Skip to main content
Library homepage
 

Text Color

Text Size

 

Margin Size

 

Font Type

Enable Dyslexic Font
Social Sci LibreTexts

9: Early Hominins

  • Kerryn Warren, Lindsay Hunter, Navashni Naidoo, & Silindokuhle Mavuso

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what is meant by “derived” and “ancestral” traits and why this is relevant for understanding early hominin evolution.
  • Understand changing paleoclimates and paleoenvironments as potential factors influencing early hominin adaptations.
  • Describe the anatomical changes associated with bipedalism and dentition in early hominins, as well as their implications..
  • Describe early hominin genera and species, including their currently understood dates and geographic expanses.
  • Describe the earliest stone tool techno-complexes and their impact on the transition from early hominins to our genus.

Thumbnail: An artistic reconstruction of Australopithecus africanus by John Gurche. Credit: Australopithecus africanus. Reconstruction based on STS 5 by John Gurche by the Smithsonian [exhibit: “Reconstructed Faces: What Does It Mean to Be Human?] is copyrighted and used for educational and noncommercial purposes as outlined by the Smithsonian.

This chapter is a revision from Chapter 9: Early Hominins by Kerryn Warren, K. Lindsay Hunter, Navashni Naidoo, Silindokuhle Mavuso, Kimberleigh Tommy, Rosa Moll, and Nomawethu Hlazo . In Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, first edition , edited by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, and Lara Braff, which is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 .


This page titled 9: Early Hominins is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kerryn Warren, Lindsay Hunter, Navashni Naidoo, Silindokuhle Mavuso, & Silindokuhle Mavuso (Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

Support Center

How can we help?