Evidence on Hominine Evolution Lecture 19
It gives you some sense of the extreme excitement of ¿nding 40% of a skeleton. Paleontologists are used to meager rations. They can get very excited if they can ¿nd one tooth or one knucklebone.
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ike many parts of this course, the modern story of human evolution is very recent. Even 50 years ago, we had far less information than we have now. Before completing the story of human evolution, we need to survey the evidence on which it is based. The evidence falls into three main categories: archaeological evidence, evidence based on the study of modern primates, and evidence based on genetic comparisons between modern species of primates, including ourselves. The most important evidence comes from surviving remains of our ancestors and the objects they left behind. Such evidence can tell us much about the physiology of our ancestors and their diets and lifeways. Some of the most exciting hominine remains have come from the African Rift Valley, the tectonic tear running from Mozambique through Tanzania and Kenya to Ethiopia. In 1974, in Hadar, Ethiopia, Don Johanson and his colleagues found almost 40% of the remains of a hominine individual about three and one-half feet tall. This is one of the most complete hominine skeletons ever found. Johanson christened the remains “Lucy,” because Study of the pelvis and the his team had been listening to the Beatles base of the skull proved song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” that she was bipedal. In Lucy illustrates well what skeletal remains quadrupedal species, the can tell a skillful team of archaeologists. spine enters the skull from Radiometric dating of nearby materials behind, not from below. determined that Lucy lived about 3.2 million years ago. Study of the pelvis showed that Lucy was female. Study of the teeth and other anatomical features suggested Lucy belonged to the genus of australopithecines (genus is the next taxonomic level above species) and that she died in her twenties. 85
