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Chapter 9: Early Hominins

  • Page ID
    177650

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    Learning Objectives

    • Define what is meant by “hominin”.
    • Understand what is meant by “derived” and “primitive” traits and why this is relevant for understanding early hominin evolution.
    • Understand changing paleoclimates and paleoenvironments during early human evolution, and contextualize them as potential factors influencing adaptations during this time.
    • Describe the anatomical changes associated with bipedalism in early hominins and the implications for changes in locomotion.
    • Describe the anatomical changes associated with dentition in early hominins and their implication for diet in the Plio-Pleistocene.
    • Describe early hominin genera and species, including their currently understood dates and geographic expanses and what we know about them.
    • Describe the earliest stone tool techno-complex and what it implies about the transition from early hominins to our genus.

    Image:  New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa by John Hawks, Marina Elliott, Peter Schmid, Steven E. Churchill, Darryl J. de Ruiter, Eric M. Roberts, Hannah Hilbert-Wolf, Heather M. Garvin, Scott A. Williams, Lucas K. Delezene, Elen M. Feuerriegel, Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Tracy L. Kivell, Myra F. Laird, Gaokgatlhe Tawane, Jeremy M. DeSilva, Shara E. Bailey, Juliet K. Brophy, Marc R. Meyer, Matthew M. Skinner, Matthew W. Tocheri, Caroline VanSickle, Christopher S. Walker, Timothy L. Campbell, Brian Kuhn, Ashley Kruger, Steven Tucker, Alia Gurtov, Nompumelelo Hlophe, Rick Hunter, Hannah Morris, Becca Peixotto, Maropeng Ramalepa, Dirk van Rooyen, Mathabela Tsikoane, Pedro Boshoff, Paul H.G.M. Dirks, Lee R. Berger under CC BY 4.0  via Wikimedia Commons.

    • 9.1: Hominins, Paleoenvironment, and Evolution
      It is through our study of our hominin ancestors and relatives that we are exposed to a world of “might have beens”. But in order to better understand these different evolutionary trajectories, we must first define the terms we are using. Hominin means everyone on “our” side of the line: humans and all of our extinct bipedal ancestors and relatives since our divergence from the last common ancestor (LCA) with chimpanzees.
    • 9.2: Derived Adaptations
      This section looks at the derived adaptations of hominins. The ability to walk habitually upright is considered one of the defining attributes of the hominin lineage. Another adaptation can be found in the dentition of early hominins.
    • 9.3: Australopithecus And Tool Use
      he Australopithecines are a diverse group of hominins comprised of various species. Australopithecus is the given group or genus name. It stems from the Latin word Australo, meaning “southern,” and the Greek word pithecus, meaning “ape.” Within this section, we will outline these differing species’ geological and temporal distributions across Africa, unique derived and/or shared traits, the fossil record as well as tool use.
    • 9.4: Hominin Charts
      Hominins at a Glance
    • 9.5: End of Chapter Review
      Discussion questions and key term definitions.
    • 9.6: Meet the Authors

    Acknowledgments

    All of the authors in this section are students and early career researchers in paleoanthropology and related fields in South Africa (or at least have worked in South Africa). We wish to thank everyone who supports young and diverse talent in this field and would love to further acknowledge black, African, and female academics who have helped pave the way for us.

     


    This page titled Chapter 9: Early Hominins is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, & Lara Braff, Eds. (Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.