Bio Anthropology Midterm 2A

The earliest studies by Edward Tyson and T.H. Huxley focused on comparative primate anatomy. They studied the links between form and function especially skeletal studies like locomotion and diet.

Early behavioral studies were unsystematic and focused on cative animals in zoos, colonies, and laboratories.

After WWII people began studying free-ranging primates in their natural habitats using an evolutionary perspective. Washburn and DeVore- baboons, Jane Goodall- chimpanzees, Dian Fossey- gorillas, Birute Galdikas- Orangutans.

• They minimize human interference and "unnatural behaviors."
• They help us understand the links between their environment and their behavior.

Interrelationships of animals, plants, and physical environment.

Behaviors evolved through natural selection within the context of particular environments.

• What the animal does and how often it does it.
• Involvement of other individuals.
• Use of space and resources.

• Food availability (type & distribution), othersympatric species, predators, etc.
• Human influence (hunting, habitat alteration, etc.)

• Links between morphology & ecology/behavior
• Primates are extremely social and live lives that are behaviorally complex
• Some non-human primates make and use tools
• Some non-human primates have culture
• Some non-human primates eat meat and hunt cooperatively

We have learned about the form and finction of certain body proportions. For example long arms in the gibbon allow it to swing from branches easily.

• Disadvantages: competition for food, visibility to predators, competition for mates, risk of social tension and violence.
• Advantages: Predator defense, access to food, mate access, assistance in care of young.

• Semi-solitary: Orangutans, nocturnal prosimians.
• Monogomous Pairs: Gibbons.
• One Female/ Multi-male (Polyandry): Marmosets, tamarins.
• One Male/ Multi-female ( sometimes Polygyny): Gorillas.
• Multi-male/ Multi-female: Baboons, macaques.
• Fission- Fusion (Type of multi-male/multi-female group): Chimpanzees.

• Body size and metabolism.
• High predation pressures often lead to larger groups.
• Food availability and distribution.
• Dispersal, when they leave the natal group.

Remaining in one's natal group or home range as an adult.

Set of learned behaviors transmitted from one generation to the next by non-biological(non-genetic) means.

Type of natural selection that operates on only one sex; the result ofcompetition for mates.

• Culture
• Tools & Technology
• Language & Symbolic Thinking
• Art
• Religion
• Large Brain Size
• Bipedalis
• Reproductive Biology

Humans evolved in a peacemeal fashion with different functional systems evolving at different times.

5-7 mya.

Foramen magnum is closer to the front of the skull, curved spine, shorter and wider illium, femur angled inward toward knees, knee joint angled, feet have arches.

Bipedal to carry objects, use tools, visual surveillance, hunt and gather food.

• Disadvantages: Birth more difficult, lower back pain, infant clinging.
• Advantages: Long distance travel, carrying/manipulating, improved view, effective displays.

Most current hypothesis links bipedalism to climate change. They think that the climate became cooler and drier and caused the forests to break up. This created the need to travel in order to get food. Bipedalism makes travel easier.

Jolly came up with it in 1970, and it implied that bipedalism happened so seed and nut eating was easier. The problems with this model is that the reliance on seeds alone is unlikely, and there is very little support for it.

Lovejoy was the one who thought of it in 1981. The hypothesis states that there are two problems that have two evolutionary solutions. Problem 1: too k-selected, evolutionary solution: reduced birth spacing. Problem 2: too many dependent offspring, evolutionary solution:increased male investment.

Wheeler came up with it in 1991, and it states that bipedalism happened in order to reduce heat stress. The problem with this is that eary bipedalism most likely took place in woodlands not savannahs.

Rodman and McHenry in 1980, states that changes in climate caused resources to disperse. In order to get to food sources, ape terrestrial locomotion was inneficient, bipedalism more efficient for traveling. Good Support!

Objects made or modified for use by hominins.

Immovable residue of human occupation.

The study of how bones and other materials came to be buried in the earth and preserved as fossils.

• Relative dating: Time period compared to others, like looking at sediment.
• Absolute dating: Using dates, methods: radiometric like potassium/argon and argon/argon, also paleomagnetism and biostratigraphy.

2.4-1.4 mya, moderately expanded brain, new stone tool techonologies.

They are crude and informal and were used by homo habilis. They are the earliest stone tool type, uses cores and flakes as tools.

1.8 mya-50,000 ya, changes: geographic distribution, body/size proportions, brain size, facial and dental reduction, new stone tool technology.

Supraorbital torus, nuchal torus, sagittal keel, shovel-shaped incisors.

First appeared 1.4 mya, sophisticated, used by homo erectus.

Neandertals were from 40,000 years ago, and they have large brains, prominate arching brow ridges, midfacial prognathism, occipital bun, retromolar space, and no chin.

They are complex tools and are used by neandertals, and they have a prepared core technique to produce flakes.