Human Origins and Intelligent Design* Review and Analysis
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Hands-On Human Evolution: a Laboratory Based Approach
Hands-on Human Evolution: A Laboratory Based Approach Developed by Margarita Hernandez Center for Precollegiate Education and Training Author: Margarita Hernandez Curriculum Team: Julie Bokor, Sven Engling A huge thank you to….. Contents: 4. Author’s note 5. Introduction 6. Tips about the curriculum 8. Lesson Summaries 9. Lesson Sequencing Guide 10. Vocabulary 11. Next Generation Sunshine State Standards- Science 12. Background information 13. Lessons 122. Resources 123. Content Assessment 129. Content Area Expert Evaluation 131. Teacher Feedback Form 134. Student Feedback Form Lesson 1: Hominid Evolution Lab 19. Lesson 1 . Student Lab Pages . Student Lab Key . Human Evolution Phylogeny . Lab Station Numbers . Skeletal Pictures Lesson 2: Chromosomal Comparison Lab 48. Lesson 2 . Student Activity Pages . Student Lab Key Lesson 3: Naledi Jigsaw 77. Lesson 3 Author’s note Introduction Page The validity and importance of the theory of biological evolution runs strong throughout the topic of biology. Evolution serves as a foundation to many biological concepts by tying together the different tenants of biology, like ecology, anatomy, genetics, zoology, and taxonomy. It is for this reason that evolution plays a prominent role in the state and national standards and deserves thorough coverage in a classroom. A prime example of evolution can be seen in our own ancestral history, and this unit provides students with an excellent opportunity to consider the multiple lines of evidence that support hominid evolution. By allowing students the chance to uncover the supporting evidence for evolution themselves, they discover the ways the theory of evolution is supported by multiple sources. It is our hope that the opportunity to handle our ancestors’ bone casts and examine real molecular data, in an inquiry based environment, will pique the interest of students, ultimately leading them to conclude that the evidence they have gathered thoroughly supports the theory of evolution. -
Human Evolution: a Paleoanthropological Perspective - F.H
PHYSICAL (BIOLOGICAL) ANTHROPOLOGY - Human Evolution: A Paleoanthropological Perspective - F.H. Smith HUMAN EVOLUTION: A PALEOANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE F.H. Smith Department of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago, USA Keywords: Human evolution, Miocene apes, Sahelanthropus, australopithecines, Australopithecus afarensis, cladogenesis, robust australopithecines, early Homo, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Australopithecus africanus/Australopithecus garhi, mitochondrial DNA, homology, Neandertals, modern human origins, African Transitional Group. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Reconstructing Biological History: The Relationship of Humans and Apes 3. The Human Fossil Record: Basal Hominins 4. The Earliest Definite Hominins: The Australopithecines 5. Early Australopithecines as Primitive Humans 6. The Australopithecine Radiation 7. Origin and Evolution of the Genus Homo 8. Explaining Early Hominin Evolution: Controversy and the Documentation- Explanation Controversy 9. Early Homo erectus in East Africa and the Initial Radiation of Homo 10. After Homo erectus: The Middle Range of the Evolution of the Genus Homo 11. Neandertals and Late Archaics from Africa and Asia: The Hominin World before Modernity 12. The Origin of Modern Humans 13. Closing Perspective Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary UNESCO – EOLSS The basic course of human biological history is well represented by the existing fossil record, although there is considerable debate on the details of that history. This review details both what is firmly understood (first echelon issues) and what is contentious concerning humanSAMPLE evolution. Most of the coCHAPTERSntention actually concerns the details (second echelon issues) of human evolution rather than the fundamental issues. For example, both anatomical and molecular evidence on living (extant) hominoids (apes and humans) suggests the close relationship of African great apes and humans (hominins). That relationship is demonstrated by the existing hominoid fossil record, including that of early hominins. -
Paranthropus Boisei: Fifty Years of Evidence and Analysis Bernard A
Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Biological Sciences Faculty Research Biological Sciences Fall 11-28-2007 Paranthropus boisei: Fifty Years of Evidence and Analysis Bernard A. Wood George Washington University Paul J. Constantino Biological Sciences, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/bio_sciences_faculty Part of the Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Wood B and Constantino P. Paranthropus boisei: Fifty years of evidence and analysis. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 50:106-132. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Biological Sciences at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biological Sciences Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. YEARBOOK OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 50:106–132 (2007) Paranthropus boisei: Fifty Years of Evidence and Analysis Bernard Wood* and Paul Constantino Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 KEY WORDS Paranthropus; boisei; aethiopicus; human evolution; Africa ABSTRACT Paranthropus boisei is a hominin taxon ers can trace the evolution of metric and nonmetric var- with a distinctive cranial and dental morphology. Its iables across hundreds of thousands of years. This pa- hypodigm has been recovered from sites with good per is a detailed1 review of half a century’s worth of fos- stratigraphic and chronological control, and for some sil evidence and analysis of P. boi se i and traces how morphological regions, such as the mandible and the both its evolutionary history and our understanding of mandibular dentition, the samples are not only rela- its evolutionary history have evolved during the past tively well dated, but they are, by paleontological 50 years. -
Darwin and the Recent African Origin of Modern Humans
EDITORIAL Darwin and the recent African origin of modern humans Richard G. Klein1 Program in Human Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 n this 200th anniversary of When Darwin and Huxley were ac- The Course of Human Evolution Charles Darwin’s birth and tive, many respected scientists sub- In the absence of fossils, Darwin could the 150th anniversary of the scribed to the now discredited idea that not have predicted the fundamental pat- publication of his monumen- human races represented variably tern of human evolution, but his evolu- Otal The Origin of Species (1859) (1), it evolved populations of Homo sapiens. tionary theory readily accommodates seems fitting to summarize Darwin’s The original Neanderthal skull had a the pattern we now recognize. Probably views on human evolution and to show conspicuous browridge, and compared the most fundamental finding is that the how far we have come since. Darwin with the skulls of modern humans, it australopithecines, who existed from at famously neglected the subject in The was decidedly long and low. At the same least 4.5 million to 2 million years ago, Origin, except near the end where he time, it had a large braincase, and Hux- were distinguished from apes primarily noted only that ‘‘light would be thrown ley regarded it as ‘‘the extreme term of by anatomical specializations for habit- on the origin of man and his history’’ by a series leading gradually from it to the ual bipedalism, and it was only after 2 the massive evidence he had compiled highest and best developed of [modern] million years ago that people began to for evolution by means of natural selec- human crania.’’ It was only in 1891 that acquire the other traits, including our tion. -
The Evolution of Humanity
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY: PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBLE FUTURE A Review of Humanity’s Taxonomic Classification and Proposal to Classify Humanity as a Sixth Kingdom, Symbolia January 200l John Allen, FLS Global Ecotechnics Corporation 1 Bluebird Court Santa Fe, NM 87508 Email: [email protected] A shorter version of this paper was first published as a philosophic essay in The Duversity Newsletter No.4 (2000) edited and published by the British thinker, AGE Blake. I am taking the step of publishing this expanded paper electronically with fuller scientific details and complete bibliography for the use of any scientist or other thinker or artist or citizen who finds it interesting and will make the proper acknowledgments if they use any part of the paper. I have reviewed the thrust of this full paper with several outstanding scientific thinkers and have been stimulated by their critical feedback. I especially acknowledge stimulating conversations with John Marsden, Sir Ghillean Prance, Tyler Volk, Niles Eldredge, and Abigail Alling, who of course bear no responsibility for any mistakes or any conclusions contained in the paper. Abstract The taxonomy of humans in the teeming world of life forms, has from the beginning of the Theory of Evolution presented one of the most difficult of problems for science. Darwin and Wallace themselves split over this. Darwin opted for a species of primate and Wallace for a difference amounting to a species of a new kingdom. However, a proper taxonomy was probably impossible in their time because the sciences of palaeontology, neurology, ecology, ethnology and archaeology were not available; Darwin was restricted to a choice between dogmatic Biblical and mechanistic world-views. -
Verhaegen M. the Aquatic Ape Evolves
HUMAN EVOLUTION Vol. 28 n.3-4 (237-266) - 2013 Verhaegen M. The Aquatic Ape Evolves: Common Miscon- Study Center for Anthropology, ceptions and Unproven Assumptions About Mechelbaan 338, 2580 Putte, the So-Called Aquatic Ape Hypothesis Belgium E-mail: [email protected] While some paleo-anthropologists remain skeptical, data from diverse biological and anthropological disciplines leave little doubt that human ancestors were at some point in our past semi- aquatic: wading, swimming and/or diving in shallow waters in search of waterside or aquatic foods. However, the exact sce- nario — how, where and when these semi-aquatic adaptations happened, how profound they were, and how they fit into the KEY WORDS: human evolution, hominid fossil record — is still disputed, even among anthro- Littoral theory, Aquarboreal pologists who assume some semi-aquatic adaptations. theory, aquatic ape, AAT, Here, I argue that the most intense phase(s) of semi-aquatic Archaic Homo, Homo erectus, adaptation in human ancestry occurred when populations be- Neanderthal, bipedalism, speech longing to the genus Homo adapted to slow and shallow littoral origins, Alister Hardy, Elaine diving for sessile foods such as shellfish during part(s) of the Morgan, comparative biology, Pleistocene epoch (Ice Ages), possibly along African or South- pachyosteosclerosis. Asian coasts. Introduction The term aquatic ape gives an incorrect impression of our semi-aquatic ancestors. Better terms are in my opinion the coastal dispersal model (Munro, 2010) or the littoral theory of human evolution, but although littoral seems to be a more appropriate biologi- cal term here than aquatic, throughout this paper I will use the well-known and common- ly used term AAH as shorthand for all sorts of waterside and semi-aquatic hypotheses. -
Australopiths Wading? Homo Diving?
Symposium: Water and Human Evolution, April 30th 1999, University Gent, Flanders, Belgium Proceedings Australopiths wading? Homo diving? http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/Symposium.html http://www.flash.net/~hydra9/marcaat.html Marc Verhaegen & Stephen Munro – 23 July 1999 Abstract Asian pongids (orangutans) and African hominids (gorillas, chimpanzees and humans) split 14-10 million years ago, possibly in the Middle East, or elsewhere in Eurasia, where the great ape fossils of 12-8 million years ago display pongid and/or hominid features. In any case, it is likely that the ancestors of the African apes, australopithecines and humans, lived on the Arabian-African continent 8-6 million years ago, when they split into gorillas and humans-chimpanzees. They could have frequently waded bipedally, like mangrove proboscis monkeys, in the mangrove forests between Eurasia and Africa, and partly fed on hard-shelled fruits and oysters like mangrove capuchin monkeys: thick enamel plus stone tool use is typically seen in capuchins, hominids and sea otters. The australopithecines might have entered the African inland along rivers and lakes. Their dentition suggests they ate mostly fruits, hard grass-like plants, and aquatic herbaceous vegetation (AHV). The fossil data indicates that the early australopithecines of 4-3 million years ago lived in waterside forests or woodlands; and their larger, robust relatives of 2-1 million years ago in generally more open milieus near marshes and reedbeds, where they could have waded bipedally. Some anthropologists believe the present-day African apes evolved from australopithecine-like ancestors, which would imply that knuckle-walking gorillas and chimpanzees evolved in parallel from wading- climbing ‘aquarborealists’. -
I Reach Toward the Ground I Reach Toward Space
Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 I Reach Toward the Ground I Reach Toward Space Kristen A. Sanders Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Fine Arts Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4240 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Kristen Ann Sanders 2016 All Rights Reserved I Reach Toward the Ground I Reach Toward Space A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. By Kristen Ann Sanders Masters of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016 Bachelor of Arts, University of California Davis, 2012 Director: Gregory Volk, Associate Professor, Painting and Printmaking Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia May, 2016 ii Acknowledgements To the Australopithecines, aquatic or otherwise. To the fragmented femurs and angled pelvic bones and rows of molars and fossilized footprints. To the stone flakes and engraved rocks and stained cave walls. To all of the extinct members of Hominidae — the makers, the foragers, the traversers, and discoverers. And to all those are who are living today that have shown me so much love and -
In the Beginning Was… the Monkey!
E no princípio... era o macaco! WALTER A. NEVES Introdução ONFORME TENTAREI demonstrar neste artigo, muito já sabemos sobre a evolução de nossa linhagem, a dos hominíneos1 (Figura 1). Mais ainda, Ctentarei demonstrar como é inquestionável o fato de sermos, como to- das as demais criaturas do planeta, resultado de um processo natural de modi- ficação ao longo do tempo; no nosso caso, a partir de um grande símio. Em outras palavras, tentarei, da maneira mais didática que consiga, convencer os leitores de que o homem, inexoravelmente, veio mesmo do macaco, mas por curvas extremamente sinuosas. Não é menos verdade, porém, que muita coisa ainda precisamos aprender sobre os detalhes desse processo e de como e por que viemos a ser o que somos. Décadas de pesquisas em campo e em laboratório ainda serão necessárias para que a comunidade científica possa disponibilizar para todo o mundo, dentro e fora da academia, um quadro detalhado do que ocorreu conosco e com nossos ancestrais nos últimos sete milhões de anos, quando nossa linhagem evolutiva se separou do ancestral comum que compartilhamos com os chimpanzés. Nunca é demais lembrar que os chimpanzés de hoje resultaram também de um processo evolutivo de sete milhões de anos. Prova disso é que, a partir dos chimpanzés comuns, diferenciou-se, há cerca de 2,5 milhões de anos, uma outra linhagem, ainda viva, conhecida como bonobos ou chimpanzés pigmeus. Para aqueles que como eu se dedicam ao estudo da evolução humana, é muito comum ouvir dos colegas e dos alunos, pelos corredores acadêmicos, que basta um novo fóssil ser encontrado na África para que tudo o que conhecemos sobre nossos antepassados se modifique completamente. -
Darwin and the Recent African Origin of Modern Humans
EDITORIAL Darwin and the recent African origin of modern humans Richard G. Klein1 Program in Human Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 n this 200th anniversary of When Darwin and Huxley were ac- The Course of Human Evolution Charles Darwin’s birth and tive, many respected scientists sub- In the absence of fossils, Darwin could the 150th anniversary of the scribed to the now discredited idea that not have predicted the fundamental pat- publication of his monumen- human races represented variably tern of human evolution, but his evolu- Otal The Origin of Species (1859) (1), it evolved populations of Homo sapiens. tionary theory readily accommodates seems fitting to summarize Darwin’s The original Neanderthal skull had a the pattern we now recognize. Probably views on human evolution and to show conspicuous browridge, and compared the most fundamental finding is that the how far we have come since. Darwin with the skulls of modern humans, it australopithecines, who existed from at famously neglected the subject in The was decidedly long and low. At the same least 4.5 million to 2 million years ago, Origin, except near the end where he time, it had a large braincase, and Hux- were distinguished from apes primarily noted only that ‘‘light would be thrown ley regarded it as ‘‘the extreme term of by anatomical specializations for habit- on the origin of man and his history’’ by a series leading gradually from it to the ual bipedalism, and it was only after 2 the massive evidence he had compiled highest and best developed of [modern] million years ago that people began to for evolution by means of natural selec- human crania.’’ It was only in 1891 that acquire the other traits, including our tion. -
A Regression Analysis of Australopithecine Dentition
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 12-1979 A Regression Analysis of Australopithecine Dentition Gail Celmer Ranyard University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Ranyard, Gail Celmer, "A Regression Analysis of Australopithecine Dentition. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1979. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4203 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Gail Celmer Ranyard entitled "A Regression Analysis of Australopithecine Dentition." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology. Fred H. Smith, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Douglas W. Owsley, William M. Bass Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Gail Celmer Ranyard entitled "A Regression Analysis of Australopithecine Dentition." I recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfill ment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology. -
Lucy’’ Redux: a Review of Research on Australopithecus Afarensis
YEARBOOK OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 52:2–48 (2009) ‘‘Lucy’’ Redux: A Review of Research on Australopithecus afarensis William H. Kimbel* and Lucas K. Delezene Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4101 KEY WORDS Australopithecus afarensis; Hadar; Laetoli; Pliocene hominin evolution ABSTRACT In the 1970s, mid-Pliocene hominin fossils methodology in paleoanthropology; in addition, important were found at the sites of Hadar in Ethiopia and Laetoli in fossil and genetic discoveries were changing expectations Tanzania. These samples constituted the first substantial about hominin divergence dates from extant African apes. evidence for hominins older than 3.0 Ma and were notable This coincidence of events ensured that A. afarensis figured for some remarkable discoveries, such as the ‘‘Lucy’’ partial prominently in the last 30 years of paleoanthropological skeleton and the abundant remains from the A.L. 333 local- research. Here, the 301 year history of discovery, analysis, ity at Hadar and the hominin footprint trail at Laetoli. The and interpretation of A. afarensis and its contexts are sum- Hadar and Laetoli fossils were ultimately assigned to the marized and synthesized. Research on A. afarensis contin- novel hominin species Australopithecus afarensis, which at ues and subject areas in which further investigation is the time was the most plesiomorphic and geologically an- needed to resolve ongoing debates regarding the paleobiol- cient hominin taxon. The discovery and naming of A. afar- ogy of this species are highlighted. Yrbk Phys Anthropol ensis coincided with important developments in theory and 52:2–48, 2009. VC 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.