#homonid

NEW CREATURES, from enantiornithines to cats to humans

Homo naledi

Gobipteryx minuta

Cratoelcana rasnitsyni

Vegavis notopothousa

Anteosaurus magnificus

Palaeopanthera blythae

I have multiple times almost posted phrases like “the topic of Homosexual religion during the Pleistocene is kind of a whole can of worms because of our tendency to project modern ideas onto ancient people; it existed, but we can’t say much more than that.”

As well as:

“Neanderthals are easily the most well understood Homosexual species besides our own.”

and:

The Cradle of Humankind

Located 65 Km south west of South Africa’s capital city, Pretoria, is The Cradle of Humankind. The site includes the Sterkfontein Caves, where the famous 2.3 million year old fossil “Mrs. Ples” was discovered. The discovery was made by Dr Robert Broom and John T Robinson. Prior to 2010, the Sterkfontein Caves produced over 30% of hominid fossils ever found.

Including the Sterkfontein Caves and a massive complex of limestone caves, the site currently occupies over 45 000 hectares. There are close to 40 fossil-bearing caves across the site.

A massive number of homonin fossils have thus far been excavated from the many sites comprising the Cradle of Humankind, including some of the oldest ever discovered. A few of these fossils have been found to be almost 3.5 million years old.

It is theorized that hominins may have lived all across the African continent, but their fossils can only be found where the conditions for fossil formation are optimal. The hominin fossils found in dolomitic caves at the Cradle are often enclosed in a blend of limestone and breccia.

hominid – “group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes”

hominin- “the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors”

Breccia – clastic sedimentary rocks made up of angular fragments. Often there are gaps between the angular fragments. These gaps are filled with a medium consisting of smaller particles that binds the rock together.

Renesh T

Image Source:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copy-of.mrs-ples-maropeng.jpg

References/Further Reading:

Kashmira Raghu BSc. Hons. MSc http://bit.ly/1lyU3b6 http://bit.ly/1IpOH9d http://bbc.in/1LSB6Nd http://bit.ly/1EN4f5U http://bit.ly/19hfUyi http://bit.ly/1xeqCAZ

-Turkana Boy, Facial reconstruction (bones dated 1.5 mya)

The Origin of Humankind, Chapter 4: Man the Noble Hunter?

Humans and Monkeys (Part 2 of 3): Hominoids and Hominins

Hominoids evolved from Old World Monkeys 25 million years ago. They can be categorised by an enlarged braincase, lack of tail and retention of grasping toes. This group contains apes seen today including the chimpanzee, bonobos, orang-utans and gorillas. The group can be split into the lesser apes (known as Hylobatidae) which includes gibbons and the Hominidae (Orangutans, Gorillas and Chimpanzees). Hylobatidae are arboreal (live in trees) and bipedal (walk on two legs).

Hominins however diverged from the Pan genus (chimpanzees) 6 million years ago. Despite all the photos seen on the internet showing human evolution, this was not a linear process. Hominins developed over a long time through many species, with some lines going extinct and other times when several species existed simultaneously. Despite this fact due to the nature of the fossil record we only know about some of these species in detail. The first hominin we know about in detail is Ardipithecus.

Ardipithecus lived between 6 and 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia, was around 1.2m tall, and weighed 50Kg. Ardipithecus still had a chimp-sized brain and blunt teeth (thus was an omnivore). Most importantly however Ardipithecus kept its grasping big toes, meaning it was likely to have still been arboreal, however, this was the first hominin capable of bipedalism seen through its pelvic structure.

Australopithecine is known as the Southern Ape; there were at least four species of this Ape that lived from South Africa to Ethiopia between 4 and 2 million years ago. Most Australopithecines were between 1 and 1.5m tall, however, sexual dimorphism (the difference between a female and male of a species) was shown with males being up to 1.5x the mass of females. Like Ardipithecus, Australopithecine had long arms and fingers, meaning it too was adapted to tree climbing. However, it also had feet and short legs which were suited to bipedal movement on the grasslands. Bipedal movement was beneficial as it gave australopithecine a height advantage for spotting predators and they could use their arms while moving.

There are two famed ‘types’ of Australopithecine, gracile and robust. The most famous skeletal example of Gracile Australopithecines is Lucy, a 40% skeleton of a female Australopithecus found in Ethiopia. Like other gracile Australopithecines, Lucy was a lightly built omnivore and was bipedal. We know Australopithecine were bipedal as Laetoli, Tanzania shows 2 sets of australopithecine footprints walking side by side, dated to 3.7 million years old.

Robust Australopithecines are also known as Paranthropus (meaning beside human). They were around between 2.7 and 1.2 million years ago. Paranthropus was particularly noticeable due to its strong sexual dimorphism, skull crest, large jaws and teeth. Finally, the last link we know about in detail between Australopithecus and the genus Homo is known as Habilis (or handyman), yet scientists are still debating whether this group were Australopithecus or a Homo. The first specimen of Habilis was found in Tanzania by the Leakey family. Habilis lived between 2.3 and 1.4 million years ago, is thought to have had some basic vocalisation, and began to use some stone and bone tools. Next up, the Homo Genus.

~SA