Modern Synthesis of Evolution

Explaining human biological traits – change & variation

• Macroevolution
– Genetic changes over long periods of time with
environmental isolation means genetic changes
that lead to new species
– Hominin Evolution
• Microevolution
– genetic changes over short times with no environmental isolation or speciation
– Human Variation

• Inseparable processes
 Emergence of the Human Species
• Explaining how primate evolution happened
– Describing speciation
• Using observed shared adaptations
– Assign fossils to a taxon (like species) by
• Homologies
as opposed to
• Analogies
 Dating Techniques
• Two ways to give fossils and speciation dates
1) Relative Dating
– stratigraphy
• the earth sediments/layers on the
bottom are older than those on top
 Dating Techniques
• Two ways to give fossils and speciation dates
2) Absolute Dating
– molecular MtDNA dating
• Counting mutations
 Dating Techniques
• Two ways to give fossils and speciation dates
2) Absolute Dating
– radiometric techniques
• measuring loss of unstable radioactive isotopes
 Origins of the Human Species

– Human Taxonomy
• Primates, Anthropoids, Catarrhines, Hominoids, Hominids, Hominins,
Humans, Recent Humans, AMHs
 Primates
• Primatology
– Study of nonhuman primates
• past and present

– Two important types

1. Terrestrial monkeys
2. Most closely related to people
 Origins of the Human Species
• Primate evolution begins 65 million years ago
– What prompted evolutionary appearance of primates?

1. Meteorite!!
→ mass extinction
→ extreme environmental change

2. Cenozoic era begins

→ tropical climates develop
 Cenozoic Early Primates
in a tropical world
• Paleocene Arboreal Environments
– tree living econiche

– Primate traits evolve

1. Grasping
2. Smell to sight
3. Nose to hand

4. Brain/body size ratio

5. Parental investment
6. Sociality
 Early Cenozoic Primates
• the Paleocene (65-54 m.y.a) - Primates appear
– Split between Strepsirrhines and Happlorhines

• The Eocene (54-38 m.y.a.)

– dominated by strepsirrhines like lemurs and lorises
– Happlorhines splits into two infraorders tarsiers and Anthropoids
 Early Cenozoic Primates
• Oligocene 38-23 mya
– Anthropoid infraorder
• proto-monkeys become most prominent primate
• Today includes all monkeys and apes

– Evolutionary split into two parvorders

• 1) New World monkeys
• 2) Old World monkeys and apes
– Cattarhines
 Anthropoid parvorders
• 1) New World monkeys
• Flat nose
• Prehensile tail
• Lack full color vision
 Anthropoid parvorders
• 2) Old World monkeys and apes
• Catarrhines
• Downward noses
• Finger nails
• Full color vision
 Early Miocene Hominoids
• Miocene (23-5 m.y.a.) - era of the Apes

• Cattarhine infraorder splits

– 2 superfamilies
1. Old World Monkeys
2. Old World Apes
– Hominoidea
 Apes
• Hominoidea superfamily - Apes
– Forest and Woodland Environments
• No tail – more upright positioning
• Increased body size and brain/body ratio
• Shortened faces
 Miocene Hominoids
• Lived throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa
– European apes • Oreopithecus
– lived 7 to 9 mya
– Bipedal?
 Miocene Hominoids
• Lived throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa
– Asian apes
• Gigantopithecus
– Largest primate
• 10’; 1200 lbs
• Lived to 300,000 ya
– Still existing?
 Miocene Hominoids
• Lived throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa
– African apes

• Proconsul (23- 25 mya)

– Ancestors of modern apes
 Apes
• Hominoidea superfamily - Apes

• Three Hominoid families

– 1) Hylobatids (gibbons)
– 2) Pongids (orangutans)
– 3) Hominids – 3 tribes gorillas, chimps, hominins
 Miocene Links
• African Apes
– Humans and other Apes

– Pierolapithecus Catalaunicus
• Potential common ancestor of Hominids
• 13 million y.a.
 Apes
• Gorillas
– Mostly terrestrial
– Large (400 pounds)
– Social organization
– 2 species
• Eastern
– Mountain and Lowland
• Western
– Lowland and Cross River
 Connecting Humans and non-Human
Apes: The Miocene Links
• “Toumai”
– Dates to time period when humans and chimps diverged
– 6 to 7 mya
 Apes
• Chimpanzees
– Two species
• 1) Common Chimpanzees

– Social organization
• Hierarchical
 Apes
• Chimpanzees
– Two species
• 1) Common Chimpanzees
• 2) Bonobos

– Social organization
• Less hierarchical
• Little conflict
 Apes
• Hominoidea superfamily - Apes

• Three Hominoid families

– 1) Hylobatids (gibbons)
– 2) Pongids (orangutans)
– 3) Hominids (gorillas, chimps, humans)
• Hominins - bipedal apes
 Comparing Humans and non-Human
Apes: The Miocene Links
• Orrorin Tugenensis
• 6 mya fossils
• 5 individuals
– Common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees?
– bipedal?
 Apes
• Hominins (Bipedal Apes)
– One living species
• Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH)

– Terrestrial
– Social organization
• very complex…..
 Hominin Evolution
• Hominins = tribe of Bipedal Primates
– Three genera
– Eleven species

• Four Evolutionary Trends

• 1) Bipedalism • Walking upright
• 2) Dental Changes on two feet
– ability increased
• 3) Cranial Capacity
throughout time
• 4) Material Culture
Knee
&
Feet
Phalanges
Foramen
Magnum
Pelvis
 Hominin Evolution
• Hominins = tribe of Bipedal Primates
– Three genera
– Eleven species

• Four Evolutionary Trends

• 1) Bipedalism • Facial Changes
• 2) Dental Changes – jaw
• – reduced size
3) Cranial Capacity
– altered shape
• 4) Material Culture – teeth
– changing diets
 Hominin Evolution
• Hominins = tribe of Bipedal Primates
– Three genera
– Eleven species

• Four Evolutionary Trends

• 1) Bipedalism
• Expanding area in
• 2) Dental Changes
hominin cranium
• 3) Cranial Capacity – brain/body ratio
• 4) Material Culture increased over time
• Cranium size
Increasing
through time
Pelvis
 Hominin Evolution
• Hominins = tribe of Bipedal Primates
– Three genera
– Eleven species

• Four Evolutionary Trends

• 1) Bipedalism
• 2) Dental Changes
• 3) Cranial Capacity
• 4) Material Culture
• complexity of human
made objects
increasing over time
 Ardipithecus
• Earliest Hominins
– 2 species
• Fossil remains of 11-15 individuals
– Marked by
• Earliest bipedalism (transitional)
• Lived in a Woodland environment
• Small cranial capacities
 Ardipithecus
• Ardipithecus kadabba
– 5.8 – 5.5 mya

• Ardipithecus ramidus
– 5.5 - 4.4 mya
Why bipedalism?
• Late Miocene (6-7 mya)
– Environmental change
• Humid rainforests

• Dispersed woodlands

• Savannah growth

• grassland movement?
– see predators
– carry items
– reduce solar radiation
Why bipedalism?
• Late Miocene (6-7 mya)
– Environmental change
• Humid rainforests

• Dispersed woodlands

• Savannah growth

• General Adaptability!
– Ardipithecus woodland habitat
 Australopithecines
• 3 evolutionary paths of Early Hominins
– Marked by
• increasing bipedalism
• changes in teeth and jaw

• Small cranial capacities at beginning

– 400 - 600 cm3
– No artifacts

– Fossil remains = 800+ individuals

• Defining 5 different species
 First Evolutionary path of
Australopithecines
– Occurred in East Africa (4.3 mya)
– Gracile body types
– light skeletal build selected for
– A. anamensis (4.2 – 3.9 mya)
↓
– A. afarensis (3.9 – 3.0 mya)
↓
– A. boisei (2.6? - 1.2 mya)
– goes extinct
– Robust body type
– big skeletal build gets selected for
 Second Evolutionary path
of Australopithecines
– Occurred in South Africa (3.8 mya)
– A. afarensis (3.8 – 3.0 mya)
– population moved south
– Gracile body type
– light skeletal build still selected for
↓
– A. africanus (3.0 - 2.0 mya)
↓
– A. robustus (2.0 – 1.0 mya)
– goes extinct
– Robust body type
– big skeletal build selected for again
 Third Evolutionary Path
• East Africa again
– A. Afarensis (3 to 2 mya)
• One population were the ancestors of Homo genus
• Homo genus marked by:
– increased cranial capacity
– more adept bipedalism
– smaller teeth and face
 Early Homo
A population of A. afarensis in E. Africa evolved into:
• Homo habilis
– 2.4 to 1.4 mya
– larger cranial capacity selected
• 510 - 750 cm3
– reducing teeth

– complicated evolutionary appearance

• associated with tools
• Culture?
Why increasing cranial capacity?
• Pliocene (5 – 2 mya)
– Environmental change?
• Diet change?
– 1) First use of stone tools?
• Oldowan tools
– Chopper/ Pebble tools
– H. Habilis
– A. Garhi?
– Earliest tool evidence

– 2) Language

– 3) General adaptability
 Increasing mobility adaptation?
First time out of Africa • H. erectus first hominin outside
Africa
– more efficient bipedalism
– more complex behavior
• more advanced tools
• first use of fire?
– changing diets and behavior?
 Homo floresiensis – aka “Hobbits”
a population of H. erectus in Indonesia evolved into:
• Homo floresiensis
– 700,000 ya to 50,000 ya
– small cranial capacity ~ 370 cm3
– small gracile bodies ~ 1 meter
– tool users
 Later Hominins
One population of H. erectus in East Africa evolved into
something else, 800,000 ya to present

• Species or subspecies?
– H. heidelbergensis or archaic H. sapiens
– H. sapiens or H. sapiens sapiens (AMH)
– H. neanderthalensis or H. sapiens neanderthalensis
– Others

– marked by
• full bipedalism
• increasing cranial capacity
• explosion of material culture
 Later Hominins
One population of H. erectus in East Africa evolved into:
• Homo heidelbergensis
– 800,000 ya to 100,000 ya

– marked by
• full bipedalism
• Increased cranial capacity
~1135 cm3
• complex material culture
– Subsistence behavior
 Species replacement?
Out of Africa again • Small groups of hominin people
spread?
– erectus supplanted by heidelbergensis
– Mostly….maybe….or gene flow?
 Later Hominins
One population of H. heidelbergensis in E. Africa evolved into :
• Homo sapiens
– 200,000 ya to present
– Larger Cranial Capacity
• ~1350 cm3
• Loss of browridge
• Prominent forehead
– Distinctive chin
 Later Hominins
One population of H. heidelbergensis in E. Africa evolved into :
• Homo sapiens
– 200,000 ya to present
– Larger Cranial Capacity

• Changing Behavior
– Subsistence
• great variety of stone tools
– Symbolic and Abstract thinking
 Models of Migration and Change
Out of Africa once again • Three Out of Africa Models
1. Multiregionalism Model
– All hominin species connected
through gene flow. Spread of
genes led to new species
everywhere.

2. Recent Single Origin Model

– Each hominin species evolved in
Africa, left, and replaced earlier
hominin species
 Later Hominins
a population of H. heidelbergensis in Europe evolved into:
• Homo neanderthalensis (or Homo sapiens neandetalensis)
– 130,000 ya to 28,000 ya

– Largest Cranial Capacity

• ~ 1430 cm3
– cold adapted
• Changing Behavior
– Subsistence
• great variety of stone tools
– Abstract and Symbolic thinking
 In class group discussion #3
• Open up the assignment in elc and choose one person to be Discussion Leader
• At top of your assignment write your names and last 4 digits of 81#

• New York Times and Discover Magazine articles

1. What defines a species as a species? Where do hybrids fit in this definition?
2. First, are each of AMH’s and Neanderthals separate species?  Is this
hybridization?  Second, what were the evolutionary adaptive advantages and/or
disadvantages of AMH/Neanderthal interbreeding?
3. How does this information of hominin hybridization impact how we should think
about modern physical variation of people today?

(Remember, your group receives extra credit for your verbal responses)
 Other Kinds of Hominins?
other populations of the Homo genus evolving?:
• H. or A. naledi?
– Has a mixture of traits
– 250,000 ya
 Other Kinds of Humans?
other populations of the Homo genus evolving?:
• Denisovans?
– Southern Siberia
• 400,000 ya to 45,000 ya
– H. denisova? H. sapiens denisova?;

• Red Deer Cave People

– Central Asia
• 11,500 ya
– descendent of erectus,
heidelbergensis, or sapiens?
 Human Variation
• Evolutionary adaptation to
– Environment Change and General Adaptability
• Bipedalism & Cranial Capacity
• Human Biological Plasticity

• Modern Biological Diversity

– Evolution explains all human phenotypes
– States why populations look different
• adapting to specific eco-niches
creates phenotypic differences
 Human Variation
• Independent Environmental Adaptations
– Sickle Cell
• Malaria

– Drinking milk
• Lactose tolerance
– Northern Europe
– Eastern Africa
 Human Variation
• High altitudes
– Andes
• more efficient blood
• low birth weights

– Himalayas
• increased capillaries
• altered placentas
 Human Variation
• Facial Features
– Thomson’s Nose rule
• Large long nose = cold weather
• Short flat nose = warm weather

– Teeth
• Large teeth = grittier food
• Small teeth = softer food
Human Variation

• Allen’s & Bergman’s rules

– climate temperatures

– hot climates
• more body surface

– cold climates
• less body surface
 Human Variation
• Skin color
– determined by amount of Melanin
– is relative to proximity to equator
 Race and History
• Origins of Race as Scientific Categories
– Johann Friedreich Blumenbach (1795)
• Caucasoid - white
• Mongoloid - yellow
• Malayan - brown
• Negroid - black
• American - red
 Race, History, and Anthropology
• Anthropology has helped to
– define race as a biological category
• Justification for
– Slavery
– World War II Holocaust
– Segregation
– South African apartheid
– etc.
• Carleton Coon 1962

– oppose race as biological categories

• Franz Boas 1900’s-1940’s
• William Montague Cobb 1943
• AAA Race Project
 What is Race?
• The presumed Biological Category:
– Assumed subdivision of a species, based on
common ancestry and biological traits

• Highly Problematic Definition

– Based primarily on skin color
1. Skin color has a clinal distribution
• populations vary with no breaks
• gradual shift in genetic traits
2. No reproductive barriers
 Anthropological Understanding of Race
• Race as a scientific biological categorical system is NOT real.
– Does NOT explain Human Biological Differences
1. clinal differences overlap between groups
2. greater biological variation within the races than between

• Race still exists!

– As a cultural construction of categories
 Doing Archaeology:
Revealing past Culture
• Three major goals in interpreting the
archaeological record
1) reveal the form of the past
2) discover the function of the past
3) understand cultural processes
 Cultural Material Remains
• cultural landscapes
– human made or modified environments
• cultural features
– nonportable remnants from the past
• artifacts
– material items that humans have manufactured or modified
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• How and when did culture arise?
– First milestone,
• Tool production
– Second milestone,
• Art - Earliest is 164,000 ya in Africa
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• People expanded throughout the World
– Reached Australia
• 65,000 to 60,000 ya
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• People expanded throughout the World
– Reached the Americas
• 25,000 to 20,000 ya
• Waves of migration

– Early evidence of people

• Monte Verde, Chile
• 14,000 ya

– Early evidence of culture differences

• Clovis tradition
• 13 - 12,000 ya
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• People expanded throughout the World
– Reached the Americas
• 25,000 to 20,000 ya
• Earliest adaptive strategy
– 800,000 – 12,000 ya
– Hunting and gathering
• Big game hunting
• Plant gathering
• Nomadic
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• Climate started to warm slowly
– starting 15,000 ya
– created shifts in environmental diversity
• Culture change and cultural innovation;
– Shifting adaptive strategies
– People shifted to
• Broad Spectrum Foraging
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• Populations grow and environments shift
– starting ~12,000 ya
– NEW adaptive strategies called the Neolithic shift arise
• Third set of cultural milestones;
– Sedentism
• settled lifestyle and living in permanent structures
– Domestication
• human interference with reproduction of another species
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• Explaining Neolithic Adaptive changes
– Old World Middle East:
• Natufian peoples become sedentary (12,000 ya)
– continued broad spectrum foraging
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• Explaining Neolithic Adaptive changes
– Old World Middle East
• Natufian peoples become sedentary (12,000 ya)
– continued broad spectrum foraging
– New World Americas
• Archaic peoples remain nomadic
• Began Domesticating (10,000 ya)
– Plants
 The First Farmers
• Explaining Neolithic Adaptive changes
– Locations of first Domestication
 Timeline of Cultural Origins
• Explaining Neolithic Adaptive changes
– Process of Domestication
• plant domestication
– opportunistic
• Most productive plants get selected for
– intentional
• Purposefully planted and selecting traits

• animal domestication
– opportunistic
• earliest – dogs?
– intentional
• mobile food source
 Earliest Domestication
• The Old World Middle East
– 11,000 – 8000 ya
• Wheat, Barley, Sheep, Goats,
Cattle, Pigs

– Food production spread out

• to Egypt’s Nile Valley – 8000 ya
• to Europe – 7000 ya
• to Indus Valley – 8000 ya
 Earliest Domestication
• The New World Americas
– 10,000 - 7000 ya
• Squash, Maize, Potatoes, Manioc

– Food production spread out

• South to Central America – 6000 ya
• Central to South America – 6000 ya
• Central to North America – 4000 ya
 Consequences of
Domestication and Sedentism
What were the consequences?
1) Population change 4) Shift in the diet
large population increase farmers rely on small number of
food types
2) Environmental degradation 5) Increase in disease
Agriculture changes the Greater concentrations of people
environment
3) Insecure food supply 6) Increase in labor
greater susceptibility to disasters longer work day for farmers
 Benefits of
Domestication and Sedentism
What were the benefits?
1) Farmers needed less land 2) Farmers had a more predictable
than a hunter-gatherer food source

3) Farming was less damaging to 4) Sedentism meant new

the body opportunities for social complexity
• less violent deaths • more chances to socialize
• longer life-spans
 Explaining Early Cultural Innovation
Neolithic Adaptive Changes
• Why did people shift to sedentary and farming lifestyles?
– Sedentism attractive?; Domestication necessary?
• Old World Middle East?
• New World Americas?
– Each location sees multiple factors and determinants converging
 Explaining Neolithic Changes:
Overall shift to Sedentism and Domestication
1. Environmental determinants
– Receding ice age
– Warming climates
2. Social determinants
– Population size
– Social network opportunities
 Farming and Social Change
• Food production led to
– Early farming communities
• in the Middle East
– Ali Kosh and Jarmo 9000 ya
• in the New World
– Nanchoc, Peru 5500 ya
– Oaxaca, Mexico 5000 ya

– Resulted in
• Higher food yields
• Larger populations
• Greater management needs
 Rise of Civilization:
Social and Cultural Change
• Fourth cultural milestone;
– Long shift toward Civilization
• a complex society with an extensive social hierarchy
 Rise of Civilization:
Social and Cultural Change
• Fourth cultural milestone;
– Process for social complexity
• 1) Shifting from small Neolithic villages
– Egalitarian farming villages
» no large social differences
↓
– Ranked agricultural communities
» larger populations
» inherited social differences
 Rise of Civilization:
Social and Cultural Change
• Fourth cultural milestone;
– Process for social complexity
• 2) Shifting from ranked societies
↓
– to Early State societies
» larger populations
» larger social hierarchies
» NO earlier antecedents
 In class group discussion #4
• Open up the assignment in elc and choose one person to be Discussion Leader
• At top of your elc assignment write your names and last 4 digits of 81#

• Pseudoarchaeology
1. What are the different 'alternative' or 'fantastic' (not counting the ones in the
videos you watched) that you all came up with? You know they are not science,
but what is the connection between phenomena they describe and the observable
evidence of causation?
2. What are the larger social, cultural, and potential economic impacts of these kind
of explanations?  What effects do they have on indigenous, native, or oppressed
groups?  What economic advantages are there for those who promote them and
how do they economically disadvantage others? 
3. Given these issues, who owns or should control the narrative about our shared
cultural past?
(Remember, your group receives extra credit for your verbal responses)
 Rise of Civilization:
Social and Cultural Change
• Fourth cultural milestone; Unequal access to power
– Process for increasing social complexity and prestige
• 2) Shift from ranked societies
↓ Social differences based on
– to Early State societies activities and economics
» larger populations
» larger social hierarchies
Making a living doing
» NO earlier antecedents
something other
– See development of: than producing food
• Social Inequality
• Social Stratification
• Specialists
 Why the rise of complex societies?
• Fourth cultural milestone;
– Process for increasing social complexity
• Multiple
MultipleExplanations
Explanations
–
– Hydraulic
HydraulicSystems
Systems
– Long distance trade
– Long distance trade
– Population, War, Circumscription
–
– Population, War,
Religion and Charismatic leaders
Circumscription
– Religion and Charismatic
leaders
 Why the rise of complex societies?
• Fourth cultural milestone;
– Process for increasing social complexity

• NO single reason or cause exists

• Each region had various reasons.

– interrelationship of environment and culture
 Cultural Attributes of Early States
• Specific traits of the first complex societies

1) regional territory
2) agricultural economies
3) tribute and taxation
4) stratified
5) building programs
6) record-keeping systems
 Earliest Development of
States
• Middle East
– Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia
– First Complex Societies
• 7000 ya – ranked societies
• 6000 ya – state organization

• Central America
– New World, Mexico
– First complex societies
• 4000 ya – ranked societies
• 3200 ya – state organization
 Harappan Civilization in the
Indus Valley
• Large river valley
– highlands, desert, and ocean
• Domestication - 9000 ya
• Sedentism - 5500 ya
– farming wheat
– herding
– foraging
 Harrappan Civilization:
Development of large population
centers
• around 5000 ya?
– The settling of Mohenjo-Daro
began
 Harrappan Civilization:
Development of large population
centers
• by 4500 ya • large public structures
– Mohenjo-Daro was a full city • organized neighborhoods
• large public bathing facility
• public toilets, sewers, and
house bathrooms
– main sewage lines
 Harrappan Civilization:
Development of large population
centers
• by 4500 ya
– Mohenjo-Daro was a full city

• Invented a wheel
 Harrappan Civilization:
Development of large population
centers
• by 4500 ya
– Mohenjo-Daro was a full city

• Invented a writing system

– Indus script
– Still undeciphered
 Why Early States Collapsed?
• Various factors
– Warfare
– Prolonged drought
– Disease
– Famine
– Environmental change
– Social transformations
 Why Early States Collapsed?
• interrelationship of environment and culture
• different people made different choices