Who's Who Among Early Hominins?

Susman, Randall. "Who's Who Among the Early Hominins." Odyssey Adventures in Science Oct. 2009:

     22-25. Print.

SUMMARIZATION OF ARTICLE

I read a very intriguing article called  “Who’s Who Among the Early Hominins” by Randall Susman. In this article the author talks about the similarities and differences of early hominins and how the different species branched off. He also discussed the different characteristics of several hominins. A similarity of Homo habilis and Homo neanderthalensis is that they both used stone tools for hunting and building things. This was helpful because they could catch their food and build things a lot faster and easier. Another theme in the article is about where the hominins were found. Many different species of hominins could have lived at the same time and same place with each other. For example, Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis lived together and maybe even interacted with each other. Earlier hominins such as Orrorin tugenensis were only found in Kenya but later hominins were found all over Africa, Europe and Asia. An example of a later hominin that spread to multiple places in the world is Homo erectus.

Evolution also changed hominins. According to the author "The fossil record of early hominin evolution shows both primitive and advanced features”. Their brain sizes got bigger over evolutionary time. This meant that later hominins were more capable of doing things such as making stone tools.  For example from Homo Habilis to Homo Sapien the brain size changed greatly and helped them with common logic and hunting and gathering food. Another topic addressed in this article is how scientists classify hominins by giving them a genus name then a species name. Archaeologists who discover a new species sometimes add the location, characteristics, or someone's name into the genus names. For example, Homo (which means early man in latin) classifies smarter and later hominins like Homo Habilis. Another genus name is Paranthropus which means similar to man. 

A replica of a Homo Neanderthalensis skull.

Summarization of Article notes

 Summarization of Article notes

In class we read and took some notes about an article we read. This article was about why we study human origins. In this article the author talks about many things on this topic.  One thing he discusses is how the fossil record gives us information about the past.  Fossils can show us the physical and behavioral changes our ancestors went through over time. They also tell us about their change in behavior.  Theories about our prehistoric ancestors have changed over time. In the past theories were based on religion, but now they are more scientific.  Darwin and Huxley were pioneers in evolutionary theory. Since then the fossil record have supported evolutionary theories.  Knowledge about hominids has changed over a long period of time based on what we find in archaeological digs. 

Reference: Susman, Randall. "Why We Study Human Origins." Calliope: Exploring World History Sept. 1999: 4-5. Print. 

Blog Post 6

Human Ancestor May Put Twist In Origin Story 

By Brent Stirton For National Geographic 

I read a very interesting article on how archaeologists have found a new primate that is probably related to modern humans in 2008. Recently they have found many new evidence and discovery about this new primate, which is called the Australopithecus Sediba. They have found some fossilized skin and the remains of a child and an adult women. The a. sediba is thought to have a mix of ape like features and human like features. For example scientists think that the a. sediba could hold and make stone tools. The a. sediba could stand and walk upright its ankles were human like but it had ape like heels. The a. sediba is also thought to have longer and more agile hands, it was probably used for shaping tools. I found this article interesting because this is a big discovery of a link between our ancestors and modern day humans.