The Ecology of Human Origins

1. The Ecology of Human Origins (Human Paleontology, Archeology, Paleoclimatology)

2. Who are we, ecologically speaking?(Who am I?) • NOT the title of a song by The Who • NOT (in this class) based on anything other than the scientific evidence • A question of taxonomy, cladistics, genetics • Using fossils and lately, DNA evidence • Material culture finds, archeology • Anthropology, descriptions of “primitive” cultures • History of human settlement patterns and land use • Highly controversial, contested area of study • All kinds of fun, but also serious self-knowing

3. Who are we?Great Apes or “Pongids” • Includes gorillas, chimps, baboons, gibbons • And all pre-hominid and hominid species • And YOU!

4. Chimpanzee tool use. Slide by Michael “Nick” Nichols.

5. Chimpanzee scavenges meat. Slide by Michael “Nick” Nichols.

6. Parental care, mountain gorilla, Rwanda. Slide by Michael “Nick” Nichols.

7. Human Paleontology 6 mya-1 mya • Between 6 and 1.5 million years ago, there were many different species of proto-hominid apes in Africa • Modern humans evolved from one of these species, but we don’t know for sure which one • We call these animals Australopithecines (southern ape-men)

8. Primate family tree

9. Human taxonomy With help from everything2.com

10. From the Smithsonian Institution: Human Family Tree: Interactive version: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html

11. Australopithecines • Omnivorous apes (ecological adaptation) • Some fully bipedal • Many species, several million years in existence • Famously: Lucy, (A. afarensis) • Site: Hadar, Ethiopia

12. Lucy: a gracile australopithecine, and Hadar, Ethiopia, the site where she was found. Slides: wikipedia, and Institute of Human Origins

13. From:The Ape that Took Over the World BBC 2 TV program 9.00pm Thursday 4 October 2001 (Forensic reconstruction)

14. From:Viewpoint: Is It Time to Revise the System of Scientific Naming? Lee R. Berger for National Geographic News December 4, 2001 “An anthropologist works on a model of an Australopithecus skull in a still from a television special on human origins” Photograph by Karen Huntt Forensic Reconstruction

15. From www.modernhumaorigins.com, Photograph by John Reader. Fossilized footprints of an australopithecine family group crossing volcanic debris at Laetoli in Tanzania

16. From www.modernhumaorigins.com, Photograph by John Reader. Close up of a footprint from Laetoli in Tanzania

17. Technological Ages of Humanity: The Paleolithic • Paleo : old • Lithic: stone • The “Old Stone Age,” the age when humans used crude stone tools in hunting and gathering • During pleistocene epoch (highly glaciated climate) • Longest period of human history, longest successful ecological adaptation, covers all inhabited continents (ie, not Antarctica) • Homo habilis, H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. florensis H. sapiens neandertalis, H. sapiens sapiens,

18. From the Smithsonian Institution: Human Family Tree: Interactive version: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html

19. Homo habilis • Olduvai Gorge site, • Tanzania • Leakey excavations • Proximity of tools • A possible shelter • Omnivore, scavenger • Using tools to fend off cats, dogs, other predators • Paleolithic (old stone age) culture Slide: Institute of Human Origins

20. Impressions of Homo Habilis from the BBC show Food for Thought http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/food_for_thought1.shtml

21. Photograph of a Homo habilis skull from “Origins of Human Kind” Web Page

22. OLDOWAN CHOPPER CORES OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA AFRICA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA--BERKELEY AND CRAFT RESEARCH CENTER COLLECTIONS

23. OLDOWAN FLAKE TOOL OLDUVAI GORGE, TANZANIA AFRICA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA--BERKELEY, DEPT. OF ANTHROPOLOGY COLLECTION

24. Homo erectus • Rapid dispersion • Occupied much of Africa, Europe, Asia • (Therefore) highly adaptive to different ecosystems • Several different species • First use of fire

25. From the Smithsonian Institution: Human Family Tree: Interactive version: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html

26. Artist’s impression of Homo erectus from http://www.geocities.com/palaeoanthropology/Herectus.html

27. From: http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/zhk.html

28. Evidence of fire: “From about 400 000 years ago proper hearths--rings of stones--burnt bones, and other clear evidence of fire become common throughout Europe. New finds are made nearly every year with recent discoveries, soon to be described in more detail, including Beeches Pit in Suffolk, Britain, and SchØ ningen in Germany. “… the 400 000 year old SchØ ningen site is particularly significant because beautifully carved wooden spears and butchered horse remains were also found there. The wooden spears have been a huge shock to researchers, forcing them to accept that late Homo erectus was a skilled hunter and skilled tool maker.” From: New Scientist, John McCrone, May 2000

29. Homo sapiens neandertalis • Most recent anatomically distinct relative (pending outcome of Homo floresiensisdebate) • Advanced stone tools • Cold hardy: survived glacial climates • Successful and widely dispersed • Highly sensationalized • “Higher” culture: possibly religion, music

30. From the Smithsonian Institution: Human Family Tree: Interactive version: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html

31. From poster for The Neanderthal Man, a B-grade movie from 1953

32. From Channel 4 TV program “Neanderthal,” http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/N/neanderthal/

33. From scientific illustrator Jay Matternes, from the October issue of Science 81

34. “This reconstruction depicts the adult male Neanderthal unearthed at the Amud cave site in Israel.” From Scott J. Brown: Neanderthals and Modern Humans A Regional Guide

35. Neandertals are the first pre- Homo sapiens species for which we have DNADNA evidence primer: • Basic to CSI • Basic to modern medicine • Tool for game wardens • And, basic to modern evolutionary theory

36. Types of human DNA • Nuclear, sexually recombining, DNA • Inherited equally from both parents, subject to Mendelian genetics • Y-chromosome DNA • Male line only • Inherited only from father to son • Mitochondrial DNA • Inherited only from the mother

37. Mitochondrial DNA Analysis • Mitochondria have their own genome of about 16,500 base pairs that exists outside of the (sexually reproducing) cell nucleus. Each contains 13 protein coding-genes. • They are present in large numbers in each cell, so fewer samples are required.  • They have a higher and more regular rate of mutation, unaffected by sexual recombination. The process of recombination in nuclear DNA (except the Y chromosome) mixes sections of DNA from the mother and the father creating a garbled genetic history. • They are inherited only from the mother, which allows tracing of a direct genetic line.  • Applies similarly to Y chromosome DNA Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA Clarifies Human Evolution by Max Ingman, http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/ingman.html

38. Mitochondrial DNA Analysis • The FBI Laboratory began conducting studies on the feasibility of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis for human identity testing in the late 1980s. Laboratory research began on a protocol for using mtDNA sequencing in forensic casework in 1992. After the sequencing technique was validated, examinations on evidentiary samples began in June 1996. • MtDNA sequencing is often used in cases where biological evidence may be degraded or small in quantity. Cases in which hairs, bones, or teeth are the only evidence retrieved from a crime scene are particularly well-suited to mtDNA analysis. Missing persons cases can benefit from mtDNA testing when skeletonized remains are recovered and compared to samples from the maternal relatives or personal effects of missing individuals. Also, hairs recovered at crime scenes can often be used to include or exclude individuals using mtDNA testing. This review will examine the process of mitochondrial DNA typing, including the interpretation of results, the phenomenon of heteroplasmy, the mtDNA population database, presentation of mtDNA population statistics, quality assurance issues, and testimonial experience. From Isenberg et al, Mitochondrial DNA Analysis at the FBI Laboratory, http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/july1999/dnatext.htm#Introduction

39. From: Science, Science, 277:176-8ANTHROPOLOGY: DNA From an Extinct Human July 10, 1997 Patricia Kahn and Ann Gibbons

40. MtDNA from this Ice-Age skeleton from Wales suggests that modern humans living just after Neanderthals had vanished were already genetically like us From Scott J. Brown: Neanderthals and Modern Humans A Regional Guide

41. Out of Africa: MtDna • Cann RL, Stoneking M, Wilson AC. • Mitochondrial DNAs from 147 people, drawn from five geographic populations have been analysed by restriction mapping. All these mitochondrial DNAs stem from one woman who is postulated to have lived about 200,000 years ago, probably in Africa. All the populations examined except the African population have multiple origins, implying that each area was colonised repeatedly. • Abstract, Nature. 1992 Apr 2;356(6368):389-90.

42. The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge

43. Map of human migration

44. Homo sapiens sapiens • Spends the paleolithic in Africa during ice ages • Comes out of Africa to the Middle East and beyond repeatedly after about 100kya • Competitively excludes Homo sapiens neandertalis (?) • Spends the mesolithic in most of old world and colonizes the new world about 13.5 kya • Neolithic revolution about 10kya or so in Middle East • Copper, bronze, iron ages in the old world • New world remains in neolithic or mesolithic except for isolated use of copper and other soft metals (the Aztec gold)

45. Technological Ages of Humanity: The Mesolithic • Meso : middle • Lithic: stone • The Middle Stone Age, the age when humans used more advanced stone tools in hunting and gathering • More dense populations, more intense utilization of resources, different ecosystems, resources, eg: shellfish • Term mesolithic only applies to Asian, Middle East, but similar niches were occupied by some paleo-americans • Sites: Hayonim Cave site, Israel

46. Damariscotta Shell Midden, Maine, 1886(A sedentary hunting/gathering site)

47. The Mesolithic Toolkit • Small flint blades (microliths) and carefully produced flint axes, adzes, and picks were widespread • Ground stone axes were used in parts of northern and western Europe • Projectile points became smaller • People made permanent settlements for the first time • Source: Jason F. McBrayer.

48. Polished stone axe from Langdale Pike axe factory, and the Pike itself. Sources: John Dawson and the Isle of Wight History center

49. From Scott J. Brown: Neanderthals and Modern Humans A Regional Guide “For tens of thousands of years, the Neanderthals roamed as hunters and gatherers over the plains, forests, and mountains of northern and western Eurasia. Then during the middle of the last Ice Age, over a period of about 10 millennia, from roughly 40,000 to 30,000 years ago, a new type of human began to proliferate in the Neanderthals' domain.” Who?

50. Technical Ages of Humanity:The Neolithic • Neo : new • Lithic: stone • The New Stone Age, the age when humans used advanced stone tools • Also a new adaptation: agriculture • And a New World: America: • Climate change movie