finding of fossil Ida scientifically known as Darwinius masillae was a mind changer to everyone studying palaeoanthropology. She was named ‘Darwinius’ to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Darwin who was the pioneer of the study of evolution. What is now considered the anthropological equivalent of the ‘holy grail’, she was found 20 years ago although the exact unearthing of the fossil is not clear from Messel pit, near Frankfurt in Germany. It was stored in position of a private collector…
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Elisa Reyes 09/22/14 ANTH-6 The world’s most famous human ancestor 3.2 –million-year old ape “Lucy” was the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton ever found. The significance of this fossil was that it contained 40 percent of it’s skeleton making it one of the most complete individual to be discovered. Anthropologist show that Lucy is a transitional fossil and helps prove the way hominids changed throughout the ages. Lucy is our oldest, most complete human ancestor that has led to change our…
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Contrary to other Great Apes, orangutans live in solitude. This over does not mean they are without social relationships (Anon 2003). They are found exclusively in Asia. Their diet consists of fruit and one species of orangutan eat leaves and bark when fruit is scarce (Russon 2009). The orangutan was first thought to be lazy and less intelligent than their African counterpart; however, living in solitude and being slow moving does not mean they are less intelligent than other apes (Schaik 2003). Orangutans…
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Does evolution explains the human nature? Obviously, say the monkey Summary Human nature must be understood as a direct consequence of evolution. Not only our physical traits but also our behavior, our thinking and our mind are a direct result of it. Although humans are always looking for evidence to prove that intelligence is a characteristic unique to their species, scientific studies have increasingly show that this is not the case. Skills once believed unique to humans such as…
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aspect of human evolution. A study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined the brain size of several primates. For the most part, larger bodied primates have larger brains across species; however, humans have brains that are exceptionally large and rich in neurons compared to their body size, while gorillas-three times more massive than humans- have smaller brains and lesser neurons. Why? Because gorillas are predominantly herbivorous primates (95-99% of their…
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Human Evolution Evidence Primate Behavior GS104 INTRO to Environmental science Abstract Early human behavior from ancient footprints to stone tools and the earliest symbols and art along with similarities and differences in the behavior of other primate species. Humans are part of the biological group known as primates. Stone tools provide evidence about the technologies, dexterity, particular kinds of mental skills, and innovations that were within the grasp of early human toolmakers. Early…
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Chapter 9: Primate Life History and the Evolution of Intelligence Why are primates so smart? Behavioral complexity is the hallmark of the primate order, and this has been attributed in part to the relatively large brains we all possess (Fig. 9-1). Defining intelligence, however, is a highly problematic issue. An operational definition used here attributes the primary component of intelligence to flexible problem solving and the ability to cope with novel situations. Figure 9.1 A chimpanzee extracting…
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key feature that non-human primates depend on is their eyesight. Non-human primates rely on their vision almost as much as humans do but if their vision was taken away they would be able to adapt a lot easier than humans would. We rarely think about our vision, how it works and how It compares to other animals on the planet. Some people may assume that other animals see just the same as us humans but there are some differences between the way humans and nonhuman primates see the world. In order…
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Evolution and the Nervous System Evolution • Evolution works by trial and error. • It has no goal, but it functions to keep life adapting to a constantly-changing environment. • Organisms that are able to survive and pass on genes influence the development of future organisms. • Organisms that are killed off, and don’t reproduce, have their DNA eliminated from the gene pool. • Whatever works is kept until it eventually fails. • Whatever doesn’t work is gotten rid of. Evolution • Gene mutations…
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Ch. 1: Doing Anthropology Define the Discipline In the Field Saskatchewan, Canada Meet a colony, 450 year old religious group called the Hutterian Brethren, or Hutterites. They were English speaking group of European Descent who practiced a form of Christianity that emphasized pacifism and tolerance. Wanted to take fingerprints, influenced by genes, and collect genealogical data to document genetic changes between populations and across generations. For one month of fieldwork experience –…
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