Anatomically modern humans

^• Cranial Capacity: 1350 cm³

• Small Teeth & Jaws

• Chin

• Small & Flat Face

• Rounded Skull

• High Forehead

Slide showing differences in postcranial skeletons of Neandertals and anatomically modern humans (AMH)

-taller

-less robust postcranial skeleton

Anatomically Modern Human Sites

Klasies River Mouth

-75,000-130,000 years old

-Earliest fossils of AMH in African & Middle East

Qafzeh (92,000 years bp)

Skhul (90,000 years bp)

Changes with AMH

• Morphological Changes

• Sophisticated Tools – Upper Paleolithic

• Highly Successful Hunters

• Art & Ritual

• Environmental Flexibility / Global Migration

• Dense Settlements

• Long Life Expectancy

• Highly Mobile

• Language Fully Developed

Upper Paleolithic Tools

-blades

-efficient

• Many Materials (stone, bone, antler, ivory)

• Transported Raw Materials

• Ethnic Differentiation

Hunting Technology

• Atlatl

Hunting / Subsistence

• Specialization

• Larger species

• Highly effective

– Caused extinctions

Late Quaternary Extinction

As modern humans spread around the world they caused a massive extinction event

-especially large mammals (over 100kg)

-overhunting & habitat alteration

Art

• Elaborate Cave Paintings

– La Chauvet, France – 30,000 years ago

– Lascaux, France – 17,000 years ago

– Altamira – 15,000 years ago

Portable Art

-venus figurines

Portable Art

-mammoth tusk figurines; ~30,000 years old

Symbolism

• Stadel Cave, Germany (30,000 years ago

Counting Tools

• Engraved Bone

• La Marche, France

Ceremonial Burial

• Burial

• Grave Goods

• Ritual

Mal’ta, Siberia

Peopling of Australia

• AMH Only; 40,000 years

• Lack of land bridge à Seafaring Technology

• Lake Mungo & Kow Swamp

Map of the peopling of Australia

Peopling of the New World

• Paleoindian populations

– Kennewick

• Migrations or Migration?

– DNA evidence

• Changes with arrival of humans

• Changes with arrival of Europeans

Peopling of the Americas

• Bering Land Bridge

Map of the peopling of the Americas

Map showing pattern of human migration

Settlement Pattern

• Dense Settlements

• High Mobility

• Long Life Expectancy

– Less Injuries

• Lower Infant Mortality

Elaborate Shelters, Elaborate Clothing

Colonize High Arctic (& UP Climate Colder)

Evolution of Language

• Language as an adaptation

– Vocal Tract Morphology

– Brain Structure

– Universal Properties of Language

Evolution of Language

• Language and Brain Structure

– Localization of Language Abilities in Brain

– Adapted for speech perception

Universal Properties of Language

-universal grammar

-children with “grammar program”

-pidgin/creole

Timing of “Human Revolution”

• AMH evolve >100,000 years ago

• But…

– Major cultural changes only after 50,000 years ago

– Why?

• Cultural Change?

• Biological / Genetic Change?

Competing Theories on Human Origins

• Replacement / “Out of Africa”

• “Multiregional” / Continuity

Slide showing the models

Genetic Evidence

• Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

– Greatest Diversity in Africa

– Last Common Ancestor 100,000-200,000 years

– “mitochondrial Eve”

Neandertal DNA

• Neander Valley Specimen (Germany)

• mtDNA Extracted from Bone

• Findings:

– Enormous differences from living humans

• >500,000 years since last CA

• Not closer to living Europeans

Fossil Evidence

• Earliest AMH

– Africa & Israel (at least 90,000 years ago)

• Neandertals

– Disappear by 30,000 years

– No confirmed transitional fossils (10,000 years overlap)

• East & SE Asia

– Some continuity in morphology between Homo erectus & Homo sapiens

• Middle East Overlap

– AMH & Neandertals distinct but at different times

• Timeshare / Central Bus Station