Anthroproductions

Circa 800,000 YBP

Here’s a little illustration of a Homo habilis male carrying the severed leg of a Deinotherium bozasi corpse which was scavenged by his group in what is now the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania! It is thought Homo habilis derived meat from scavenging rather than hunting, acting as a confrontational scavenger and stealing kills from smaller predators such as jackals or cheetahs. Fruit was also likely an important dietary component, indicated by dental erosion consistent with repetitive exposure to acidity.

Here is a little illustration of an Australopithecus garhi male in what is now the Middle Awash River Valley in Afar, Ethiopia! This hominin was of modest body size, with longer legs than any of the other australopithecines but also having longer and more robust arms than in later hominins. Found in association with grassland and scrubland animal species, this hominin is a candidate ancestor for early Homo.

Here is a little illustration of an Australopithecus afarensis male giving a warning to several intruders which he noticed! This species’ adaptations for living both in the trees and on the ground helped them survive for almost a million years as climate and environments changed.

Here is a little illustration of an Australopithecus afarensis male in what is now Hadar, Ethiopia! This species was most likely a generalist omnivore and inhabited a wide range of habitats such as open grasslands or woodlands, shrublands, and lake-or riverside forests.

Here is a little illustration of an Eastern Gravettian man inspired by Mikhail Gerasimov’s reconstruction of the Sungir 1 skull in what is now Vladimir, Russia! The genetic cluster which this man belonged to mixed with the Tianyuan cluster of East Asia to give rise to the Ancient North Eurasians (ANE), a major ancestral component of both modern Europeans and Native Americans.

Here is a little illustration of a Neanderthal man in what is now Dordogne, France! Neanderthals crafted and utilized a diverse set of complex tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, and were skilled hunters of large animals. Their DNA has not only been found in several fossils but also in modern humans due to admixture, with all present day non-African Homo sapiens having 1-3% of it in their genomes.

First post! Here is a little illustration of a Homo erectus man in what is now Java, Indonesia! Homo erectus was the first hominin species to be identified outside Europe and is known from many sites across Asia. This species went extinct in Java due to a climate change event between 117,000 and 108,000 years ago, where the environment shifted from open woodlands to rainforests, to which the species found it difficult to adapt.