Lapedo Child Essay

The article written by Robert Kunzig I found interesting. Kunzig discovers that Neanderthals are our closest extinct human relatives. He had lots of good quality of work he has done to prove his main point. When he found the child that was buried they discovered that the child had leg bones strong enough to support a stocky Neanderthal body. According to Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in Saint Louis he states, “To prove the child had Neanderthal ancestors as well as Cro-Magnon ones, it only takes one features” then he says, “We’ve got two” (11). Some might argue that the kid was just an ordinary Cro-Magnon who had adapted to the Ice Age. But Trinkaus disagrees and says, “The kid must be the product of interbreeding over the entire period, not a one-time hybrid produced by star-crossed lovers” (11). The way the Neanderthals lived their life was symbolic to humans on how we live our life.

Modern humans have evolved over millions of years from primates and therefore we share many special characteristics but as many anthropologists believe, there are many identifiable characteristics which distinguish modern humans from non-human primates. These constraints are both anatomical and behavioural. Biological features include larger brains, smaller frontal teeth, smaller faces and bipedalism (Mann 1972). Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion which gives the ability of species to walk completely on two legs which Homo Sapiens, known as modern humans, have the ability to do. This gave many special definitive features and traits to humans which have led to many advantages that we now contain today. In this essay I shall discuss

For about thirty years chimpanzees were thought to be the closest related animal to humans, until two biologists decided to look further into what primate was actually closest related to humans. They decided that it was actually orangutans and not chimpanzees. This caused chaos in the science world, after all the facts were out and being conversed about everybody decided that the two biologist were correct and that orangutans were more similar to humans than what chimpanzees were. The studies and tests on the fossilized apes all went back to appearance. Orangutans and humans just look more closely related than humans and chimpanzees.

It is quite interesting, because before this discovery, it was thought that the first humans only left Africa 1 million years ago. However, archaeological evidences show that there were already Dmanisi hominids in Dmanisi 1.77 million years ago. It was also thought that the first humans out of Africa were tall, big-brained, and well-developed stone tools. However, the Dmanisi hominids were small, had small brains, and used primitive tools. The Dmanisi also provided paleoanthropologists with a new site to discover. In the exhibit for The Humans Outside of Africa, there were different skull fossils that were studied and categorized as potentially male or female. However, it is also notable that there were fossils (D2700 and D2735) that were examined to be that of an adolescent. Therefore, this provides paleoanthropologists with a basis for studying the Dmanisi hominids on a generational basis, from adolescent to old

climate change influenced nonhuman primate evolution because with the changes, nonhuman primates were forced to evolve in order to survive. As the climate change progressed and several species started to die out, nonhuman primates evolved through time and thus they were able to survive and climate change that occurred and were able to evolve into creatures that we see during present times.

The evolution of man has always been a controversial topic. However, no matter what your beliefs are the fact is that man evolved from primates. There is very credible fossil evidence to back this up. Fossils allow us to dig deeper into our past and give us an understanding of what life was like for our ancestors. Particularly, I believe that fossils of our ancestors show that we had to develop bipedalism because of natural selection and environmental factors.

The fossils found north of Johannesburg, South Africa, are of a previously unknown species, classified as Australopithecus sediba, with a mix of traits belonging to Australopithecus and Homo. The pelvis of the two individuals found so far were similar to that of H. erectus indicating they were bipedal, however their long arms associate them with Australopithecus-like tree-dwellers. Other juxtaposed traits include; small brain with an expanded frontal region, a human-like ankle and a primitive heel, small hands and ape-like grasping capabilities. Had Berger not found the fossils joined together, he would have classified them as different species.

The Piltdown fossils man was the missing link between apes and humans found in 1911 and 1912. The fossils included a portion of the skull, a jawbone and a few teeth. The relics were said to be found in Piltdown, England by workers digging a pit. The scientist discovered that the jaw and teeth were not the same age as the skull and were not even fossils, just old

Can you imagine yourself being relative to someone who lived thousands of years ago? A man named Ötzi who was discovered who was found dead in the mountains of germany by two innocent hikers 24 years ago. After his body was taken to a lab they discovered many interesting things that confused many archaeologists. They even had to go back and change textbooks! SInce then they don’t what clues to the past he might reveal.

Between 1912 and 1913, in the small English village of Piltdown, Charles Dawson--an amateur archaeologist who specialized in fish fossil--, Arthur Smith Woodward--leading Geologist and keeper of the department of Geology in England 's Natural History Museum--, and Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin--a French Paleontologist and Jesuit priest-- discovered what was believed by many to be the 'missing link ' between apes and mankind. There they found fragments of a skull--that was distinctly human--, a jawbone--ape-like in structure with two flat molar teeth intact that were similar to that of modern humans--and a canine tooth. In December of 1912, Woodward announced the discoveries at a meeting of the Geological Society; claiming the fossil at an estimate of 500,000 mya. This spurred excitement and controversy for the scientific community. Before these discoveries, England had to yet have

As my team and I discovered a new fossil in our excavation project, the unknown site yielded the skull of a mysterious specimen. Our goal as reputable anthropologist was to analyze the specimen to the best of our ability so our team can provide the most probable and reliable taxonomic identification. In order for us to effectively interpret the results our experiment yielded, we needed to review our knowledge in human evolution. The field that uncovers the mystery of the evolution of humans is paleoanthropology, the study of human evolution through the fossil record.

Neanderthals survived in Portugal long after modern humans entered Europe. Neanderthals made fireplaces and tools like hand axes and scrapers but as time went on their technology barely changed. Modern humans created different stone tools for different functions and they even made tools out of bone and ivory. Their tools were key to their success. Modern human made finely crafted ornaments and were the first species to do it. Ornaments were a way to tell other what they thought of themselves or what others thought of them. They traded their ornaments with different groups around the world. They were adaptable, resourceful, and were found all over the landscape. Neanderthals only clung to their valleys and were isolated from others and stranded.

The infamous event of the Piltdown hoax is one that continues to draw speculative attention over a century after the initial announcement of the paleoanthropological findings. Although many scientists, especially those involved in the field of paleoanthropology, would like to forget the incident entirely, the Piltdown man—taxonomically referred to as Eoanthropus dawsoni—is perhaps the greatest hoax in anthropological history. Since the exposure of the Piltdown discovery as a forgery in the mid-twentieth century, many accusations have been made against various individuals; however, the mystery still remains unsolved. Despite much of the research that seems to incriminate Charles Dawson, among others, the Piltdown hoax can be accredited solely

In addition, when analyzing the difference in facial structure we see that Neanderthals have “a pronounced projection of the midface and the cheekbones are obliquely oriented and ‘inflated’” (Harvati 2010). As for the cranial features, Neanderthals temporal bone displays many different markings than that of a modern human. Another noticeable difference in the cranial region is that the average brain size of Neanderthals is larger than that of modern humans (Holloway, 1985). In fact, it has been stated that this unique adaptation Neanderthals bear is also a result from the cold climates. Furthermore, Neanderthals teeth in the back of their mouth tend to overlap with those teeth seen in modern humans. Overall, most features discussed above generally always lead back to the conclusion of Neanderthals evolving in order to survive in the harsh

As stated in “The Big Bang Theory” theme song, our universe as we know it started because of one big explosion. This explosion was caused by a supernova 13.7 billion years ago. When the big bang happened, all of the elements that were in the star were expelled outward. Around .4 billion years after the big bang, first generation stars started to form, these are the stars that created most of our elements.They were made of period two, three, and four elements. Like every star, these stars ran out of energy and exploded making new elements that are found on our periodic table. They created period four, five, six, and seven elements. 4.6 billion years ago a protoplanetary disc was created. Around this the elements started