Post on 20-Dec-2015
transcript
Early Homo
• Homo habilis• 2.5-1.8 mya• contemporaneous with Australopithecus boisei
and Australopithecus robustus for at least 500,000 years.
• Then no fossils of either australopithecine; gone by c. 1.2 mya.
?
Homo habilis and “H. rudolfensis”
Olduwan stone culture: Homo habilischertflint
Homo erectus: 1.8 mBP – c. 27,000 BP
Homo erectus Homo sapiens
“Peking man”
A basic tool of Homo erectusAcheulian biface“hand axe”
1.5 mya - 250,000 ybpentire stone flakedAcheulian technique
Tool kit
Homo ergaster / Homo erectus sites
1.8 mya
Date tooconservative
1.8 mya and 27-53,000 ybp !
1.7 mya
Pleistocene Epoch
• 1.8 mya – 10,000 ya, then Holocene Epoch• Ice Ages• Alternation of warm and cold climates• Glaciers grow, move south• Water locked up in ice• Lowering sea level • Land bridges• Facilitated dispersal of Homo erectus of Africa at
least 1.8 mya
Glaciation -= land bridges
Relative brain size
Brain size / time relationship
Homo erectus
“Nariokotome boy”
Kenya, Africa1.6 mya5’6” tallEst. 6’ had hesurvived tomaturity
Homo erectus orH. ergaster
c. 8-9 years old8-9 day growth incrementsAlt.: 11 years old
Prominent epiphysealplates
1.5 mya: optical laser scan H. erectus trackway in Kenya (Ileret)
Au. afarensis