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1. How do human ancestors compare to modern humans in terms of physical and inte

ID: 120113 • Letter: 1

Question

1. How do human ancestors compare to modern humans in terms of physical and intellectual attributes? Compare and contrast physical features, cranial capacities, tool use, etc. of three hominins (use scientific names) and provide at least three significant differences between them.

2. What are some of the key similarities between modern humans and our ancestors?

3. What other animals lived at the same time as our ancestors (make sure you are looking at species in the same time periods)?

4. How did early homo species protect themselves from perdators and which animals would have been utilized for food and later for clothing?

5. What foods, other than meat, were important to our ancestors?

6. Looking at the different stone tools of our ancestors, which tools were important for processing food and which were used for hunting? (Name at least 4 types of tools and their use). Remember, tools were not just used for processing animal matter.

Explanation / Answer

1.African fossils provide the best evidence for the evolutionary transition from Homo heidelbergensis to archaic Homo sapiens and then to early modern Homo sapiens. There is, however, some difficulty in placing many of the transitional specimens into a particular species because they have a mixture of intermediate features which are especially apparent in the sizes and shapes of the forehead, brow ridge and face.

Homo sapiens living today have an average brain size of about 1350 cubic centimetres which makes-up 2.2% of our body weight. Early Homo sapiens, however, had slightly larger brains at nearly 1500 cubic centimetres.

2.The striking similarities in appearance between the human genus Homo and our ancestors, the genus Australopithecus,  is sufficient reason to place us both into the same biological tribe.

3.An ancestor of humans albeit one that is at the root of our family tree shared the planet with dinosaurs, a new study concludes.

4.Initially, Homo sapiens made stone tools such as flakes, scrapers and points that were similar in design to those made by the Neanderthals. the remains of animals, such as arctic foxes and wolves, that indicate they were trapped for their fur.

5.All Homo sapiens were once hunter-gatherers living on wild plants and animals. It was only about 11,000 years ago that humans began to domesticate plants and animals although wild foods still remained important in the diet.

6.Tone cores and sharp flakes,early humans used these tools to cut, pound, crush, and access new foods including meat from large animals.