Reading Human beings descend from apes, and are part of the superfamily Hominoi

Reading
Human beings descend from apes, and are part of the superfamily Hominoidea. In the late Miocene epoch, the groups of apes that would eventually include humans broke off from Gibbons about 16.8 million years ago. This was then followed by the divergences of other Great Apes, like orangutans, gorillas and lastly chimpanzees and bonobos sometime in the late Miocene, about 8 million years ago.
At this point the genus Homo broke off from a common ancestor with modern chimpanzees and bonobos. It was once thought that, even though chimpanzees were the closest relatives to humans in the evolutionary ape family tree, humans were clearly distinct from their ape ancestors. In 1970 this idea was completely overturned when it was actually discovered during early DNA sequencing that chimpanzees were more closely related to humans instead of gorillas, the next closest related to us in our ape family tree. This is why the term Pongidae is no longer in use. It was once used to include all Great Apes, but was removed from usage after it was determined that chimpanzees/bonobos are actually more closely related to humans than they are their Great Ape cousins. Australopithecus was determined for a long time to be the break from a common chimpanzee-human ancestor, but the recent discovery of Ardipithecus has brought that into question.
Breaking down EtymologyFun Fact
The word homo derives from the Latin for humanus and originally derives from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word dʰéǵʰōm (this means that the word in most PIE languages is made up of the sounds Dh-Gh-M). This means “dirt” or “earth.” Coincidently, the most common term for human beings across all human languages is derived from dirt, earth or mud in some way.
Reading (off-site)
http://doc.rero.ch/record/211155/files/PAL_E4410.pdfLinks to an external site. (only read pages 36-37 up to the “Digging It” subheading)
Reading (Canvas)
The earliest recorded member of the genus Homo was found in Ethiopia in January of 2013. Unfortunately, this individual does not have a fun name like “Lucy” (the first recorded Australopithecus found in the 1960s), and all that we have so far is a partial jawbone. From this one small bone sample, however, it was determined that this individual was more in line with Homo habilis than it was was Australopithecus. And even though stone tools were not developed till the OldowanLinks to an external site. culture starting around 2.6 million years ago, this new finding has been classified as the oldest dated member of the species Homo habilis. A close relative of H. habilis also evolved some 2.3 million years ago, called Homo rudolfensis.
Comparison of 14 different Homininae skulls
Beginning around 2 million years ago Homo erectus and Homo ergaster started to redefine the body structure of ancient humans. Even though bipedal walking had been present for millions of years, it was this new upright body type that began to dominate the evolutionary track of humans. H. erectus was also the first hominid species to leave Africa en masse. There are still some debates about this among scholars, of which the famous “hobbit” people of Flores IslandLinks to an external site. always come up, but generally the mass migrations of Homo species across the globe did not start until after the evolution of H. erectus.
Around 300,000 years ago, the earliest examples of what would become modern humans evolved in Africa called Homo sapiens heidelbergensis (sometimes just H. heidelbergensis) and Homo sapiens rhodesiensis (also sometimes referred to as just H. rhodesiensis). Homo sapiens are first recorded around 200,000 years ago. However, there are some new findingsLinks to an external site. in Morocco that could push this date back much further. And, within a few decamillennia, ancient humans would begin leaving Africa and finding other hominids that had left previously, mostly descended from H. erectus. This first wave of early H. sapiens was overtaken by another group, modern humans, called H. sapiens sapiens, which left Africa about 70,000 years ago. These people would meet and mingle (which can still be seen in the genes of modern humans, which includes both Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA) with many other groups of Homo species as they would come to inhabit South Asia by 70,000 years ago and Australia by 65,000 years ago, East Asia, Central Asia and Europe around 60,000 year ago, and the Americas by about 25-30,000 years ago. New findings in New Mexico have definitively placed this date before the 15,000 year mark, even though some sites like Cactus Hill and Monte Verde have already called that date into questions decades ago.
Video (Canvas/off-site)
Seven Million Years of Human EvolutionLinks to an external site.
Reading (off-site)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrehistoryLinks to an external site. (Link to outside source)
Reading (off-site)
Modern analog to the ancient past:
Indigenous Peoples – Amnesty InternationalLinks to an external site. (Link to outside source)
Journal (Canvas)
What was one thing you learned here? Explain it as thoroughly as you can in 200-300 words.
Once you have completed your Journal for the Week, turn it in by following this link.
Key Terms from readings
Adaptation
Adoption
Australopithecus
Evolution
Hominid
Homo erectus
Homo habilis
Homo sapiens sapiens
Innovation
Migration
Nomadic
Oldowan culture
Out of Africa Migration (Homo erectus and Homo sapiens)
Sedentary
Spiral of Agriculture
Key Terms from Lecture
Ambiguity of the settling of America
Continents (the four actual landmasses in the world)
Americas
Afro-Eurasia
Oceania
Antarctica (but people weren’t there at this time, so we won’t talk about it)
Hominids
Homo erectus
Homo sapien
Homo sapien neanderthalensis
Homo (sapien) denisova
Dynamics (Power, Gender, etc.)
Gender Binary
Important world rivers in terms of agriculture
Andean Cultures = coastal water ways
China = Yangtze
Egypt = Nile
Indus Cultures = Indus
Mesoamerica = coastal water ways
Mesopotamia = Tigris and Euphrates
Lifeway
Subsistence Culture
Sedentary Culture
Stratification
Third (and fourth, and fifth, and so on) Gender
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