger than Anatomically Modern Homo
sapiens and that he had a narrow spinal cord, which may
have inhibited speech.
• Three surprisingly early Homo erectus skulls were found
during the 1990's on the fringes of Eastern Europe at
Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia.
• They date to 1.75 million years ago and look very much
like the earliest Homo erectus from Africa-.
• This discovery lends credence to the 1.8 and 1.6 million
year old dates for Homo erectus from Java and to an early
rather than late Homo erectus expansion out of Africa.
 Archaic Homo sapiens
• They first appeared around 800,000 years ago.
• "Archaic" describes a diverse group of hominins
between H. erectus and "modern" humans.
• The brain size is larger than H. erectus, but smaller
than most "modern" humans.
• The skull is also more round than H. erectus.
• The skeleton and teeth are less robust than H.
erectus, but more so than "modern" humans.
• These species still have large brow ridges and
receding foreheads and chins (jawbone).
• There is no clear dividing line between these species.
• They include the Homo antecessor, Homo
heidelbergensis, and Homo neanderthalensis
 1. Homo antecessor
• This species existed 800,000 years ago and was
found in Spain.
Characteristics
• cranial capacity of 1100ml
• "modern" face
• "archaic" back of head
• This species is the oldest known hominin found in
Western Europe, It was found with Acheulean tools
and some evidence of cannibalism ( the act of
consuming another individual of the same species
as food)
 2. Homo heidelbergensis
• existed 500,000-100,000 years
ago. It has been found in
Europe, Africa, India, and
China.
Characteristics:
• cranial capacity of 1000-1300ml
• big frontal lobes (giving it the
capacity for speech)
• robust skeleton
• It was found in association with
a new type of Acheulean tool.
The tools were made with what
is called the Levallois
technique. He worked on the
rock from the middle out on
both sides.
 3. Homo neanderthalensis (230,000-30,000 years ago)
• A distinctive form of early man lived in
Europe just before and during the first
part of the last Ice Age.

With a brain larger than ours and a

sophisticated tool-kit, he was skilled in the
making and use of tools for hunting.

• The skull cap (Fig. on the right side) found

in the Neander valley of Germany in
1857, was one of the first fossil finds of
early humans that forced a radical
reconsideration of human origins.

• Since the remains were found two years

before Darwin's On the Origin of Species
was published, scholars had no way of
accounting for the discovery or explaining
its meaning.
• The Neanderthals remain something of a mystery in the story
of human descent.
• Scientists still debate whether they are a closely related
subspecies of modern humans or represent a collateral line of
late Homo erectus, related to but not ancestral to modern
humans.
Characteristics:
1) cranial capacity of 1,300-1,750ml
2) double arch brow ridge
3) sloping forehead
4) high, wide, nasal openings
5) inflated maxilla & cheek bones
6) no prognathism
7) no chin
8) retromolar gap (a gap behind the 3rd molar)
 Characteristics of H. neanderthalensis (cont.)
10) taurodontism (roots of the molars are fused)
11)occipital bunning
12) smaller frontal bones & more of a bulge on the sides of
the skull
13) mastoid process small
14) oval shape foramen magnum (the opening at the
bottom of the skull where the vertebrate column connects)
15) robust skeletons
16) big arm and leg bones
17) wide toes and fingers
18) short stature
• Skeletal remains of H. neanderthalensis were found
with a more advanced set of Acheulean tools called
Mousterian tools.
• These tools are considered more advanced because
more work was put into detailing them with animal
bones and horns.
• Mousterian tools were the first tools to be hafted,
that is to have handles.
• Currently, anthropologists are debating whether H.
neanderthalensis is a primitive human, an animal or
a sophisticate.
• Some anthropologists believe that H.
neanderthalensis are sophisticates because of the
• sophisticated tools
• burial sites with tools, animal bones & horns & flowers
• cared for the disabled
• clothes
• shelters
• culture: clan of the cave bear
• art and music
Neanderthals differ from anatomically modern Homo sapiens in a suite
of cranial features:
• a low but elongated and broadened braincase;
• characteristic cranial suprastructures such as a supraorbital torus, a
small mastoid process, a large juxtamastoid eminence,
• a large face with rounded orbits, a wide nasal aperture, an inflated
paranasal region and an anteroposteriorly slanting infraorbital
region;
• a mandible with a receding chin region and a retromolar space in
 Anatomically modern Homo sapiens
(AMHS)
• They include the Cro-Magnon Man & the Homo sapiens
sapiens
1. Cro-Magnon Man: The first modern Man
. They are the earliest known European examples of Homo
sapiens. The term falls outside the usual naming
conventions for early humans, and is used in a general
sense to describe the oldest modern people in Europe.
. The oldest H. sapiens (i.e. anatomically modern humans)
first emerged in Africa around 160,000 years ago.
• The geologist Louis Lartet discovered the first five
skeletons in March 1868 in the Cro-Magnon rock
shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.
• Later discoveries were made in a number of
caverns in the Dordogne valley, Solutré, and in
Spain, Germany, and central Europe.
• Cro- Magnon man was anatomically identical to
modern humans, but differed significantly from
Neanderthals, who disappear in the fossil about
10,000 years after the appearance of Aurignacian
and other upper Paleolithic populations.
• The rock shelters contained a large cavity which
protected the fossils.
• The definitive specimen from this find bears the
name "Cro-Magnon”.
• The skeletons showed the same high forehead,
upright posture and slender (gracile) skeleton as
modern humans.
• Other specimens have since come to light in other
parts of Europe and in the Middle East.
• The European individuals probably arrived from
an East African origin via South Asia, Central Asia,
the Middle East and even North Africa.
• The abrupt disappearance of Neanderthal
populations and the associated Mousterian
technologies,
• the sudden appearance of modern Homo sapiens
(who had arisen earlier in Africa and migrated to
Europe)
• and the associated upper Paleolithic technologies,
and the absence of transitional anatomical or
technological forms have led most researchers to
conclude that Neanderthals were driven to
extinction through competition with Cro-Magnon
or related populations.
 Cro-Magnons lives
• Cro-Magnons lived from about 35,000 to 10,000
years ago in the Upper Paleolithic period of the
Pleistocene epoch.
• These people were anatomically modern, only
differing from their modern day descendants in
Europe by their slightly more robust body and
brains which had about 4 % larger capacity than
that of modern humans.
• The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any
number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that
emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years
ago, such as Homo sapiens idaltu.
• The condition and placement of the remains along with pieces of
shell and animal tooth in what appears to have been pendant
(jewelries) or necklaces raises the question whether or not they
were buried intentionally.
• If Cro-Magnons buried their dead intentionally ( purposively), it
shows us they had a knowledge of ritual ( ceremonious,
procedural) by burying their dead with necklaces and tools.
• Analysis of the pathology of the skeletons shows that the humans
of this time period led a physically tough life.
• In addition to infection, several of the individuals found at the
shelter had fused vertebrae in their necks indicating traumatic
injury,
• and the adult female found at the shelter had survived for some
time with a skull fracture.
• As these injuries would be life threatening even today, this shows
that Cro-Magnons believed in community support and took care
of each others' injuries.
• Cro-Magnon artifacts include huts, cave paintings carvings,
and antler-tipped spears.
• The remains of tools suggest that they knew how to make
woven clothing.
• They had huts (shelters), constructed of rocks, clay, bones,
branches, and animal hide/fur.
• These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to
paint pictures and it is believed that they created the first
calendar around 34,000 years ago.
• The flint tools found in association with the remains at Cro-
Magnon have associations with the Aurignacian culture that
Lartet had identified a few years before he found the
skeletons.
• Finely crafted stone and bone tools, shell and ivory jewelry,
and polychrome paintings found on cave walls all testify to
 Characteristics of Cro-Magnon Man
• vertical forehead
• round cranium
• thin skull
• no occipital bunning
• large mastoid process
• sunken maxilla and cheekbones
 2. Homo sapiens sapiens (Modern man)
• Modern forms of Homo sapiens first appear about 195,000
years ago.
• They have an average brain size of about 1350 cc.
• The forehead rises sharply, eyebrow ridges are very small or
more usually absent, the chin is prominent, and the skeleton is
very gracile.
• About 40,000 years ago, with the appearance of the Cro-
Magnon culture, tool kits started becoming markedly more
sophisticated, using a wider variety of raw materials such as
bone and antler, and containing new implements for making
clothing, engraving and sculpting.
• Fine artwork, in the form of decorated tools, beads, ivory
carvings of humans and animals, clay figurines, musical
instruments, and spectacular cave paintings appeared over the
Time frame of evolution of Hominin species