7th Grade Social Studies SS070203
Unit 2: Beginnings of Human Societies Lesson 3
Graphic Organizer
Big Ideas Card
· Anthropologists work with archaeologists to gain knowledge about early humans and their evolution.
· Anthropologists and archaeologists have methods they use to analyze evidence about human beings in the past, the ways they have changed, and how they lived their lives.
· Hominids/early humans changed over time.
Word Cards
Word Cards from previous lessons needed for this lesson:
· Archaeology – Word Card #5 from Lesson 1
· Anthropology – Word Card #6 from Lesson 1
20human evolution
represents the evidence-based, scientific understanding of the origin and development of humanity
Example: The Nakalipithecus fossil found in Kenya thought to be the last common ancestor between apes and humans.
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hominid
humans and their closest relatives.
Example: Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are all hominids.
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22
bipedalism
a form of motion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs.
Example: An ostrich is a bipedal bird.
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Social Science Questions Graphic Organizer
Social Science Questions -- Teacher Reference Sheet
Questions / Archaeologist’s Questions / Anthropologist’s Questions
· What happened?
· When did it happen?
· Who was involved?
· How and why did it happen? / · What is this item?
· How old is it?
· How might it have been used?
· What was it found near it? / · What are the ancestral roots of the human species?
· Who were the first humans?
· How did early humans live?
Hominid Skulls
Australopithecus africanus shares characteristics of both apes and humans. Its fossils have been found exclusively in Africa. /
Image 2
Australopithecus boisei had a brain only 40% the size of modern humans with a thick skull. Found in Africa. /
Image 3
Homo sapiens. Also known as Homo heidelbergensis, sapiens bears the greatest similarity to modern man. His physical characteristics seem to form a bridge between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human). /
Image 4
Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to migrate out of Africa, with fossils found as far away as Indonesia and China. Homo Erectus is credited with inventing the hand axe. /
Image 5
Homo neandertalensis or Neanderthal man lived primarily in Europe and Western Asia. Neandertalensis had a larger brain than modern man. /
Image 6
Homo habilis is the first human ancestor to produce tools, habilis is known as the “handy man.” Habilis bears many similarities to Australopithecus, but its brain was considerably larger.
/
Hominid Skulls Analysis Sheet
1. What characteristics do all six skulls have in common?
2. In what ways are the six skulls different from each other?
3. Based on the information provided and the picture, hypothesize about the chronological order of the six skulls.
a. Which skull do you think is the oldest? Why?
b. Which skull do you think is the most recent? Why?
c. List the chronological order of the skulls, based on your observations.
4. Based on the information and your analysis, what predictions can you make about how these hominids would have lived? You should consider brain size, tools, location, jaws/teeth, and/or eyes.
Hominid Skulls-Teacher Reference Sheet
Australopithecus africanus. One of the earliest species of Australopithecus, africanus shares characteristics of both apes and humans. It existed from 3-2 million years ago and its fossils have been found exclusively in Africa.
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Image 6
Homo habilis. The first human ancestor to produce tools, habilis is known as the “handy man.” Its fossils have been dated to about 2.3 million years ago. Habilis bears many similarities to Australopithecus, but its brain was considerably larger.
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Image 2
Australopithecus boisei. Walked the earth between 2.1 and 1.1 million years ago. It had a brain only 40% the size of modern humans. A member of the robust australopithecines, boisei’s large skull makes it an unlikely candidate for a direct human ancestor.
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Image 4
Homo erectus. The first human ancestor to migrate out of Africa, with fossils found as far away as Indonesia and China. Erectus existed approximately 1.8 million years ago and is credited with inventing the hand axe.
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Image 3
Homo sapiens. Also known as Homo heidelbergensis, sapiens bears the greatest similarity to modern man. Sapiens lived between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago. His physical characteristics seem to form a bridge between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens (modern human).
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Image 5
Homo neandertalensis. Neanderthal man lived between 230,000 and 30,000 years ago primarily in Europe and Western Asia. Neandertalensis had a larger brain than modern man and was probably a descendant of Homo erectus.
Skull replica from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Photo by Teplyn Fournier. /
Discovery of Ardi -- Against All Odds, Ardi Emerges
The first, fragmentary specimens of Ardipithecus were found in Ethiopia in 1992 but it took 15 years before the research team could fully analyze and publish the skeleton, because the fossils were in such bad shape.
After Ardi died, her remains apparently were trampled down into mud by hippos and other passing herbivores. Millions of years later, erosion brought the badly crushed and distorted bones back to the surface.
They were so fragile they would turn to dust at a touch. To save the precious fragments, scientists removed the fossils along with their surrounding rock. Then, in a lab the researchers carefully tweaked out the bones from the rock using a needle under a microscope, proceeding "millimeter by submillimeter”. This process alone took several years.
In the end, the research team recovered more than 125 pieces of the skeleton, including much of the feet and virtually all of the hands—an extreme rarity among hominid fossils of any age, let alone one so ancient.
"Finding this skeleton was more than luck", said scientists. "It was against all odds".
Complete the Cause and Effect sentences as well as the summary sentence:
CAUSE / EFFECTThe fossils of Ardipithecus were in bad shape /
so Ardi’s bones were in lots of pieces.
so it took several years to remove Ardi’s bones from the rock.
Finish the following sentence:
Scientists might not find many more skeletons as old and complete as Ardi’s because
______
______.
Discovery of Ardi -- Against All Odds, Ardi Emerges
Teacher Reference Sheet
The first, fragmentary specimens of Ardipithecus were found at Ethopia in 1992 but it took 15 years before the research team could fully analyze and publish the skeleton, because the fossils were in such bad shape.
After Ardi died, her remains apparently were trampled down into mud by hippos and other passing herbivores. Millions of years later, erosion brought the badly crushed and distorted bones back to the surface.
They were so fragile they would turn to dust at a touch. To save the precious fragments, scientists removed the fossils along with their surrounding rock. Then, in a lab the researchers carefully tweaked out the bones from the rock using a needle under a microscope, proceeding "millimeter by submillimeter”. This process alone took several years.
In the end, the research team recovered more than 125 pieces of the skeleton, including much of the feet and virtually all of the hands—an extreme rarity among hominid fossils of any age, let alone one so ancient.
"Finding this skeleton was more than luck", said scientists. "It was against all odds".
Complete the Cause and Effect sentences as well as the summary sentence:
CAUSE / EFFECTThe fossils of Ardipithecus were in bad shape / / so they could not be analyzed easily.
Animals trampled the bones / so Ardi’s bones were in lots of pieces.
Scientists used needles to remove fossilized bones / so it took several years to remove Ardi’s bones from the rock.
Finish the following sentence:
Scientists might not find many more skeletons as old and complete as Ardi’s because
______
Ardi Discovered, Continued
Directions: Read about Ardi’s movement and complete the exercise on Claims and Evidence below.
Ardi's Weird Way of Moving
The biggest surprise about Ardipithecus's biology is its bizarre means of moving about.
All previously known hominids—members of our ancestral lineage—walked upright on two legs, like us. But Ardi's feet, pelvis, legs, and hands suggest she was a biped on the ground but a quadruped when moving about in the trees.
Her big toe, for instance, splays out from her foot like an ape's, the better to grasp tree limbs. Unlike a chimpanzee foot, however, Ardipithecus's contains a special small bone inside a tendon, passed down from more primitive ancestors, that keeps the divergent toe more rigid. Combined with modifications to the other toes, the bone would have helped Ardi walk bipedally on the ground, though less efficiently than later hominids like Lucy. The bone was lost in the lineages of chimps and gorillas.
According to the researchers, the pelvis shows a similar mosaic of traits. The large flaring bones of the upper pelvis were positioned so that Ardi could walk on two legs without lurching from side to side like a chimp. But the lower pelvis was built like an ape's, to accommodate huge hind limb muscles used in climbing. Even in the trees, Ardi was nothing like a modern ape, the researchers say. Modern chimps and gorillas have evolved limb anatomy specialized to climbing vertically up tree trunks, hanging and swinging from branches, and knuckle-walking on the ground.
While these behaviors require very rigid wrist bones, for instance, the wrists and finger joints of Ardipithecus were highly flexible. As a result Ardi would have walked on her palms as she moved about in the trees—more like some primitive fossil apes than like chimps and gorillas.
"What Ardi tells us is there was this vast intermediate stage in our evolution that nobody knew about", said Owen Lovejoy, an anatomist at Kent State University in Ohio, who analyzed Ardi's bones below the neck. "It changes everything".
Read the claim about Ardi. Go back through the paragraph using the prompts below and find the evidence that supports the claim.
Claim: Ardi was bipedal, moving on two feet, when she was on the ground, but she was a quadruped, using all four limbs, in the trees.
Evidence:
1. What is it about Ardi’s feet that supports this claim?
2. What is it about Ardi’s pelvis and legs that supports this claim?
3. What is it about Ardi’s wrists that supports this claim?
Ardi Discovered, Continued -Teacher Reference Sheet
Claim: Ardi was bipedal, moving on two feet, when she was on the ground, but she was a quadruped, using all four limbs, in the trees.
Evidence:
1. What is it about Ardi’s feet that supports this claim?
The big toe helps climb trees while a certain bone helps when walking upright.
2. What is it about Ardi’s pelvis and legs that supports this claim?
Ardi’s pelvis flared to accommodate walking but also was shaped to support climbing muscles in the legs.
3. What is it about Ardi’s wrists that supports this claim?
Ardi has flexible wrist bones that are not well suited for walking on knuckles like an ape.
Skeleton Remains of Ardi
Source: Shreeve, Jamie. “Oldest Skeleton of Human Ancestor Found”. Nationalgeographic.com. October 1, 2009. 6 April 2011 <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091001-oldest-human-skeleton-ardi-missing-link-chimps-ardipithecus-ramidus.html>.
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