prehistoric cultures class slides set # 09 selected major discoveries / events tim roufs’ section
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Prehistoric CulturesPrehistoric Cultures
Selected MajorDiscoveries / Eventsca. 1850 – Present
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Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Neanderthals • Neander Valley, Germany• Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
• a separate species ?
• 300,000 / 100,000 - 32,000 b.p.
1856
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Neanderthals • significance:
1. first widely known non-modern human or part-non-modern human fossil “discovered”
2. only major fossil upon the publication of The Origin of Species
1856
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Cro - Magnon• village of Cro-Magnon, France
(near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne region)
• Homo sapiens sapiens("moderns")
• 34,000 b.p.
1868
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Homo erectus• aka Pithecanthropus erectus• aka "Java Man" • Trinil, Java• 1.8 - 0.8 mya
1891
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“Piltdown Man“
• Piltdown, England
• discredited in early 1950's by chemical tests which showed jaw and skull completely unrelated
1912
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Peking Man" • Choukoutien, China
(now Zhoukoudian) • Homo erectus • 0.5 - 0.2 mya
1920s
Major SitesMajor Sites
Zhoukoudian = Choukoutien( Chou-kou-tien )
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“Taung Child”
• Taung, South Africa
• Australopithecus africanus
• 3.0 - 2.0 mya
• Raymond Dart
1924
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Ramapithecus • aka Kenyapithecus
• aka Sivapithecus
• Siwalik Hills, India
• 13 - 8 mya
1934 /1969
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, Ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, Ca. 1850 - Present
Australopithecus africanus
• Sterkfontein, South Africa(in the “Transvaal” Region)
• 3 - 2 mya
1936
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Australopithecus robustus
• aka Paranthropus robustus
• Kromdraai, South Africa (Transvaal)
• 3 - 2 mya
1938
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
and
Richard and Meave Leakey
1950s to present
Many finds
of Mary and Louis Leakey
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“Zinj”
• Zinjanthropus
• aka Australopithecus boisei
• Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
• 1.79 +/- 0.03 mya (+/- 200,000 years)
e.g., 1959
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Homo habilis• Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
• 700 cc brain
• tool manufacture
• 1.85 - 1.6 mya
e.g., 1961
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Homo habilis• Lake Turkana, East Africa
• “1470” (and “1590”)
• 2.0 mya
e.g., 1972
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"1470" (and "1590") • Lake Turkana, East Africa• Homo habilis• 2 mya
e.g., 1972
Major SitesMajor Sites
KNM – ER - 1470
Fossil Naming ConventionsFossil Naming Conventions
K enya N a tiona lMuseum
Ea st R udolph Find #1,470
KNM - ER - 1470
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Lucy" and "The First Family" • Hadar, Ethiopia
(locality 333 on the Awash River in the Afar Triangle)
• Australopithecus afarensis
• 4 - 3 mya
1975 - 1976
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Footprints• Laetoli, Tanzania• 3.7 mya
1976
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"The Black Skull"• Australopithecus aethiopicus
(KNM – WT - 17000)
• Lake Turkana, East Africa• 2.5 mya
1985
Major SitesMajor Sites
KNM – WT - 17000
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Mitochondrial Eve”
• Rebecca Cann
• Berkeley, CA
• 200,000 - 150,000 b.p.
1987
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“Qafzeh Boy”• Qafzeh Cave, Israel• Homo sapiens sapiens
(Prehistoric “Early Modern")
• 92,000+ b.p.
1988
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Ötzi: The Iceman"
• Italian / Austrian border
• Homo sapiens sapiens(Contemporary "Modern”)
• 5,300 b.p.
1991
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Australopithecus ramidus (aka Ardipithecus ramidus)
• Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley
• 4.4 mya
1994
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Chauvet Cave• Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France
• 20,000 b.p.• June 1999: 25,000 - 27, 000 b.p. footprints
• Cave Paintings
1995
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Cave Paintings
• Best Known: France / Spain
• Upper Paleolithic– 10,000 - 35,000 b.p.
(at least)
20th Century
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“Dragon Bone'' Cave• Longguppo, China
("Dragon Bone” Cave = Zhoukoudian)
• Homo erectus (with similarities to Homo habilis = Pre-erectus ?)
• 1.78 - 1.96 mya
1995
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Pope Vindicates Darwin
1996
Pope John Paul II
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Stone Tools• Gona, Ethiopia
(Hadar Region)
• 2.5-2.6 mya
1997
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Little Foot"• Sterkfontein, South Africa
• world's first-ever find of an entire "ape-man" skull - and its skeleton
• 3.5 mya
1998
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“ape man”
• Awash Valley, Ethiopia
• Homo habilis or Australopithecus ?
• 5 mya
1999
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
“tool factory”(2000+ pieces)
• "Hand Axe Hill," Kenya
• Homo habilis or Australopithecus ?
• 2.34 mya
1999
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Equatorius africanus
• Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley
• earliest ape to descent from trees ?
• a new genus of hominoids ?
• ca. 15 mya
1999
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Madeleine"
• Sambungmacan, Central Java
• shows features of both Homo sapiens and Homo erectus, and "probably had a capacity for language close to that of modern humans”
• 1 mya ? or 100,000 - 200,000 bp ?
1999
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Eurydice"
• Drimolen, South Africa• Australopithecus robustus• "the most complete ape-man skull ever
excavated" • the "best opportunity to compare the
differences between [P. robustus] males and females”
• 1.5 - 2 mya
2000
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
"Millennium Man" [sic.]
• Tugen Hills, Kenya's Rift Valley
• TBA (? tugenensis)
• “Not only is this find older than any else previously known, it is also in a more advanced stage of evolution”
• “at least 6 million years old”
04 December 2000
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Kenyathropus platyops“Flat-faced Man of Kenya”
• KNM-WT 40000
• Lomekwi, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
• “. . . most likely a completely new genus and species of early human ancestor”
• “The find suggests . . . at least two species of hominin, predecessors of modern humans”
• 3.5 – 3.2 mya
22 March 2001
Selected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - PresentSelected Major Discoveries / Events, ca. 1850 - Present
Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba
• Middle Awash River Valley of Ethiopia• "A team of scientists . . . has discovered
the fossilized remains of what they believe is humanity's earliest known ancestor, a creature that walked the wooded highlands of East Africa nearly 6 million years ago.”
• 5.8 mya (5.2+)
11 July 2001
Special Skills Used to Study Early Humans
In the Field
Continue on to Set # 10A