early homos. "Early Homo
→ → → Early Homo in Illustrated explanatory dictionary physical anthropology
Early Homo is
Early Homo
a common name for the first representatives of the genus, to which modern man also belongs. The first Homo - H. habilis ("Handy Man") and H. rudolfensis ("Rudolf Man"), lived about 2.5-1.5 million years ago in East and South Africa. They are the descendants of the gracile australopithecines and the direct ancestors of the later "humans". For a long time groups of early Homo coexisted with massive Australopithecus. The main distinguishing features from representatives of Australopithecus: a relatively large and progressive brain with a volume of 500-750 cm3; the jaws and teeth are much smaller than those of Australopithecus, but larger than those of more advanced humans. At the same time, there are still many primitive features in the structure of the body, including in the foot, hand and brain. Hands vs. modern man relatively long. The so-called stone tools were made and used. Olduvai culture. Switched from herbivorous to omnivorous. They probably knew how to make the simplest dwellings such as huts from branches, the foundations of which were found in Olduvai. The time of appearance and existence of "early Homo" is characterized by a significant rate of evolutionary rearrangements.
Physical Anthropology. Illustrated explanatory dictionary.
Page Links
- Direct link: http://site/anthropology/1025/;
- HTML link code: What does Early Homo mean in the Illustrated Explanatory Dictionary of Physical Anthropology;
- BB code link: Definition of Early Homo in the Illustrated Explanatory Dictionary of Physical Anthropology.
Early Homo
a common name for the first representatives of the genus, to which modern man also belongs. The first Homo - H. habilis ("Handy Man") and H. rudolfensis ("Rudolf Man"), lived about 2.5-1.5 million years ago in East and South Africa. They are the descendants of the gracile australopithecines and the direct ancestors of the later "humans". For a long time groups of early Homo coexisted with massive Australopithecus. The main distinguishing features from representatives of Australopithecus: a relatively large and progressive brain with a volume of 500-750 cm3; the jaws and teeth are much smaller than those of Australopithecus, but larger than those of more advanced humans. At the same time, there are still many primitive features in the structure of the body, including in the foot, hand and brain. The arms are relatively long compared to modern humans. The so-called stone tools were made and used. Olduvai culture. Switched from herbivorous to omnivorous. They probably knew how to make the simplest dwellings such as huts from branches, the foundations of which were found in Olduvai. The time of appearance and existence of "early Homo" is characterized by a significant rate of evolutionary rearrangements.
"Early Homo"
The oldest members of the hominin subfamily (Homininae), which includes modern humans, are known from the deposits of time about 2.5 million years ago. Often they are called "early Homo", emphasizing the similarity with humans and the difference from monkeys.
They were rather medium-sized creatures, completely upright, with a relatively large brain, but still with a "monkey" face - large protruding jaws and a wide nose. The fundamental difference between the "early Homo" and the pongids and australopithecines was a large developed brain and hand, fully adapted to the manufacture of tools, although they were not completely modern in form. During the million years in which these first people existed, there was a sharp jump in both biological and social organization. The rate of evolution has increased dramatically. The growth and size of the brain increased, the size of the teeth decreased.
Together with all these progressive features, "early Homo" retained many very primitive features in their morphology, including in the structure of the hand and brain. Because of this, some scientists consider them only a progressive late variety of gracile australopithecines. Most of them distinguish two types among them: the smaller one - “Skillful Man” (Homo habilis) and the larger one - “Rudolf Man” (Homo rudolfensis).
In 1959 in Tanzania ( East Africa), in the Olduvai Gorge, the Leakeys discovered bone fragments of a primate that was named Zinjanthropus boisei by Louis Leakey. Coarse pebble tools (Olduvai culture), as well as bones of reptiles, birds, and mammals, were found in deposits with the remains of Zinjanthropus. Among the tools, choppers, bilaterally machined tools (bifaces) and polyhedrons predominated. The age of the find is 1.75 million years.
Initially, the author of the find was convinced that the tools of the Olduvai culture were the creation of the hands of this creature, in connection with which it was concluded that Zinjanthropus is one of the oldest representatives of the human race. However, the small volume of the brain (530 cm 3) and other primitive features of this creature sowed among scientists doubts about the possibility of making stone tools by him. Further discoveries showed that these doubts were far from unfounded.
In 1960, in the same layer, but 60 cm deeper than the horizon with the remains of Zinjanthropus, L. Leakey discovered skeletal remains that belonged to a creature different from Zinjanthropus and Australopithecus in general. Initially, this creature was called "prezinjantrop" (the predecessor of zinjantrop). Subsequently, the bones of the "prezinjanthropus" were found both in the horizon with the remains of the zinjanthropus and in later deposits. The absolute age of the most ancient remains of the "prezinjanthropus" is about 2 million years. A careful study of the bone remains established that they belong to a creature more progressive than Zinjanthropus and Australopithecus in general. This is indicated by the volume of the brain (650 cm 3) and other features, including the structure of the bones of the foot and hand, indicating a perfect bipedal gait, as well as the ability of his hand to "force clamp". All this made it possible to consider the "prezinjanthropus" as a creature worthy of taking a place in the genus "man", and to give him the specific name Homo habilis ("handy man"). The significance of this specific name is associated primarily with the fact that a large number of tools of the Olduvai culture were found along with the remains of this hominid.
The son of Louis Leakey, Robert Leakey, on the shores of Lake Rudolph (Kenya), discovered the bones of humanoid creatures (“Rudolf Man”), the life of which the scientist attributed to the second million years before our time.
But the most sensational was the discovery of Donald Johanson in Hadera (Ethiopia). There, in 1974, an almost complete skeleton of a female, similar in type to Australopithecus, was found. “Lucy” (as Johanson dubbed this creature) had an upright gait, was distinguished by a rather slender physique with a height of about a meter, but her skull bore completely monkey features. Scientists have dated the find at 3-3.5 million years. It is likely that "Lucy" gives us an idea of the biological forms that gave rise to the genus Homo.
Hominins switched from being herbivorous to carnivorous. They probably first took prey from predators or picked up the remains of their feasts. This is evidenced by traces of stone tools on the bones, imprinted over the traces of the teeth of lions and hyenas. "Early Homo" learned how to make stone tools. At first it was just pebbles split in half, then the first people began to beat off several chips from the stones, making out a sharp cutting edge. Such primitive tools are called pebble or Olduvai tools, after the place of the first finds.
"Early Homo" may have been able to make simple windscreens from branches pressed down to the ground with stones. In the future, the development of culture went at an accelerating pace.
Early Homo
a common name for the first representatives of the genus, to which modern man also belongs. The first - H. habilis ("Handy Man") and H. rudolfensis ("Rudolf Man"), lived about 2.5-1.5 million years ago in East and South Africa. They are the descendants of the gracile australopithecines and the direct ancestors of the later "humans". For a long time groups of early Homo coexisted with massive Australopithecus. The main distinguishing features from representatives of Australopithecus: relatively large and brain with a volume of 500-750 cm3; the jaws and teeth are much smaller than those of Australopithecus, but larger than those of more advanced humans. At the same time, there are still many primitive features in the structure of the body, including in the foot, hand and brain. The arms are relatively long compared to modern humans. The so-called stone tools were made and used. Olduvai culture. Switched from herbivorous to omnivorous. They probably knew how to make the simplest dwellings such as huts from branches, the foundations of which were found in Olduvai. The time of appearance and existence of "early Homo" is characterized by a significant rate of evolutionary rearrangements.
Physical Anthropology. Illustrated explanatory dictionary. 2013 .
See what "Early Homo" is in other dictionaries:
Homo rudolfensis- ? ± Homo rudolfensis scientific classification Kingdom: Animals ... Wikipedia
Homo Gautengensis- † Homo gautengensis Scientific classification intermediate ranks ... Wikipedia
Early human migrations- Reconstruction of early human migrations The evolution of the genus Homo mainly took place in Africa. The first to leave Africa and populated Eurasia ... Wikipedia
Rudolf man- ? † Homo rudolfensis ... Wikipedia
Rudolf man- Homo rudolfensis is an extinct "oldest" species of people, representing a transitional stage from a skilled man to erectus. Lived 2.5 1.9 million years ago. The first remains of this species were found in Ethiopia (skull KNM ER 1470 from Koobi Fora) or ... ... Wikipedia
Australopithecus anamanis- † Australopithecus anamus ... Wikipedia
Langebahn- City Langebaan Afrikaans Langebaan Country South Africa ... Wikipedia
Timeline of evolution- million l ... Wikipedia
Timeline of the Early Paleolithic- This article should be wikified. Please, format it according to the rules for formatting articles. The chronology of the early Paleolithic contains information about the most important finds of the remains of representatives of the genus Homo ... Wikipedia
Timeline of the Middle Paleolithic- contains information about the most important archaeological and anthropological finds, as well as geological and climatic stages, for a period of approximately 300 thousand 50 thousand years ago. The indication of "thousands of years ago" in the table is omitted. At the same time, the mark "about" ... ... Wikipedia
Books
- Predecessors. Ancestors? Australopithecus. Early But m o ` , Drobyshevsky SV The work is a brief review of the most important and best studied sites of fossil hominids, presenting the main accompanying natural and cultural data. In… Buy for 1225 UAH (Ukraine only)
- Predecessors. Ancestors? Australopithecus. "Early But m o" ", Drobyshevsky S.V. This work is a brief overview of the most important and best studied locations of fossil hominids, outlining the main accompanying data of natural and cultural…
