prehistoric cultures class slides set # 09 selected major discoveries / events tim roufs’ section

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