|
I.
|
Introduction.
|
|
|
Lesson 1:
|
Introduction to the study of hominid (23 days) evolution—the diversity of life (variation; plant and animal adaptations; Evolution—the unifying theory of biology (a review, making use of slides and photographs).
|
|
II.
|
The Magnitude of Geological Time.
|
|
|
Lesson 2:
|
Preparation of a Cosmic Calendar.
|
|
|
(2 days)
|
|
|
Lesson 3:
|
Generation Time.
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
|
III.
|
Methods for Studying Hominid Evolution.
|
|
|
Lesson 4:
|
Identification of Bone Fragments
|
|
(
|
12 days)
|
The Cat and the Dog.
|
|
|
Lesson 5:
|
Slides: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
History—A Fossil Dig in New Jersey.
|
|
|
Lesson 6:
|
Language used in the study of hominid
|
|
|
(12 days)
|
evolution. (Slides: Hominid and Pongid Fossils of the Yale Peabody Museum Collection.)
|
|
IV.
|
The Fossil Record—Key Discoveries of this Century.
|
|
|
Lesson
7:
|
Slides: Hominid Evolution—The Fossil
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Evidence (pongids, dryopithecines, ramapithecines).
|
|
|
Lesson 8:
|
Readings—Hominid Evolution
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
|
|
Lesson 9:
|
Slides: Hominid Evolution—The Fossil
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Evidence (hominids).
|
|
|
Lesson 10:
|
Readings: Hominid Evolution.
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Writing Assignment.
|
|
|
Lesson 11:
|
Preparing Plaster Casts.
|
|
|
(2 days)
|
|
|
Lesson 12:
|
MapMaking—Sites of Major Hominid
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Fossil Finds (Africa, Asia, Europe).
|
|
V.
|
Current Views on Hominid Evolution.
|
|
|
Lesson 13:
|
Relating Structure and Function
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Bipedal Locomotion.
|
|
|
Lesson 14:
|
Preparation of a Phylogenetic Bush.
|
|
|
(12 days)
|
|
VI.
|
Conclusion.
|
|
|
Lesson 15
|
Review and Evaluation of Unit.
|
|
|
(1 day)
|
Instructions:
|
Scientists usually do not find complete fossils whenthey search likely sites. A broken skull, a jawbone, or
|
(work with
|
just a piece of tooth may be all that is left of a
|
your lab
|
oncecomplete skeleton. This laboratory activity is
|
Partner)
|
designed so that you can learn something about how scientists identify pieces of bone fossils.
Read the information below and work with the bones that you have been given. Answer all questions on this paper
.
|
Materials:
|
One complete, unassembled skeleton (a cat or a dog.) Bone fragments from the same type of animal. A diagram of the cat or the dog skeleton.
|
Procedure:
|
1. Spread out the bones from the complete animal skeleton, dividing them into groups of similar bones. For example, the rib bones all look like each other, and they go into one pile. Vertebrae go together, as do long leg bones. Any odd bones left over can be put into one pile.
|
|
2.
Which bones from the skeleton are the largest bones
? (Refer to the diagram of the cat/dog skeleton if you do not recognize the bones by name.)
Which bones are probably the hardest bones of the skeleton? Which bones are the thinnest and the most likely to be broken in time?
|
|
3. Examine the bone fragments that have been given to you separately. These bones are the remains of fairly large, hard bones of either a cat or a dog. Do any of the bone fragments match bones in your collection
?
Which ones?
(Name them).
How certain are you that you have correctly identified these fragments
? List
two or three clues that you used in identifying each bone fragment
.
|
4. Take the bone fragments that do not match your collection of skeletal bones and match them to bones in someone else’s collection.
Instructions: Today you will be seeing a series of slides of living apes, as well as fossils of some animals that are no longer found on earth. Study the slides, follow the class discussion about these photographs, and answer each of the following questions.
slide 1:
|
The gibbon (
Hylobates
): This ape spends nearly its entire life in the trees of tropical forests. It moves by a method called
brachiation.
Briefly, describe what brachiation is.
|
slide 2:
|
The orangutan (
Pongo pygmaeus
): Orangutans are quite rare and are found in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. They are also arboreal. Define the term arboreal.
|
slide 3:
|
The gorilla (
Gorilla gorilla)
: Gibbons, orangutans, and gorillas are three of the apes. Name the fourth type of ape.
|
slide 4:
|
Chart—Primate Characteristics: This chart shows information about the different types of primates, the tarsiers, femurs, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes and man. List at least three ways that apes and humans are different from the other primates.
|
slide 5:
|
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, East Africa (aerial view): This is one of the famous sites where a number of fossils of extinct hominids have been found. Louis and Mary Leakey are the husbandandwife team that worked in this region of East Africa for more than 40 years.
|
slide 6:
|
Turkana, northern Kenya: This picture shows another well known site for finding fossil hominids. What is a hominid?
|
slide 7:
|
Turkana, northern Kenya: In this photograph, Richard Leakey, son of the famous Louis and Mary Leakey, is examining a fossil with Bernard Ngeneo, a member of the fossilhunting team.
|
slide 8:
|
Comparison:
Aegyptopithecus
,
Pliopithecus. Hylobates
: List three ways that the gibbon skull on the right is similar to the 28million and 20millionyearold fossil skulls. Refer to the next two slides.
|
slide 9:
|
Comparison:
Aegyptopithecus
,
Pliopithecus
,
Hylobates
.
|
slide 10:
|
Comparison:
Aegyptopithecus
,
Pliopithecus
,
Hylobates
.
|
slide 11:
|
Limnopithecus
: This fossil jaw with teeth is all that remains of this ape that lived 23 to 14 million years ago. List those bones of the skeleton which you think are the hardest.
|
slide 12:
|
Dryopithecus africanus
: Mary Leakey found this skull in Kenya in 1948. It is the bestpreserved skull ever found of an early ape. This primate lived perhaps 16 million years ago. Does it remind you of an ape or of a human? Why?
|
slide 13:
|
Dryopithecus nyanzae
and
Dryopithecus fontani
: These jawbones belonged to two similar apes.
|
slide 14:
|
Comparison:
Gorilla
(left) and
Dryopithecus
(right): Some scientists believe that apes like
Dryopithecus
were the early ancestors of today’s gorilla or chimpanzee. What similarities do you see between these upper jaws?
|
slide 15:
|
Oreopithecus
: This 14millionyearold ape had long arms and probably
moved by brachiation.
|
slide 16:
|
Oreopithecus
reconstruction: By studying the bones of extinct animals and knowing something about where the animals lived, an artist can try to reconstruct what the animals looked like when they were alive.
|
slide 17:
|
Ramapithecus
: This primate, which lived over a period of from 12 to 8 million years ago, has left fossils in a number of areas in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Only jaws, teeth, and cheek teeth have been found, however. Some scientists have felt that it was the first hominid (ancestor of man) and that it walked upright. Recent finds have suggested that it is more apelike. Name several ways in which apes are different from humans.
|
slide 1:
|
Australopithecus africanus
: the Taungs baby
|
|
This skull was found in 1924 in a quarry in Taungs, South Africa. It was given to Raymond Dart, who removed it from the surrounding rock and described it. The primate that owned the skull was about 5 or 6 years old when it died. Its brain was about 1/3 the size of ours. Dart felt that it was very humanlike in appearance.
|
slide 2:
|
Australopithecus africanus
: This skull of a femme in her twenties was found in Sterkfontein, South Africa in a quarry, in 1936. It was given to the scientist Robert Broom. The skull demonstrated that the Taungs baby skull was not that of a freak, but rather of a different type of life. Both skulls are 2 to 3 million years old. In what ways do they look human?
|
slide 3:
|
Australopithecus africanus
: This skull is the one you saw in the last photograph. It has been put together with a jaw found nearby, but probably belonging to another individual.
|
slide 4:
|
Australopithecus robustus
: In 1938 Robert Broom was given a skull found in Kromdraai (KromDry) South Africa by a young schoolboy. This skull was larger than the
A. africanus
skulls, and had a very large lower jaw. The skull and jaw in this photograph are similar to this new type of skull. What do you notice about the teeth in the lower jaw?
|
slide 5:
|
Australopithecus robustus
: If you were to go to the Transvaal Museum in South Africa, you would see this skull. Notice the ridge of bone on the top of the head. Muscles attached to this ridge (the sagittal crest). Why did this hominid need enormous muscles attached
to the top of its head?
|
slide 6:
|
Australopithecus robustus
: The skull shown here and in the next photograph was found in Swartkrans, South Africa, very near Sterkfontein and Kromdraai. Apes have long, deep faces. Humans have short, vertical faces. What kind of face does
A. robustus
have?
|
slide 7:
|
Australopithecus robustus
|
slide 8:
|
Australopithecus boisei
: Meave Epps and Richard Leakey found this skull at Koobi Fora, Lake Turkana in 1969. It is 1.6 to 1.3 million years old. This hominid was bigger than
A. africanus
and
A. robustus
and may have weighed 100 to 150 pounds. Notice the crest on top of the skull. The first skull of this type was found at Olduvai Gorge by Mary Leakey. It was then called “Zinjanthropus”.
|
slide 9:
|
Australopithecus
reconstruction: An artist who is familiar with muscles and bones has begun reconstructing this
Australopithecus
as it may have looked.
|
slide 10:
|
Australopithecus boisei
reconstruction:
What is your first reaction when you see this artist’s drawing?
|
slide 11:
|
Australopithecus boisei
jaw:
Are these teeth U shaped (teeth parallel on either side), Vshaped, or parabolic?
|
slide 12:
|
Comparison: Australopithecus africanus
and
Australopithecus robustus
: You have seen both these skulls before.
Which one is A. africanus and which is A. robustus?
|
slide 13:
|
Comparison: Australopithecus africanus
and
Pongo
(the orangutan):
What is the most obvious thing about the teeth of this male orangutan
?
|
slide 14:
|
Comparison:
A. africanus
and
Homo sapiens
(man): That is you on the right!
Compare your brain size with the brain for Australopithecus
.
|
slide 15:
|
Homo habilis
: This is the famous 1470 skull found by Richard Leakey’s team in Kenya. It is about 2.50 million years old.
|
slide 16:
|
AfarHadar Region of Ethiopia: Fossil hominids have been found here.
|
slide 17:
|
Don Johanson with “Lucy”:
What is the new name given to these 3millionyearold bones?
|
slide 18:
|
Homo erectus (male): Where were this and the skull in the next picture found?
|
slide 19:
|
Homo erectus (female)
|
slide 20:
|
Homo sapiens
: We are members of the species Homo sapiens.
|
|
This H. sapiens skull is 150,000 to 200,000 years old. Doesit look human?
|
slide 21:
|
Cartoon, Mr. Bergh to the Rescue: Why is the gorilla upset?
|
Special thanks go to a number of people who provided invaluable support in the preparing of this unit. Elwyn L. Simons made his extensive collection of slides available for examination and copying. David Pilbeam and Hod French made the Peabody Museum collection of primate fossils available for photographic work. Keith Thomson and Paul Olsen were very helpful during the shooting of the photographs at the Weehawken, New Jersey site.
Fred Sibley of the Peabody Museum lent his expertise in the preparation of the skeletons. Alvin Novick provided valuable comments throughout the writing of the unit, as did all the members of the science seminar.